If it is all one object, then at least you can use the UV editor to sort it out for easier texturing. I ran across the same thing for a meeting room flythrough I had to do for a client. The chairs, (all 582 of them!) needed a correction to the metal color. ARGH! Until I realized that trick with the master shader... changed that one shader and all the chairs were fixed! Saved my tush on THAT one! LOL!