TheSamba.com :: View topic - Pre-A Porsche dash color

Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:10 pm

I'm curious,
I have seen a number of Pre-A's where the dash paint color matches the interior color, not the outer body color.
Does anyone have any documentation proving this to be factory or just the owner's preference ?
Most of the "two-tone" cars I have seen have been '53's.
Could this be a one year only thing, like the corduroy interior fabric ?

Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:31 am

Richard Roth wrote: I'm curious,
I have seen a number of Pre-A's where the dash paint color matches the interior color, not the outer body color.
Does anyone have any documentation proving this to be factory or just the owner's preference ?
Most of the "two-tone" cars I have seen have been '53's.
Could this be a one year only thing, like the corduroy interior fabric ?

I read somewhere that light color cars got a dark dash so that it didnt reflect light into the drivers eyes. I am not sure where I picked that up, but I def. didnt make it up....

Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:56 am

I can't find any reference to different colored dash panels in the Brett Johnson book and as such, I suspect they didn't come from the factory like that - Are the door top trims in the body color or the dash color?

It looks all wrong from a styling perspective IMHO

Mon Feb 26, 2007 1:01 pm

mine was a one owner car in original paint, adria blua body colour, dark blue dash and door tops, so i would say its correct that some did have a combo. original paint still on the dash

Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:27 pm

I spoke with Dr. Johnson about this subject once, and he told me that some cars came factory painted dash same color as the upholstery . same history with the doors tops.

Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:15 pm

Hmmm, My '53 is green (waiting for Kardex to determine exact color green ), and the dash is a "coffee" color that seems to match the tan corduroy interior and door tops.
Like I said, I am waiting to recieve the Kardex to make sure these colors, fabrics are authentic to my car.

Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:43 pm

Richard Roth wrote: Hmmm, My '53 is green (waiting for Kardex to determine exact color green ), and the dash is a "coffee" color that seems to match the tan corduroy interior and door tops.
Like I said, I am waiting to recieve the Kardex to make sure these colors, fabrics are authentic to my car.

Hey Richard, do you have any pics of your 356?

Gazoo

Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:06 pm

Hi. I own 1953 356 #50929 It was originally one of the of the off white /tan colors for the body but the interior was blue. I only know this because alot of the original interior was under the poor reupholstery. My car had several different colors over the original body color but the dash is blue! to match the int. Seems like it is alot darker than the fabric but it has NOT been painted. This car had been in a barn since 72 and not been touched by the hands of man until 2002 when I got it. I am back on the resto after a long storage and just looked at it and it is dark/navy blue. The cloth was not as dark. Thank god Porsche didnt record the body and interior colors until 54/55.

In short ,after all that blab, I think it might depend on what color the car was. If I had a black car with a red int and the metal dash was painted red I would hate it and pull the dash and paint it black. Maybe it is because I cut my teeth on VWs I would always paint a metal dash body color

Mark

Thu Jan 12, 2012 12:37 am

In '53 it seems like the most common dash color is a sort of dark brownish maroon color. I have seen this on light color original cars with brownish red upholstery and on dark color cars with the tan corduroy upholstery, and just an awful lot of original dashes and eyebrows out of who knows what original color cars.

Thu Aug 16, 2012 2:40 pm

my 54 is an original interior/body paint and has a dark grey/bluey coloured dash ..door caps match the dash colour,
exterior is pearl grey (which isn't actually a grey its more of a cream/beige) grey steering wheel also which is fairly rare i think

Thu Aug 16, 2012 3:48 pm

I have a photo collection of 70+ '53s. Of the cars that are mostly original, I'd guess 75% have a dash/door top that matches the exterior color. Of the cars that don't, they are typically light colored cars, and the dash matches the interior color. So, for example a Fish Silver Gray car will have a dark blue interior with dark blue dash and caps. This seems to be especially true with the cabs.

The dash on my car was painted with black crinkle long ago, but I can see body color overspray on the backside, so I think mine was probably a body color match.

Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:39 pm

i think thats about right Jack....i'm going to pop a post on about interior overall colour (US friendly-color!) schemes in general..
ps..love your car in black :lol: