Question about inside trunk paint color

[Joe Flanagan]

My Plymouth is a pale green color. I think you guys have seen it in the pictures I've posted. It's the original paint job, as far as I can tell. The weird thing is, the inside of my trunk is a different color. It's a dark green. Is this normal? Did they paint the inside of the trunk a different color in those days?

[Johnny S]

Joe, here is the trunk on Aunt Margaret. She is blue and has not been repainted. As you can see the latch area is body color but the interior is a darker color .... I'd call it dark gray....maybe a very dark shade of "blue". I'll see if I can find a photo of my green one that's like yours. It has a lot of "treasures" in the trunk at the moment.

[Johnny S]

Joe, I found several of my trunk without all of the stuff in it. I guess I lied.....its body color green.

[JerseyHarold]

The trunk interiors in my cars ('51&'52 Plymouth) are the same color as Johnny S's. I'd call it a dark olive green. This topic has come up in other threads. I don't think anyone has pinned-down the exact color name or number, but it must be listed on a color chart somewhere.

I've seen the interior of the trunk lids painted the outside body color, but I believe this was only done on cars not built in Detroit.

Harold

[Johnny S]

Joe, on the green P18 I can't be certain that the trunk color that we are seeing is original. I know that the car has had some new door panels installed and I'm not sure that that divider panel (between the trunk and rear seat) should be such a "glowing green". So, I won't attest that the green one is original ... albeit the interior portion of the fenders don't look to be repainted and I don't see any evidence of that other "Olive green" - dark color that we see on the other car. I am almost 100 percent certain that Aunt Margaret (Blue) is original color.

[Young Ed]

The factory color I've always seen is a grey with a sort of blue tint.

[greg g]

Mopars used a blue grey green gray looking under coating for coating areas of itnterior inner fenders trunk lids and in come cases the trunk itself. My trunk inside is body collor black, but the trunk lid and inside of the fenders was the bluish gray semi gloss.

[Johnny S]

Joe, here are some more shots of the trunk. It looks like this entire car was painted body color inside and out. I do see evidence now that I look closely that the trunk divider that shows up in such vivid green was painted over with a spray can at one time. However, it does look like it was the light green underneath that.

[Johnny S]

Joe, two final shots. One shows the upper left hand side of the trunk where the electrical block sits. Note that just about everything is body color. And, this car hasn't had a complete repaint for sure even if there has been some touch up over the years. The other photo shows the "bright green" trunk divider with clear evidence that it has been reshot with a similar but brighter green spray paint at one time. However, look at the sheet metal above it and the trunk springs and brackets....all body color. I would guess you could go either way if you are restoring the car to original colors. I think I would opt for the "bluish grayish greenish" color primarily because it seems to be the best documented...that is if that's how you are heading. Otherwise....paint it however you "D" well please.......

[Joe Flanagan]

Thank you, gentlemen. I think I'll try to reproduce what's there because I'm 99 percent sure it's original. Johnny S, thanks for all the pictures.

[windsor8]

The under side of the floor pans on my D24 have that same dark blue gray color paint along with the inside of the trunk lid. My 41 Chrysler has a similar color on the inside of its trunk lid also. Good mystery why.

[Johnny S]

I guess while the topic of trunk colors is up it would be good to post these other photos of the original trunk of Aunt Margaret. Notice that the color is almost a steel blue/gray in those areas that haven't faded much at all. Sorry for the dust....didn't think at the time I took the photos that I would be showing her backside to all youse guys! We would have polished her up a little more.

[blueskies]

My trunk and trunk lid interior was the same sort of green/blue color before I painted it over with Por15. You can see a bit of it under the package tray in this pic.

Pete

[JerseyHarold]

Johnny S:

Have you decoded the VIN's on your cars to see where they were built? Alternately, I think that if the body number plate has a letter next to the number it wasn't built in Detroit. My guess is that your green car came from Evansville or Los Angeles and the blue one was built in Detroit. All based on what I've observed about trunk color over the years.

If you get the chance, could you check it out? Thanks.

Harold

[Johnny S]

Will do Harold.....just a moment, I think I have photos of the plates.

[Johnny S]

Ok, here's the scoop.....the light green P18 - Uncle Johnny - was built in Evansville and has an "E" in the body number. See attached photo. This is the car with the body color trunk scheme. The blue P18, with that steel blue - greenish trunk color scheme was built in Detroit and has a body number of 702-5313 without any letter at all.

My photo of the blue P18 body number for Aunt Margaret wasn't close enough to post and still be able to easily read but if someone needs one I can get a better photo.

Harold..........you are the GURU !!

[HalfdollarMayflower]

Not sure if this applies here or not, but my p19 fastback is a dark gray/green color.

[Johnny S]

Halfdollar....do you have a photo you can post. I think it may well apply and would be interesting to know. Where was your car built?

[windsor8]

Where Dodge and Plymouth built on the same line alternately like they made Camaros and Firebirds?

[HalfdollarMayflower]

yup, trunk paint is pristine...will take photos tomorrow & post them up.

Not sure where the car was made...how do I tell?

[Johnny S]

The VIN can be decoded....I don't have the chart in front of me but I'm sure someone has one handy .... and you can look at the body plate on the drivers side of the firewall.....it should say in the text at the bottom of the plate where it was built....else the number itself should tell us. The VIN is on the plate inside the drivers door on the door post to the front. Thanks for getting the photos. Joe's question has intrigued me.

JerseyHarold, you mentioned that you had made that observation regarding Detriot and Evansville cars in the past....was your observations associated with the paint used in the trunk area? Can you explain your observations a little further?

[47heaven]

Here's a pic of an add I saw on Ebay for a P15. It clearly shows the color the trunk was painted, and what was painted, as well. Hard to tell if it's black or that dark gray. I also wasn't aware that the underside of the trunk lid was also painted that color, as well. Mine is the color of the car's exterior because I had it painted tha color.

[JerseyHarold]

A couple of years ago the trunk color question came up on the POC board. One member has an original '51 Cambridge, in the family since nearly new, with a body-color trunk interior. The car was built in Evansville. This surprised me because I had only seen the dark gray/green color trunks in the many '51-'52 Plymouths I've looked at, but these were all in the northeast and presumably built in Detroit. I started checking the trunks in eBay ads and online photos of P23's (my specialty/affliction) and comparing them to the posted VINs. The Evansville cars were showing-up with body-color trunks and Detroit cars were not. I didn't find enough info on California cars to draw any conclusions about them, but my friend recently bought a '52 Cranbrook that was built in San Leandro, California which has completely original paint. I'll call him tomorrow (it's too late tonight) and ask him about the trunk color in that car.

[Johnny S]

Thanks Harold. I posted over on the POC site as well so may rekindle some of that same discussion. I have received a little feedback that suggests some body color trunk painting going on out of one of the assembly plants in Canada as well during a similar time period. I've looked through the pile of 49-50 Plymouth photos I have and pretty much only see the steel gray/blue color with only a few exceptions. Blueskies says his '50 was steel gray/blue.

[HalfdollarMayflower]

Okay, here's the scoop on the P19;

Body Tag says;

811- 40849

BRIGGS MFG CO. DETROIT, MICH.

Vin # is;

I8IIIxxx

The inside of the decklid and trunk is a strong Green/Gray (almost more green than gray) original color of the car is Peru Gray.

Hope that helps.

PS: Can anyone help me decode the VIN?

Gary