Road Runner Nest

Did four speed cars only come with black carpeting regardless of the interior colour?

I had a four-speed Road Runner with the saddle tan interior but had, what looked to be, an original black carpet.

Was this standard? Mistake at the factory? The car was EL5 Bahama Yellow on the fender tag but was accidently painted FE5 red, so who knows?!

All interiors had matching carpets; Blue for Blue, Tan for Gold/Brown, Green for Green and Black for White or Black interiors.
Auto and 4-speeds were same interiors and carpeting.
What color are you seat belts?
They should match your carpeting.

The belts were saddle tan. The carpets were heavily worn but they were the original style.

Since the car was painted the wrong colour, the wrong carpet wouldn't be a total surprise.

Though I do remember reading somewhere that four speed cars only came with black carpeting.

orangerunner wrote:The belts were saddle tan. The carpets were heavily worn but they were the original style.

Since the car was painted the wrong colour, the wrong carpet wouldn't be a total surprise.

Though I do remember reading somewhere that four speed cars only came with black carpeting.

my 71gtx is blue with a blue carpet and it's a 4-speed

orangerunner wrote:The belts were saddle tan. The carpets were heavily worn but they were the original style.

Since the car was painted the wrong colour, the wrong carpet wouldn't be a total surprise.

Though I do remember reading somewhere that four speed cars only came with black carpeting.

Tan selts should have tan carpeting too.
Black carpet on 4-speed cars I've never heard of.
Since it was a high impact color (Butterscotch), a black carpet with tan interior might not be unusual but not the way the factory would have normally done it.
Ever see a EV2 Tor-Red car with tan interior and tan carpet ... it was a exceptable option on the list but rarely done.
Was it a late build car (ran out of tan carpet ... I doubt it but who knows).
If never seen a factory car car painted the wrong color (not coded right on the fender tag.)
Since Butterscotch was an extra cost color for 1971 why would they have painted it FE5 red?

It was a rather strange car. It was built on September 2/70.

I couldn't find a speck of Bahama Yellow paint anywhere on the car.
The car was fully numbers matching with the fender tag, build sheet, rad support VIN, engine stamp with the VIN and transmission stamp with the VIN along with the door VIN.

I did not have much history about the car. The original carpet may have been replaced very early in its life with a black carpet.

I still have a photocopy of the build sheet but there is no mention of the code for the colour of the carpet. On the 1972 build sheet they do list the colour codes for the carpet on line 6.

I would have to look back on the original 71 Plymouth Data books to see if there is any mention of a tan interior, bench seat 4-speed car with black carpeting.

I had a look at 71 Color & Trim Dealer album & it states that a Saddle Tan interior comes with a tan carpet and doesn't specify a difference between 4-speed or automatic.

However if you ordered rubber floors instead of carpeting it only came in black regardless of what your interior colour was.

In reply to this...
I was reading in the dealer trim sheets the other day, and I do seem to recall reading that all 4 speed cars became mandatory black carpet at some point. I'll try to find the link to the site I was on, and post it.

Dave

Ok, found it...

http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/ima ... age_70.jpg

This says that if your car came a floor shift without a console, you had to have black carpet for the 72 model year.
Not sure if this helps,and correct me if I'm reading this wrong.

Dave

i think you would have to look at your build sheet to see what your trim code is (like g2b5 for blue deluxe bench on my 71) and see which tan to look at after that, as it is listed twice.

also, seems that the black would have been for the rubber flooring, as i do not believe it came in other colors (seen blue with black floor).

however, it does have that side note about floor shift and no console having black carpeting. but, it also says after that that they will be installed on "RL21, RL41, and RL45"...if it's like 71, that would be a low-price class car (base satellite???)...not sure about the 41 and 45(must be bigger cars - not 2 doors???)

therefore, i think that the carpeting would have been black on the low price class car (which would make sense since black is usually cheaper) with a floor shifter and no console. i am guessing that roadrunners are still RM in 72, which there is no mention of. if your car is a 71, though, this ordering page could be completely wrong for that year and only correct for 72. so, if your car was a roadrunner or sebring or gtx you should definitely have color-coordinated carpets, but if it was a plainer, cheaper base satellite, it would have been black, in 1972 that is.

do you still have it? if you do, and are going to restore...here's the big question...did you like it that way? if it looked better that way to you, i would say go with it, as you have some basis to say that the car came to you that way...painted the wrong color with wrong carpet from the factory. i know that having your interior all one color gets a little too much, at least for me, so if you think it looked good with the black floor, i'd do it that way because it's your car

Ths was on the ebay of the day post.
1971 Hemi Road Runner 4-speed no console.
It has tan carpet with tan interior.
The black carpet thing I've never seen before and it might just be on the RL line of cars.

every fixed window car (should be RL but they are RH with an A93 trim code) that I've seen has had the rubber floor mats originally