Sorry if the title is a bit misleading.

My truck has a "nutmeg" colored interior. I understand that is one of the rarer colors to find in a junkyard today. Well, at least in decent condition. Basically, when I bought the truck, the dashboard cover was in bad shape. I managed to find another, and I believe it is in the color "sand" or something like that. It's a much lighter nutmeg. However, I would love to keep the original interior color. I have actually grown to like it a lot. The door panels are where my problem lies. I would like to try to restore them by taking some sandpaper and smoothing out the roughness, then repainting them. I have done a bit of Googling and can't seem to find any reproduction cans of nutmeg. Am I out of luck? Will a store mix me some? Is going to Ford directly an option?

Has anyone ever done this before?

 

Do some research on SEM interior plastic paint, they have a really good reputation here but preparation is key, you really need to scrub & clean everything thoroughly.

Find the interior color codes of your truck (from the Certification Label on the driver's side door jamb) and see about getting matching paint mixed up for ya.

If it were me, I'd be looking at Eastwood as they have lots of restoration products.

In any event, there's lots of stuff in the archives here about SEM paint, use those keywords and see what you come up with.

 

My truck is exactly the same color and interior.

It's one of the more rare color choices, but the last time I checked at the auto paint stores SEM does have nutmeg avaliable. But that has been a few years back...

 

Oh, that's great. I think I checked on their website and found out that West Penn Laco is a supplier of the product. I suppose I should've walked the three blocks and asked them first.

----

Has anyone refurbished their door panels before? I know somebody here... I think he owns a two tone brown Ford and is in college in Florda (?) swapped a black interior into his truck (cleaning it beforehand). But I don't remember him elaborating on it.

 

Something told me I would be mentioned in this thread.

As you stated, I put an entirely different interior in my truck, and everything was already the color I needed. My biggest problem was with all the mud covering the interior. I used a scrub brush, some dish soap, and hosed them off. Luckily, my new door panels were not starting to flake off at the top like most of the door panels are starting to do. As far as painting and prep goes, I did have to repaint the 1980 only vinyl armrest pads on my truck from blue to black. I used the same cleaning method that I used on the entire interior, however I was much more thorough on the vinyl pads because I knew I'd have to have a good surface for the paint to adhere to. I decided to try and get away without having to use any kind of vinyl primer, and after originally spraying one coat and letting it cure for a week, I found that the paint stuck just fine, and so I sprayed 2 more coats on each panel, and let them dry. This was a few weeks ago now, and they've held up just fine. I used an SEM Satin Black which was luckily an exact match since I didn't have access to the factory black paint code at the time.

Preparation is the biggest key to getting great paint results on your interior. Don't scare yourself over the job, just make sure you get every spec of dirt out of the grain. I would try to shy away from sanding the panels because you can easily take the grain out of the panel and end up with flat spots. If you scuff the panels, lightly scuff them with a wet scotch pad. Just take your time and you'll end up just fine.