Decal Twilight Zone

[Proxy404]

Alright, I think I'm in the twilight zone.

I have an '89 Pioneer short bed. The decals are pretty badly damaged and partially missing on one side and I'm looking for identical replacements. All of the sites I've found selling replacement decals for the 89 Pioneers including MoparPartsGiant.com list 3 variants:

1. Silver/Charcoal (also called Light/Dark Silver)
2. Lite/Dark Maroon (also called Red/Dark Red)
3. Lite/Dark Tan

 

After a quick look at my truck and not seeing any maroon or tan, I figured the only option I was left with was "Silver/Charcoal". I went ahead and ordered the "Silver/Charcoal" option from Phoenix Graphix. And after a quick glance at the stock photo on that site I was pretty sure the silver option was the right one.

 

Here's the weird part. The decals on my truck are very clearly black and silver:

 

 

 

The black I could be convinced to be "charcoal" but the decals I got are not even close. Definitely more of a light/dark silver.

    

 

I peeled back the transfer film all the way to the darker stripe above the E E R to reveal the actual color and it's still very clearly not a match to what's on the truck.

 

Here's the next weird part. I'm not really able to find any pictures of other Pioneer Comanches with black Jeep lettering on the tailgate or black and silver stripes exactly like mine. They all seem to match the silver decals that I got.

 

After another look at the stock photo I noticed the lettering on the tailgate and the "Pioneer" is silver, not black.

 

I even found the original photo that a bunch of sites use as the "stock" photo. You can tell it's the original as the "stock" photos have the matching dent in the back corner, the bumper is photoshopped to be somewhat straight and painted, and the top of a propane tank is usually visible in the bed. Not to mention the tires. (This guy's jeep is famous and he probably doesn't even know it)

 

 OG:  

Stock:  

 

Here is a side-on shot of these "Silver/Charcoal" decals on other trucks. These pictures match the decals I got but definitely don't match mine.

 

 

 

Quick check of my build sheet wasn't terribly helpful and I think the relevant things are here:

-SA Charcoal

APA MONOTONE PAINT

PWB WHITE PRIMARY PAINT - HWB

QWB WHITE SECONDARY PAINT - HWB
 

So here are the questions:
What color option do I have?
Are the decals on this truck custom made to possibly replace the old silver/dark silver?

Why can't I find any other pioneers with black and silver stripes?
Does anyone else have stripes that match mine?
 

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?

[Spinnakerblue89]

I don't know if this will help you much at all but I thought I would throw this thought out there for you.

 

A long time ago we had a 1995 Mazda Miata and it came from the factory with twin black pinstripes along the belt line. We were the second owners and we didn't know the pinstripes were originally black. When we bought it, it had sort of a dark charcoal gray set of otherwise-matching pinstripes that someone had replaced the originals with. When we tried to replace the gray stripes, to our amazement, wasn't available. 

 

The best we figured was that some company offered them at one point and by the time we tried to replace them, they stopped selling them. In the end we went back to the black.

 

The question is: Could this be a result of something aftermarket? Never say never, and sometimes you just have to consider the odds may be higher than you think. 

 

:/