Changing Interior Color on 62 Electra Convertible

[jerryacheson]

I'm thinking about changing the interior of my 62 Electra from blue to white. The car is Glacier Blue. Someone re-upholstered the seats with a blue that has a green tint. It also has red piping at the seams. Yuk! The dashpad also needs to be re-done. Door panels are original but need repaired and some of the dye has worn off.

The car has a white top and I've bought carpet thats sort of a royal blue (maybe a little darker). I think the white interior will look great. What do you think? If I change the interior, what color of white? What color should the dash pad be? Should it match the carpet (that's how Chevrolet did it)? The dash paint is about the color of the original interior. What should it be with the white interior?

Anybody have pictures of a white interior early 60's car that I can use to model this change?

Thanks for your ideas.

Jerry

[Guest Parm]

Hello Jerry. While I'm a BCA member, I'm in no way an authority in terms of the specific color codes, what combinations were available in a given year, etc. My expertise is more toward 62-62 Cadillacs.

Having said that, let me say that I'm a sucker for blue convertibles with white interiors. My advise would be to try and match your new white interior to the shade/color of your covertible top. There's a place up in Anderson that I've been told does pretty good interior work. If you're interested, email me and I'll try to dig out the name of this shop. A place like this may have access to sources that sell complete interior kits for a '62 Electra.

[jerryacheson]

Thanks for the info Parm.

I was hoping to get more discussion on this topic. I've seen 2 '62 Electras on eBay lately for sale with white interior. One appeared to be Glacier Blue with black carpet, dash pad and piping in the seats. I emailed the owner and found out that he had changed the body and interior colors so he couldn't confirm the combination as correct. The second was white with white interior and black carpet and dash pad. I'd guess the black is probably correct with a white on white car. My question is in regards to the carpet and dash pad on my car. My interior is a blue that comes close to matching the exterior paint. The carpet is a darker blue but I'm sure it's been replaced. My thought is to use a medium blue carpet with matching dash pad and no piping on the seats (unless it's the same color as the seats themselves.) What are your thoughts? If I do all of this, should I get a white boot?

[Guest Parm]

Regarding the boot, as a general rule, GM matched the color of the boot to the color of the interior. In other words, the boot color for a blue car with white interior should probably be white. Yeah, I think you should get the boot. It makes the whole package look much better when the top is down. Also, if you ever drive the car in a parade with a beauty queen sitting on the back, having a boot is the way to go.

I wish I could help your with your color combination questions. Perhaps there's some documentation/books available where this topic is covered. For Cadillacs, there are books that have the interior color combinations listed. Pretty handy. That's one of the reasons I like Cadillacs, there's generally more support documentation like this available.

Perhaps if you could find a '62 Buick Electra shop manual? Ebay is generally a good place to start for this kind of thing. On the other hand, I don't know if a shop manual would cover this. What you really need to find is a Buick salesmen's data book specific for a '62 Electral. Or, perhaps all of the models were included in a single binder.

Have you tried contacting the BCA Technical Advisor that specializes in '62 full size Buicks? The contact info. is on the BCA website.

Did the shop in Anderson provide any help? There's also a shop in Muncie. Never used him, but he's been in business for over 35 years. The business is G.W. Kay. Phone is 765-282-0850. A guy I know who collected T-Birds said this guy does good work. But, doubt he could answer your questions off the top of his head, but may have some books he may be willing to let you look through if you drive up.

Just some random thoughts. Good luck.

[rocketraider]

Jerry, find a 1962 Buick Color & Fabric book. This is the book dealers used to present interior fabrics and colors to prospective customers and to order cars. It will have small swatches of all OEM interior materials and recommended exterior/interior color combinations. There is usually very nice photo or artwork showing the exact interior design for each series car along with detailed information on which carpet, headlining and convertible top and boot colors go with each interior trim.

Some years these books will even have transparency drawings of the different carlines, that you could lay over the paint swatch to get an idea what the car would look like in that color.

My experience with non-Cadillac 60s GM is that white or parchment seats usually had black dash, carpet and package tray. Caddy would often match them to the color of the car.

[Guest]

White would look great but I would stay with the color white that was offered that year and the texture. Contact SMS in Portland or a company like that and they will send you samples.

[rocketraider]

Did 1962 Electra convertibles use leather on seating surfaces? I know Olds and Pontiac did on their top-of-the-line droptops. That might make this an expensive proposition, especially if you go with anything other than black or white. Priced light metallic blue leather for my first 64 Starfire and decided that Elk/Madrid grain vinyl might not be so bad after all.