What color interior is this?

[infanterene`]

Our Sahara 73tii is ready for carpet and I am having a tough time deciding on the color. I don’t know if I have tobacco or saddle interior. 

 

To complicate things our car is in California with Le Tran and we are in Florida. We bought the car and Dropped it of the very next day, I barely got to look at the car. 

 

Here are are some pics of my interior. I know it’s hard to see the color in the pictures but what color do my door panels appear to be? I would like to get a carpet color as close to original as possible. 

 

Edited January 20, 2018 by infanterene`
Grammar correction

[infanterene`]

Here is a pic I found of another 73 Sahara car that looks to have original carpet. These seats are the same color as mine.  Is this the color carpet our car came with originally?

[HBChris]

Early cars are referred to as Tobacco, by 73 it was Saddle.  In the parts books there is beige brown, nylon brown and gold brown.  Saddle was used in a leather color name only and tobacco only referred to an armrest that I can see, kinda strange.

[Mike Self]

That kind of greyish carpet in the two Flickr pictures is the original carpet, but it looks like the binding has been replaced.  I have a Dec 72 Sahara '73 and a Feb 69 Nevada car, and both have that OEM greyish carpet but the binding is nearly the same color as the carpet.  

 

The changeover from "Tobacco" to "Saddle" occurred during the 1972 model year, and it didn't happen all at once.  I've seen cars with original Tobacco interiors that have higher VINs than those with the (presumably later) Saddle interior, and tii's with a Tobacco interior having later assembly dates than a carbureted car with a Saddle interior.  As was typical with BMW, they just used up supplies of parts till they ran out.  

 

Generally speaking, if the recliner mechanism is chrome plated, the upholstery is Tobacco; black painted, Saddle.  But that's not always the case....there are few absolutes in BMW assemblies...

 

mike

[infanterene`]

Thanks guys. I guess I have the later saddle color and not tobacco. For some reason I thought all Sahara cars came with tobacco. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Conserv]

On 1/20/2018 at 1:07 AM, infanterene` said:

Thanks guys. I guess I have the later saddle color and not tobacco. For some reason I thought all Sahara cars came with tobacco. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sahara came with...the current brown interior! Using the names we currently use, and not the terms BMW used in their literature — as Chris aptly points out above — first it was the chocolatey-brown we refer to as UPS Brown (1966-1968), then it was Tobacco (1968-1972), then it was Saddle (1972-August 1973), and finally it was Gobi, i.e., World Upholstery’s closest color to the factory Nylon Brown or Beige (September 1973-1976).  It all depends on the year.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

[esty]

On 1/18/2018 at 3:49 PM, infanterene` said:

Here is a pic I found of another 73 Sahara car that looks to have original carpet. These seats are the same color as mine.  Is this the color carpet our car came with originally?

that's not original, oe carpet didn't come with that saddle colored binding