Dash pads are a funny thing. You would think that here in Florida, they would turn to junk pretty quickly, but they have survived quite well. It seems that most of the non cracked mint ones that I have found were the saddle tan color. Maybe that color vs black is more resistant to heat and UV? I don't know.
Back in 1980 when I first had my '66 GTO, the dash pad was cracked. I took it to a upholster working out of a one bay garage, and dropped it off. He said come back later in the day. I did, and sure enough it was perfectly recovered without a seam. It cost the princely sum of $40 which was more than a days pay.
That pad was black. When I restored my '66 in 2005, I choose to go with the gold interior vs black. I got a repo pad but it fit so horribly, that I ended up using my same recovered pad and having it dyed dark saddle. It still looks amazing in 2013.
Now back to my comment regarding why I think the dash pad is worth more today that it will be a year from now. I've touched on this before regarding the nos '64 wood wheel. My thoughts based on observations and keeping my thumb on the pulse of the hobby is as follows: Every day, we have more and more GTO's/Lemans/Firebirds coming out of restoration shops and increasing supply. Meanwhile the people who are tied to these cars are getting older and older causing demand to go down, and thus prices fall on cars and parts.
Supply of rare cars like matching numbers Ram IV cars, Judge convertibles, and cars with documented racing heritage or ownership will always be a fixed supply so that part of the equation won't be affected as much.
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