[Evil Stu]

What about this? Blue (Mint Turquoise not Atoll) over red. I absolutely love this combo and you'll never see another

[72projectbird]

Originally Posted by Evil Stu

What about this? Blue (Mint Turquoise not Atoll) over red. I absolutely love this combo and you'll never see another

I love that color combo! It sure is striking!

[trishieldchief]

Jarrets

Keep this car Red on Red and correct.

Red on red is generally desirable to most future buyers.

A color change will devalue car, simple fact.

Wait a while, until your color choice whim changes again to keep the car original and correct.

If not, sell it now and buy a Atoll Blue car.

[Eric71T37]

I agree Sandalwood would look excellent on an Atoll blue car. I converted the Jade bench column shift Interior in my Laurentian green (original) ‘71 T-37 to Sandalwood buckets with console. Sorry I don’t have a picture through the windshield like you wanted, but I had the correct paint made for the metal dash and bottom of the rear window. Dash pad was restored by Just Dashes (worth every penny, and it was a lot of pennies!)

I like light colored interiors on darker colored cars. Sandalwood is sort of a two tone where kick panels, steering column etc are darker than seats and door panels, but overall it comes across as a light interior color.

[Eric71T37]

That said, if I had a blue car...the interior would be either blue, or white. 1970 blue interiors are especially excellent.

[ponchjoe]

Originally Posted by Evil Stu

What about this? Blue (Mint Turquoise not Atoll) over red. I absolutely love this combo and you'll never see another

This!

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by 68bird400HO

https://www.mecum.com/lots/DA0913-16...ge-ram-air-iv/

40 years ago, this exact RAIV Judge guilded my passion to eventually own & restore several factory roundport A-body's. Best friend's oldest brother owned the Atoll blue/sandalwood RAIV Judge from '78-80, then traded it back to the previous owner. I tried buying this Judge twice in late 80's, early 90's, very substantial offer for the time, no dice, & it sat indoors until the early 00's.

Atoll Blue/blue '70's & Lucerne blue /blue 71's are by far my favorites, followed by Atoll blue/sandalwood '70's. That said, have to agree with trishieldchief, a red/red 70, either restore it red/red, or find an Atoll blue '70, a color change will really hurt the value on a factory red '70. Several years ago I was toying with doing a color change from Cardinal red to Rosewood on one of my '71's... then I wised up.

[Evil Stu]

TriShield, OPH,

For a Judge or Ram Air rare car I'd agree fully that an original Red/Red car is a premium and you'd lose some value with a colour change, but for such a very heavily restored 400/350hp auto car, is this really such a consideration? especially if the new combo is an attractive one.

Stu

[jarretts70]

I don't know that a color change would really hurt the value of this car that much. There is very little original car left. When I got the car it had been crashed, stripped & left for dead. Front clip was gone, entire driveline was gone, disc brakes were gone, bucket seats & console gone...you see where this is going.

The only things going for it : a real 242 GTO, originally a 4-speed, and the body shell & frame were amazingly rust free. I put NOS quarter panels on it to repair the collision damage, and replaced the roof skin with one I cut free from an otherwise very rusty Lemans to repair the damage caused by the vinyl top.

So it will be non-numbers matching. The entire front clip & decklid are reproductions, as will be the entire interior. And it's not a Judge. I have the GM of Canada paperwork for it, & it was pretty basic. Standard 350 hp. The only options were M20 4 speed, saf-t-track, disc brakes, and AM radio. Buckets/console, rally II's (with white wall tires!).

Add all those things up and I don't think it will ever be a really valuable car, nowhere close to a real Judge or Ram Air car.

[jarretts70]

Eric, your interior looks great. If mine were green I''d be doing exactly as you did. I think (?) the two-tone color scheme is a 71 thing. Any pics of sandalwood 70's I've seen everything matches.

I like that mint turquoise /red interior picture. but I'm pretty sure I want to stick with the Atoll blue. Got me thinking, tho....

[Evil Stu]

Jarrett,

That's exactly what i mean. Original desirable colour combo is a big plus on an original car. But what is the difference when the original drive-line is gone?

[Greg Reid]

I have to say, in my opinion, the guys advocating for red/red are not wrong. It's an awesome combo on a '70. Certainly as desirable as blue/blue, for my tastes anyway. As I said earlier, I really like the 'monochrome' cars...that is, same color exterior and interior.

[HWYSTR455]

Yeah, my 71 LeMans Sport came with a 'tuxedo' interior, dash, front kick panels, console, and carpet were black.

In my case, since it's a 'tribute', I figure I can do what I want, so picked what I liked. I even chose the 71 patterns for doors and seats. (Comfort weave) I was tempted to add carpet on the bottoms of the doors too.

If you're not concerned with originality, do what you want/like IMO.

.

[Eric71T37]

Originally Posted by jarretts70

Eric, your interior looks great. If mine were green I''d be doing exactly as you did. I think (?) the two-tone color scheme is a 71 thing. Any pics of sandalwood 70's I've seen everything matches.

I like that mint turquoise /red interior picture. but I'm pretty sure I want to stick with the Atoll blue. Got me thinking, tho....

Thanks. If it had been a ‘70 I would have kept the original green interior. I just don’t like ‘71 green interiors much.

I was lucky enough to part out a rust bucket ‘71 LeMans Sport over two decades ago that this interior came out of. Steering column, console, A-pillars, door panels, and rear seats are original from that donor car. Front seat covers, headliner, package tray and carpet are new to go with Just Dashes dash as mentioned.

Given I had already junked the 350 2 barrel in favor of a 455, drum brakes for discs, 10 bolt for 12 bolt posi etc I wasn’t concerned with originality on this car. It’s not a GTO and never will be...so I built it the way I like it. Note the original wood grain inserts in the LeMans Sport console, the black T-37 dash fascia, and the GTO swirled aluminum insert. Wrong...but I like it.

Your car is a little trickier being a real 242 car, but I tend to agree with you and those who have pointed out that it isn’t a Judge and isn’t an overly rare example, plus has relatively little original left about it. Not exactly a survivor My call: Do whatcha like.

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by Evil Stu

TriShield, OPH,

For a Judge or Ram Air rare car I'd agree fully that an original Red/Red car is a premium and you'd lose some value with a colour change, but for such a very heavily restored 400/350hp auto car, is this really such a consideration? especially if the new combo is an attractive one.

Stu

Stu, my take is the same as it was over 30 years ago, when I bought my first '70 GTO solid straight project, a white/sandalwood YS auto, AC car for a whopping $200. After installing a '70 400 out of a GP & getting the 70 running, driving, and inspected, it just wasn't the GTO I was going to put a ton of money into as it wasnt a factory 4spd or RA car. Base horse, automatic AC cars have just never interested me & Ive parted out quite a few that today someone would prob dump tons of money into street rod build. As projects & adventuresome projects (partscars) such optioned 70's were fairly common this way. As a non original engine, automatic, AC base horse car I sure wouldnt recommend one to go to trouble to track down a YS coded block, or an SR fitted short block to "restore" to what some would consider a "correct" engine, lol.

Jarrretts afore mentioned 70 GTO being a factory 4speed car brings another level of interest, that particular '70 being a strong desirable factory color combination is what would peak interest for many. Whether the original engine is gone, would not matter to many a buyer, the car is still a documented desirable color combo red/red 4 speed '70 GTO, there are still builders that would pick up a pair of 12 casting heads and build a 400 for such a '70. Just a coincidence, but for the last few months I've been helping an old friend with his '70 GTO restoration, its getting a lot of metal replacement. That particular '70 has always been Burgundy with red buckets. Factory non AC M20 car. Non original block, but still has its pair of 12's, original intake & Qjet. Cars like the above arent that easy to find, they are desirable, though not a Judge or RA car. The factory color & manual trans combination is a big part of that.

[Eric71T37]

Not the best picture as car is in the garage, but I can assure you the metal forward of the dash is the correct Sandalwood color.

[HWYSTR455]

Slow progress this year, but am just getting my interior rounded out. Figured I'd post a pic here just for reference...

.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

HWYSTR455 , is that Legendary stuff or PUI stuff ?

I'm likely going to change my 70 to White interior too.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by jarretts70

Any pics of sandalwood 70's I've seen everything matches.

On a correctly done 70 Sandalwood Interior - there are about 4 different shades inside the car once everything is said and done.

Did you ever decide on what Exterior color // Interior color you are going with ?

My 70 GTO is a matching #'s 455 R/A Auto @ 241 built.
Red with Sandalwood
Changing both of those colors when its turn comes up.

[HWYSTR455]

I used to be an avid Legendary guy, but a couple reasons made me chose the PUI stuff this time around. Those reasons being, I wanted the materials/shade to match the front buckets, and lead times on items.

I was going to send my front buckets to Legendary and have them done, but there was like a 4+ month lead time for that. So I bought a set of the ready-made ones from PUI. They are very nice, made entirely with new parts. The door panels match perfectly, they certainly look like same/similar materials. PUI you can order any color they offer on any year panels for a moderate fee, Legendary kind of gouges you with a higher fee, and long lead times.

Couple things on the PUI door panels, not real 'issues', just minor things I would have liked to see done differently, like the chrome piping should have been a little longer on the ends, and wrapped around more, so they don't 'pop' out from the edge of the panel over time. I super glued them, but it would have probably been fine. The other area of improvement, I would say they should actually glue the foam padding to the panel board during assembly, so when you pass a screw thru the panel, it won't bunch up the foam. I did the carpet trick on them and chased the holes with a soldering iron, but that made me nervous!

I went through a few conversations with Ames, and another source, and have been hearing reports that PUI has stepped up some, and quality is at least as good as Legendary, in some cases, better. I would have to agree with that from the last batch I got.

I forget who told me that the Sandalwood interiors when correct are a couple different shades, wow, that would drive me nuts. Also, I didn't want to have to dye the dash, so tuxedo works well for me. Front kick panels get abused, and it's nice those too can be left as made.

.