Wondering if anyone is repoping the Gran Coupe or Cuda (coded for leather interior) woodgrain door panel inserts? I have a door panel set I'm putting in my Cuda and three of my woodgrains are real nice. The fourth ( passenger side panel ) is very nice as well but the outer ribs that margin the woodgrain itself are gold in color. The others I have and also extras I have are more silver. I'd like them all to match so I can't see using the 'goldish' one.

It depends on the type of seat covers they had, the woodgrain came with leather (or vinyl seats in a Gran Coupe) they came with red/orange inserts if the car had the B&W Houndstooth cloth inserts in the seats (with red/orange piping surrounding the cloth). The "Goldish" color was originally silver, the sun turns it gold/yellow by degrading the mylar.

Scott, thanks for he reply. I figured there might have been two different vendors selling this stuff to Plymouth back in the day ( hence the two different colors). The gold one I'm refering to is actually a redish/gold so I think I have a hounds tooth interior single woodgrain. It's not discolored because of the sun, I thought the same thing but after closer inspection it's definitely tinted this color.

I didn't think anyone repops this stuff so I'll have to keep looking for the 'silver' one.

Thanks again

Trust me, there were only two colors, both had the same colored edges (white/silver) one was a solid redish orange color in the center, the other had the brown/wood grain center. Any "Gold" on the boarders/edges is simply from UV degradation. If you post pics of each I can help clear up any possible miscomminications.

You could opt to go with lesser grade seats and save a few bucks but not many people did. You could get cloth too.

No one is repopping these [yet].

I asked Mike at BE&A and they have no plans to.

Bummer. I think they are a nice addition to any non-GC B'Cuda, regardless of year.

Scott, you are correct. Although the woodgrain on mine is in awesome shape the side piping has turned color. Oh well, a fellow Moparts memeber and friend has emailed me to let me know he is sending me a 'nice' passenger side door panel woodgrain so I should be covered. Although my Cuda is probably the farthest you can get from stock or correct and didn't come with leather interior originally I wanted a leather interior and to keep the rest of the interior pretty much correct since I have so much other stuff going on.

The cars that should have the woodgrain are all gran coupes & cars with leather interior. The 1970 houndstooth interior received the red inserts instead.

No one reproduces these. Resto Rick has restored a few sets though. He's a member here.

Tav

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The cars that should have the woodgrain are all gran coupes & cars with leather interior. The 1970 houndstooth interior received the red inserts instead.

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Correct, and the reason I specifically called out that the Gran Coupes had them even when equipped with vinyl seats is that they are the ONLY model that would have the wood grained inserts if vinyl seat equipped (Cuda models could NOT have had them with vinyl seats).

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Not true. My 70 with P5X9 has the red piping but not the red door inserts.

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Two possibilities. Either it was a factory mistake (with Mopar mistakes weren't exactly rare) or they have been changed, pretty easy thing to do, how certain are you of the cars history?

Just a couple pictures of said woodgrains. The 'gold' color on the one is so uniform it looked like it was factory to me.







Sorry about the garage floor background.

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The 'gold' color on the one is so uniform it looked like it was factory to me.

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Yep,the result of UV exposure for sure.

Besides rattle-can spray paint, anyone got any ideas/suggestions how to restore to its original silver look?

I'm thinking maybe to mask-off the wood grain and have someone spray that spray-on chrome paint. Won't be 100% original, but better looking than gold/yellow.

You are on the right track with the masking and painting but if you'd like to save the trial & error send them to Resto Rick and have him restore them, he does an awesome job on them. www.restorick.com

I believe this is what Resto Rick had to say about it in another thread from a couple years back...

Tav

The inserts are actually a piece of mylar plastic/foil over a piece of tin. Not actual chrome plating. The yellowing (common) is due to the plastic componants degrading, typically from UV exposure.

They can be refinished... but they have to be in good shape with no gouging etc..
Very time consuming and labor intensive...
mask, scuff, adhesion promoter and urethane clear over chrome paint basecoat.
They turn out very convincing... the woodgrain has to be in nice shape and is just well cleaned; perked up with a rubber treatment like Meguirs 40. For any metal tabs that are missing or broken, they are bead blasted and reglued in place. They were originally melted in place, but I found it works best to glue them... I've experimented with heating them and they just didn't hold as well. Also the strips are compressed from the original installation too.

It's also possible to trim longer pieces to fit the quarter ones. Repositioning the metal tabs is needed to of course.