So when I bought my black Demon last summer I wasn't sure what was going on with the door frame paint. It wasn't gloss black like I would expect it to be. It looked like it was "rattle canned". I figured that the passenger door was replaced and they had to make the inside look uniform as it was blue. I then did some poking around on here and learned that the door frame paint could be painted TX8. Then I scrutinized the drivers door, it is gloss outside of the seal and not gloss inside of the seal all the way around. Who is going to rattle can below the door panel all the way to the seal? Who is going to take out the rear seat bottom and spray that little rectangle area just above the aluminum plate that holds the carpet down?

Ok, so this car came with TX8 door frame paint... but what color is TX8 actually? I pulled the rear door panels and the plastic is still sealed to the inside of the quarter with strip caulk. The very top overlaps the rear sail panel and when you look at the places where the strip caulk was not applied it is clearly textured black paint. Makes perfect sense now... the same suede finish that is on the dash is also applied to the doors. Maybe some of you folks already knew that?

Now for my next question, what dictated whether you got TX8 or Tx9? I thought I read somewhere on here that black with orange interior and white stripes was a Dodge suggested combo? Maybe the TX8 goes with it? Can't be that, I know of another that is gloss black inside. Maybe it is as simple as a little box you check off when you order the car? Does it have to do with some other option? Hood black out?

Any ideas?

the Dusters have "5X8" Upper Door Frames on cars with V21/V24 hood black out

maybe it's something similar on Demons, but TX8?

Yes 5X8 TX8 = Charcoal

My demon is 5x8, it is a j54 hood, hood black out car. I've noticed non blackout non j54 seem to mostly be gloss black.

Do you know of any 5X8 cars that are NOT blacked out?

With my V24 Duster it appeared to be factory organisol upper interior frames front and rear.

close up metallic like organisol

Tom if your car has the hood Black-out it should also have 5X8 on the tag for upper door paint.
Ron

All the unrestored J54 demons I have seen had the 5x8 upper doors along with blacked out hoods. There is a unrestored black J54 demon a couple towns over with the 5x8 charcoal uppers also.

I've had my 71 demon 24 years, so in those years what I have found looking at original demons for the most part is most J54 blacked out hood cars have the 5x8 charcoal uppers. I've seen a few J54 cars that didn't have the blackout hood, maybe the hood paint was deleted when ordered new or they were blanket dealer ordered stock that had gloss black upper door paint. And finally all the 318, /6 cars had gloss black uppers with the exception of the sizzlers. Don't know if this is 100% correct but this is what I have observed.

This one didn't

My car has the J54 hood and the charcoal door frames. Does that mean it should have the hood blackout?

Is it possible to have a Charcoal interior for some other reason other than J54/blackout?

I would say 99% yes especially if the scoop trim is not chrome. J54 hood cars without hood blackout usually from what I have seen had chrome scoop bezels and gloss upper doors. Nothing is 100% case in point some blackouts had the thin border and some had no boarder.

The tag above is a car that had the hood blackout and scoops, and it has TX9 gloss black upper doors.

In related notes; I have yet to see any original paint example of a 71 Demon optioned with a J54 hood that came from the factory without hood blackout, nor can I find any documentation that shows one or the other (scoops/blackout) was available separately or a way to delete one or the other separately etc. Also, to the chrome scoop trim, I have seen a lot of Demons wearing them but so far, every example I've seen were added or replaced with Dart scoops. Every original Demon hood I've seen with it's original scoops, paint, etc. had black bezels. That said, there have been a few old back in the day pics surface showing no blackout, scoops, and chrome bezels on cars that appeared original, but there was no solid evidence that they were 100% original.

I can't think of any specific reason, other than the hood paint, that the Charcoal upper door frames would have been added, like with some other option package. It could have been a plant to plant thing or maybe a production change during the production model year? Looks like more needs to be done.

Thanks for the reply's fella's

I guess I'm going to look at the hood and cowl for evidence of the black out. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something under the windshield squirters that were not removed when the car got repainted. I think some gritty black paint is in this devils future.

1971 cars are out of my normal line of research, that said;

The 1971 340 Demons I found examples of with a quick search;

TX9 - 4

58X - 5

What is the SPD of the car?

Is it coded for J54?

Barry,

My car has no tag and I found pieces of the sheet in the rear seat but the mice got 98% of it.

I do have 10/70 on the door decal and the hood that is on the car appears to be the original. All the holes for the scoops are factory as well as the hardware that holds the scoops on.

At the moment this is all I can go on. It's of no real consequence...Would you believe I'm going to beat the tar out of it?

Tom, Hamtramck car?

Yes it is Scott

LM29H1B155358 If anybody has the tag in the top drawer of their tool box

Hmmm, weird, the yellow car above, same plant, same month, J54 with gloss painted UDF's.