1936 Dashboard color?

[FRITZ47]

I have a 1936 Cabriolet and the dash has been painted. Was the original dash a woodgrain? If possible, wouldn't mind seeing some pictures, so that our graphic arist can reproduce the look. Here are some pictures of my dash at present. If no pictures, can anyone describe the color and/or pattern? Thanks,


Fritz

[Kurt in NJ]

What month was the car built?, early was benton Grey metallic , in May deluxe was changed to straight grain walnut ---this is from the 36 V8 club book, my 36 conv sedan is april/may, had painted dash

[FRITZ47]

Thanks for the input - greatly appreciated.

I do not know when the car was built, but the Vin # is:

18 2564339

Fritz

[KGS]

According to the Francis-Deangelis book, your '36 was a January car.

[Don Rogers]

Fritz, You need to make some very important decisions here. As KGS has stated and I confirm, your vin # indicates that your car is an early 1936. It originally had a painted Benton Grey dash and Grey gauges. You presently have brown gauges which went with a woodgrained dash. If you are going for authenticity then you need to find new gauges and paint your dash and garnish Benton Grey. The crossover point from Benton Grey to Woodgrained Dash and brown gauges is May of 1936 so your car would be way to early to have a woodgrained dash.

Regards,
Don Rogers

[Ford coupe]

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If you need a Benton Grey color code i have one that is as close as you will get unless you can get an original..CHEERS

[FRITZ47]

Thanks so much for the very helpful and informative information. We have a car museum in Canfield Ohio (see www.tipcars.us ), and have 35-40 cars - including quite a few early Ford V8s and some Model As, plus my outstanding 1959 Galaxie 500 convertible that I often drive in the summer. We display our cars to the public free of charge every Saturday, and on occasion sometimes take a car to some local shows, but most of our showing is in the car museum.

We have our hands full (now doing a full restoration on a '40 Convertible - see my other posts on that project). We do everything possible to keep our cars original (other than some street rods owned by my son). When we make improvements, originality is always kept in mind, but in this case, we just do not have the time to start replacing major components (such as changing all the gauges), since this car is not going to be judged anyhow.

We want to make the car as original as possible, within certain limitations, so my idea now is to duplicate the brown wood grained dash used in 1936, even though the vin # shows it to be a January car. It isn't practical to do otherwise. At a later date, since we will still own the car (we never sell), if we decide to go for the points in national judging, it can still be done. In the meantime, I will keep this in mind and if I run across a nice set of gray gauges at a reasonable price, I may just purchase them and put them on the shelf for later.

We have an extensive parts department and save everything possible for our cars for normal maintenance, as well as future improvements, always researching for originality, even if not done immediately.

Again, thanks for all of the suggestions and help. Information supplied will be printed and kept on file. Picture of car museum attached. The red Ford coupe is owned by one of our body men who works at TP Tools. He has owned this car for over 15 years, purchasing it as a finished street rod. The red Cadillac is an original body-off restoration owned by me and is also a nice summer driver, as it has factory air. The Nomad in the background is owned by our painter. The second picture is inside our car museum and shows my very original 1947 Ford Convertible parked in our "mock gas station".

Fritz

[richard crow]

if your going for show you need alum. heads & the proper fuel pump. also crome w/s frame & proulby a lot more things. enjoy the car the way it is. i had a 100% correct 36 caberolet with a columbia od it took two years to sell it & did not get more then a not near correct car. i hate to say it but these old fords are lousing there value . i know a am going to get a rash of hits but ask any one who has sold a early ford latey. enjoy the car drive it

[TonyM]

QUOTE - richardcrow: i hate to say it but these old fords are lousing there value . i know a am going to get a rash of hits but ask any one who has sold a early ford latey. enjoy the car drive it



The current issue of Hemmings Motor News does not indicate that people are giving these V-8 Fords away yet. They seem to be holding up well.

[richard crow]

TONEY YOU CAN ASK ANY PRICE YOU WANT IN HEMMINGS call a month later & there still for sale or sold for lees then the asking price .i had my car listed in hemmings for months . finley sold in the v/8 times once a car excides 20,000 good luck. what i am saying is it will sell but for a lot less then they were. may be in time it will change but most of the guys that owen these cars don,t have much time. read the v8 times a lot of death notices. like it or not the trend is changing go to any car show & see what i mean enjoy the hobby forget profit

[TonyM]

I'll stick with my original statement: "They seem to be holding up well."

[FRITZ47]

Thanks for the comments - we have already purchased and installed a new chrome windshield frame and are having the wiper motor rebuilt by Ficken. We also purchased a correct taupe front rubber floor mat from Carpenter and added a gasket set to the rumble seat compartment. If we add anything, we keep the car original (little by little), but in view of the quantity of vehicles that we have to maintain, are not doing any major restorations at this time (other than my '40 convertible, which has received plenty of help on this forum). That car was just painted Garnet Maroon last week and is undergoing a complete revamp, and kept as original as possible (including a new top) with a few minor things that we are not changing as yet.

As for the old car values in general (including our beloved pre-war flat heads), sales are down and selling prices are down on everything from about 4 years ago. If there are not enough ready buyers, selling prices go down. That has been a good thing for my son and I, as we have been active buyers during the past 4 years. We have a full-time restoration shop at work, and keep track of our costs. In today's market, it is far less costly to buy a car that is finished than to do a full restoration, even if doing your own work. Every 2 or 3 years we do a correct body-off restoration and usually end up with a cost that is double the actual value of the finished car (and we have our own shop - imagine the cost if sent to a restoration shop). It's only a hobby I keep telling myself, but I still like to be realistic on what we do to a car when it comes to costs.

We usually buy cars that are in #2 condition (at bargain prices); then make some improvements as needed to improve their appearance, but it is not practical for us to do a full restoration to put the car in #1 condition - far too costly and far too much time to do so. So for our nice 1936 Ford Cabriolet, we will do what we can, and what we do will be correct In view of the difficulty in locating and installing gray gauges, we will keep that on the back burner, but for now can have our local graphic artist wood-grain the dash to the late 1936 color. For him, this is easy and we do not have to remove the dash. For normal display purposes, this will improve the appearance of the interior and the only way to know for sure would be for a knowledgeable person to have the Vin number.

I am still looking for some pictures of a late 1936 Ford Cabriolet dash at this time, so that we get it done correctly.

I want to say that everyone on this forum has certainly been extremely helpful and the responses are almost instant. Thanks everyone!

Fritz

[Barn Junk]

Your car color looks to be "Light Fast Maroon" and that was a color introduced in the spring of 1936 (May-June?) so was probably not original to this particular car. The wood grain in your pictures looks much closer to original wood grain used, than many I have seen. I think the current colors, wood grain and such, might make it more valuable to many buyers, and thus profitable, than turning it into a high point car. just my opinion. Nice car.

[Seth Swoboda]

I just want to add that I like what you are doing with the car display for the public to view. I have always thought something like this would be a good thing for people to do in any community. It takes alot of time, resources and money and from what I see you have done good work.

[fomocoloco]

I believe becauce your ford is a Delux, it would normally have an odometer w/ 3 digets. 2 digets for standard.

[Royal Ryser]

Originally Posted by Ford coupe

If you need a Benton Grey color code i have one that is as close as you will get unless you can get an original..CHEERS

How about posting that info on the Fordbarn? Thanks.

[Lawson Cox]

Originally Posted by Barn Junk

Your car color looks to be "Light Fast Maroon" and that was a color introduced in the spring of 1936 (May-June?) so was probably not original to this particular car. The wood grain in your pictures looks much closer to original wood grain used, than many I have seen. I think the current colors, wood grain and such, might make it more valuable to many buyers, and thus profitable, than turning it into a high point car. just my opinion. Nice car.

Too red for light fast maroon. LFM is very deep maroon. If viewed in the shade it looks almost black.

[FRITZ47]

Take 10 pictures of a maroon car and you will get 10 different shades. My car was supposed to be "Light Fast Maroon" and I think it is very close to that color. Using a flash made the car look a lot redder, especially the engine picture. I took a look at all pictures, and the attached one seems to be closest to what it looks like in person. However all monitors display differently. I like the car a lot and it is already one of my favorites, even if it has a few non-original issues, some of which we have already corrected.

Thanks for the compliment on our car museum. I worked all of my life to realize this dream, and we have made a lot of people happy when they visit. We are open every Saturday (free admission) from 10 - 3 and would like to extend our hours, but we need someone on hand to explain the features and history of each car, as well as to keep an eye on things.

Fritz

[Barn Junk]

Originally Posted by Lawson Cox

Too red for light fast maroon. LFM is very deep maroon. If viewed in the shade it looks almost black.

I humbly disagree, Coach Maroon is the dark maroon one and LFM is much brighter like in the non flash pictures as shown.

[FRITZ47]

We did a little touchup when I first bought the car in January, and I ordered one quart of Light Fast Maroon from Auto Paint Library. The paint that they sent was labeled "Light Fast Maroon" and it matched perfectly - absolutely perfectly. So from what I have read and based on the way the color matches, feel that the car indeed is "Light Fast Maroon". It looks great and I am glad that it was that color when purchased. However all pictures never look exactly the same, even glossy photos from the photo section of a drug store. The last picture I posted sure looks to be the same as the car itself. Thanks for the feedback - you guys are great.

Fritz