In the timeframe of these cars when they were new, a metallic silver was absolutely not a color I'd want unless I intended to pamper the car.
The single stage leaded enamels faded terribly and it was not long before they looked like gray primer.......
I have a picture of my Road Runner when it was 5 or 6 years old, and it was BEAT, and the paint was faded. Looked like a beater then. The factory colors are completely different when new, and sprayed in Base/Clear. My EE1 has a tint of green in it when the sunlight is right. The factory colors are stunning when new and done right.
When they were crappy original paint from the factory, and faded, not so much. Thankfully paint technology has come a long way, and the cars are taken care of better now, than 50+ years ago.
Factory Bright Red/Rally Red is a prime example of the downfall of the original factory paint.
Car's painted that red with "modern paints" all actually look Bright "RED".
Many original paint cars lean more towards orange than red, and did so within just a few years and it had nothing to do with the sun.
I had 2, a Scamp that my Aunt bought brand new, & the road runner I still have, both turned the exact same shade of orange everywhere. The outside, under the hood, under the deck lid, and even under the clear section of the sticker on the inside of the door. You would have a hard time convincing anyone that either car was originally rally red & not some shade of orange/red, In fact when I repainted under the hood & touched up the rear quarter on the road runner 35yrs ago, the paint shop used one of the rear tail light housings to match the paint, and the guy said he basically had to tint an orange, red to match it, as the official mix for E5 wasn't even close. No idea how true that was,
as I was around 25 at the time as was just happy it matched. The only time the car actually looks red is when it's a misty cloud-covered day... but in the sun or under lights it looks orange. The Scamp was the exact same way & that happened by the time I turned 16 in 78.
As to the original poster... paint the car whatever color you like, who cares what the color snobs think about it.
Back in the late 80's I used 1986 Corvette colors on 2 Challengers, just because I liked the pearly look of the modern(at the time) base coat clear coat GM paint.
Turned a factory B5 4sd U-code Challenger "Flame/Dark Red (code 74)", and an Aztec Gold 74 Challenger, Nassau Blue (Code 20)
