While my car is getting some bodywork done to it, I decided to strip out the interior and freshen-up everything.

The vinyl looks OK, but it seems everything is a different shade of dark saddle. Some of it is from dirt, and fading from the sun, but I found some mildew as well.

Here are a few shots of the interior.















I pulled the interior panels off and found a little surface rust, but nothing terrible. I will take care of that before I put it back together.









The seats will ahve to stay with the car for now, but everything else came with me.





The speedo and tach will be refurbished as well.



Lots of different shades of saddle.



This will be a 3 month process, and i will share images of my progress as I go.

 

You can always give your interior parts a new dye job, while it is out, it will make everything look new again.

 

Put in some hushmat and reflectix while you have the carpet out. It will help with the heat problem.

 

Most of those interior panels/pieces could be redyed (or, recolored with a flexible recoloring agent, if you have trouble with the term "dye") with no problem. You could even dye the black portion of your steering wheel (whether it is leather, plastic, or rubber) so that it matches the interior.

My choice of product for doing this is SEM [liquid] ColorCoat mixed to match the interior color code for your car. Any good professional auto body paint supply store will carry this product and a Pre-Val bottle/gas canister sprayer (very low cost) that can shoot the SEM onto all the parts you need and do a very good quality job. It will look like a factory-new interior, if you first repair any damaged areas on these pieces. There is no need to replace any pieces that are still intact and undamaged. In fact, any 'new' aftermarket made pieces will not fit as well or look exactly the same as the original parts. Good luck on your project. If you choose to re-dye them, make sure you use a good detergent to get all the old Armor-All , etc. off of them. Also rinse the soap completely off and dry thoroughly before spraying the SEM. It will be a relatively EASY process.

 

I have not been very dilligent on posting pictures of my interior re-do. Well, it is finished, and looks great. Here are some progress pictures:

I finished removing all the interior parts. I left the wiring alone, as it iwas all original and suprisingly unmolested (the car still had the original radio in it).




The body mount bolts look prety good. No real problems here. I brushed out the dirt and surface rust, then cleaned it and sprayed some Eastwood Rust Encapsulator in the birdcage.


I then cleaned the interior panels first with with Acetone t oget all the grease, dirt, grime, and previous dye off of the parts. Then I used some plastic and vinyl cement to repair some cracks and broken pieces. The last step before the Adhesion Promoter was the SEM Vinyl paint prep application.





Once I had re-dyed the interior pieces, I brought them back to the garage and laid them out in preparation for re-assembly.




The next step after a thorough cleaning, was applying the LizardSkin.


My air compressor did not have enough capacity to do a great job ov coverage, but it still got the job done. It sputtered quite a bit.


After the LizardSkin dried, I fitted the reflectix, then glued it down with 3M carpet adhesive.


http://i607.photobucket.com/albums/t...nterior041.jpg

At the same time, I pulled my seats apart so I could sandblast and powdecoat the frames and replace al lthe hardware, foam and stretch new leather seat covers over them.



I can't find my pictures of the frames, but they turned out beautiful.

The seats turned out good. The upholsterer did not want to use the new foam because it was "too thick" so he used the old foam from 1987 and addded a little padding. I was not happy with the wrinkles, but he only charged me half, so I decided to live with it for now. I may re-do them later.

Next, I started on the weatherstripping. I bought a complete set from Doc Rebuilds who was referred to me by my painter. His stuff cost about twice what the other guys charge, but the weatherstripping is high quality.

I had to re-adjsut the doors after I glued the weather stripping on them.






Once I re-adjusted the doors, they fit like a glove.



Once this was done, it was time for the carpet!




Then I installed the rear panels, t-top, and header trim.





I finished the thresholds and then started in on the dash.



You can see that I swapped the fuel injeciton controller for the radio. Who needs a radio, when you ahve side pipes, right?


I had to do a lot of tweaking to get the panels back in their correct spot with the extra insulation under the carpet. I had to walk away from the console a couple times, but it finally went in where it is supposed to be.

The door panels were a little tough to put back in. These were new Corvette America panels in 1987. I just cleaned them up and did not re-dye them.



The last item was the water diverters on the sill plates. These have never been on the car since I got it. I Think it is s nice final touch.


Here's the finished product at a local car show:






It's not perfect, but it is a long way from this:

 

Wow- great job and an amazing progression - - how long did the entire effort take- assume you worked evenings and weekends?

Great job !

 

I'm trying this, you've made it look so easy

 

Great job, thanks for the pics and write up

 

Is the big show next weekend? Your car ought to make quite an impression. Looks amazing.

 

Looks great - I like the black carpet vs. the tan. Do you feel like the lizard skin made much of a difference?

 

Hi C,
WELL! That's a very nice job.
The interior is a tremendous amount of work to do an exceptional job on.
Your work looks like it's really payed off. I'll bet you're pleased!
Regards,
Alan

 

Thanks, guys.

It took about 2 months of nights and weekends to do this. I dod not work every night, but some weekends I worked my butt off.

Tomorrow, I take her to Barber Motorsports Park for a full day at the track. I'm a little nervous aobut the day, but it should be a blast. Ive ridden around the track in a prepared Z06. It is a fast track with a few blind corners. It will be fun to see how well the VB&P suspension, the Wilwood brakes, and the Rack Attack steering do.

Next Saturday is the show at Baytowne Wharf in SanDestin, FL.

Josh is flying in and it should be a great show.

I told him I would not stuff her in a guardrail tomorrow. I hope I keep my promise...

 

Good luck, take pictures and let us know how much fun you had

 

So what do you think of the Lizardskin/Reflectix combo?

 

Now we all seen the "gold roots" showing thru the red HA HA HA!!!
I just went thru the whole interior thing last month I know how much work and time it takes!

 

Well you guys aren't making me feel all warm and fuzzy, I have to completely go through my interior and replace most everything

 

Looks great

I plan to do the same this winter

 

Once I get my newly rebuilt engine started for the first time, I will start on the interior. I have most of it...just waiting for a few small pieces to get here.

These kinds of threads show me what my interior can look like and makes me want to jump into doing it. I'm getting excited to start on something that is not my engine.

 

A nice interior is important especially because you spend most of your time in it.

 

Once I get my car mechanically sound I'll turn my attention (bank account), towards the interior saving paint for last.