[adrew]

No, the radio is in the wrong place and it has push-button HVAC controls.

Yeah, since you can see the dead pedal (maybe a bottom-hinged accelerator) I feel like it's a truck or SUV of some sort with an angled-out section of the dash to hold the stereo on the bottom, kind of like the Galant, Trooper and 4Runner of the era. But the push-button climate control is throwing me for a loop. Most Japanese trucks in the '80s had the slidey switches, not push buttons.

The air intake through the glove box door makes me feel like it is something European where the A/C and climate control were sort of an afterthought.

I'm getting sort of a French vibe which did get me to check all the weird '80s Mitsubishis like the Galant, Cordia and Tredia.

 

[Seabird]

Does it have a grate / grille in the front of it (based on the vent behind it?)

No, but I'm in the camp that thinks the painting is an interpretation or amalgamation of Japanese design from that era. The SX was the closest thing I can find from the two button latch, to the way the door angles up to the face of the dash, and the way the center stack juts away from it. The climate control sliders in the real photo are replaced with buttons in the painting. I know that was an upgrade option from Honda back then, but I don't know if anyone else offered that.

Did anyone else besides VW ever do a cooled glove compartment? Maybe that's what that vent is for?

 

[KKatso5]

right - the gloves and the sunglasses make you think "sporty" but lack of a center console really cuts down on the options. Ferrari 308 didn't have a console but that's not it.... I was thinking of 80's econo boxes / hot hatches - but the vast majority of them have a console and not many euro cars of that era had brown plastic - that's so Japanese to me...... There is some weird stuff hiding in the glare on the inside near the latch - again so oddly specific.

 

[Mazda 3s]

No, but I'm in the camp that thinks the painting is an interpretation or amalgamation of Japanese design from that era.

But the specific details of the painting -- the use of screws, the latch -- everything seems so deliberate versus it just being some artist's interpretation.

 

[VadGTI]

Not only am I sure it's Japanese, I believe it's Mitsubishi. It uses the same type of two-button squeeze latch that was common on every Mitsu in the 80s. The barely visible slide out ashtray with the finger cutout on the bottom is also a near match.

80s Pajero:

View attachment 238431

I also immediately got 80s Mitsubishi vibes. At first I thought it was a Colt Vista but they had center consoles. Then I went to check out the Ram 50/Mighty Max and it looks close, but not quite right:

 

[ghost03]

Kinda feels like there's a painter who had a couple Japanese pickups and is sucessfully trolling us from 1986.

 

[Mazda 3s]

Kinda feels like there's a painter who had a couple Japanese pickups and is sucessfully trolling us from 1986.

 

[Seabird]

The lower part of the center console that juts forward with rounded corners is also oddly specific and familiar. It's driving me a little nuts, but I can't remember where I might have seen that from.

 

[Maximum_Download]

What about a Mazda 929?

 

[iamnotemo]

Feel we're getting warmer. Mid-80s Mazda pickup?

I feel Mazda was the right option. Early '80s Mazda 323/Familia is right there. Correct ash tray, cubby etc...

 

[ghost03]

I feel Mazda was the right option. Early '80s Mazda 323/Familia is right there. Correct ash tray, cubby etc...
View attachment 238466

Holy cow. That's it. Vents in the right spot, everything matches except the ?stereo? controls but that seems like it could be changed easy enough.

 

[iamnotemo]

Holy cow. That's it. Vents in the right spot, everything matches except the ?stereo? controls but that seems like it could be changed easy enough.

in the painting I feel like its a digital clock. I don't know if the 323 GTX had one there or not

 

[VadGTI]

Holy cow. That's it. Vents in the right spot, everything matches except the ?stereo? controls but that seems like it could be changed easy enough.

It's not a stereo! It's a digital clock! That's, a 323 (or a USDM GLC).

And here it is with an open glove box!

The one above (with the open glovebox) wasn't fancy enough to be optioned with the clock, so it had a blanking plate.

 

[NoXenons]

That is a well-thought-out glovebox.

 

[MandatoryOutsidePossum]

TCL does it again

 

[NoXenons]

Here’s a GLC with the clock, for those interested:

 

[adrew]

Nice.

Yeah, that is not an accurate representation of that clock. I was seeing pushbutton HVAC controls and wood on the dash

 

[KKatso5]

seems like an odd choice to paint ....

 

[@McMike]

Nice job everybody.

 

[adrew]

I was going down the rabbit hole of trying to find that "stacked washers" logo in the bottom right corner but could only find pictures of ...stacked washers... in Google and with Google Lens.