Starting a new thread on this as I found some of my pictures. The first time I'd encountered this was on a '51 J in a small town in MO. It had all brown pleated vinyl and the column and molding were satin blue just like the rest of the car. I remember having a conversation with long time KFOC member John Beck, who seemed to really know the Js well, and he commented that some were like that - again, his own observation. It wasn't until years later when I noticed the correlation regarding that on the all vinyl upholstered 1951 cars I encountered.
I looked at yellow '51 with all brown vinyl in it in western MN in the late 90s. See pic, it's got the color coordinated column and molding -
and here's the dash shot -
And here's the VIN (I didn't think to take one of the data tag back when I saw it)
Further evidence that the colored column is factory (evidence mind you, not proof) is the fact that the car had factory signal lights. I didn't snag a picture from that side ( I snagged these from a video I took) but the signal light kit is metallic gray. I would have to ask, if the column and molding had been painted afterwards, why didn't the signal light kit get painted too? Of course, there's no way of knowing when the signal lights were installed so nothing conclusive.
Here's one that was for sale in Coon Rapids, MN 10 years ago. I didn't get any photos of the outside as it was packed in a garage but see the column and molding colors match the car -
Here's the data tag off that car
and the VIN tag of same:
Here's one I looked at in Shakopee, MN about a month later. I thought it was the same car as previous but it's not-
data tag
I've attached the data tags separately as well as you can't really read them here but if you save or open the attachments you may be able to enlarge them and read the numbers.
I can't find the pictures I have of interior of Steve Carey's all vinyl J, but it's the same way.
Again, no factory documentation but it is a very high correlation of all-vinyl upholstered cars with matching column trim. I'd say it was very likely that's how many, if not most, all-vinyl '51 Js were originally.