'Dark tan metallic'
'Sheen gray metallic'
Are different names, that does not mean that they were different
shades or tint. The name change most likely was generated by
the marketing people looking for something fresh and new for
the current model year.
'many people think' and 'Documentation on this is minimal,'
is not the same as the definitive statement,
'there WAS a flattener added'.
I've never seen proof that an original dash was any thing
other than a gloss color sprayed at the same time the entire
interior was panted. And if your AD pickup had a silver, flat
gray, mud brown, pink or purple interior, it was either faded or
repainted at some time. The exclusions to this of course
are the Suburbans and the transition years '54-'55.
My guess would be that the appearance of the interiors being
a bit more dull that a normal exterior gloss, was because
the sheet metal was not prepped by priming and sanding as
was done for an exterior finish, but simply sprayed after
forming and assembly.
And as has been posted thousands of times here and on other
sites, show us the documentation and I'll believe you. Tim's
research on the colors is about the most complete that I've
ever seen and it in no way describes the Shade or Tint of
the original interior paint, merely that they bottled it
under a different name.
dg

Last edited by Denny Graham; 04/09/2015 10:49 AM.
Denny G
Sandwich, IL