Tim -
I'll leave the dark green strip question to Bolters with more experience that I have.
Maybe the darker stripes were applied to the gauge cluster and speedo housing to reduce the white intensity of the gauge lights that spilled out to the front of the gauges(?) The color of the stripes is about the same as the green on the bottom of the back of the speedometer face. The stripes are in the gauge cluster housing and the speedometer housing.
The inside of the inner bezels had flat black stripes, probably to trap stray light.
Pics of 1954 gauge clusters and speedometer housings. The cluster housing and one of the speedo housings are original. The inside of the other speedo housing was painted silver by a previous owner. The inner bezels of both sets are original.
I left the inside of my speedo housing original and painted the gauge cluster housing and inner bezels as near to original as I could, including the green and black stripes.
