Alright....I have had the pleasure of owning my 76 for almost a year and (knock on wood) no major problems have surfaced that keep it from being a daily driver. Routine maintenance seems to be doing the trick.

My question - I have searched the threads to see who has done any custom work on their dash or doors and it seems this is a shallow thread topic with very few examples. There are a couple, but I am looking to see if there is any real customs out there for a late C3 interior.

I really think the interior of these cars leaves much room for improvement and have recently decided I will not keep this particular car original (too many other small modifications and bubba work in place) and would like to at least get a start on some more curvy interior door panels and maybe even a dash as the 2nd phase. Not looking for anything wild/outrageous, but just something that states the inside is as classy as the outside.

Any experience on this would be welcome.
Any info on where I can get fiero seats would be helpful.
Any info on other seat options would be helpful.

I have significant woodworking experience - medium bodywork experience - minimal fiberglass experience - medium fabric/vinyl experience, but I am one of those who refuses to pay someone when I can do it myself recipe for disaster - maybe?

I'm an architect by trade - love to sketch as well as build....maybe I'll get after it this week and put some ideas to paper. Any fabricators out there that wouldn't mind sharing some tips - thx in advance!

If there are link to threads that anyone knows of, it would be helpful. I just didn't see but around 6 and maybe they are buried somewhere with a different topic.

thanks!

 

I picked up my Fiero seats from a used parts vendor at Carlisle. You can find them for sale on the internet or try your local salvage yards. Mr Mikes has some nice covers to reupholster them. I'll be watching this thread for ideas.

 

Here is my interior, I am still working on it... Very slowly... Hah!
Custom Interior

 

Thats awesome! So you built the dash out of wood and glassed over it? How much weight did you add?

I was thinking of doing the pourable foam and sculpting method but still reading up on that. Looking into a 3-piece dash as well in order to do a two tone finish. I'm finding lots of cool tricks searching through the custom audio threads.

If you dont mind me asking....was your 2k cost all fabrication or did that include the ipad as well - was just curious.

Very cool!!!

 

i will 2nd that the ipad 2 modded interior of the vette above is way cool!!!!
some genius work actually!!!!

 

Back then iPad 2's were not cheap, I think you can get one for $100 used now lol!
The gauges were around $1000 when I purchased them back in 2000.
High quality vinyl goes for $20-40 a yard
Foam padding is cheap
the MDF is about $40 a sheet
The side AC vents were about $50 each
The chunks of 6061 aluminum were about $5-10 each
Sand paper is expensive!
Not a lot of glass used, just for areas that needed filling, I generally applied the highest heat rated upholstery glue available to MDF wood and laid padding and then vinyl. Everything is glued with Elmers pro bond.

Just a heads up if you are not a highly experienced electrician I would not start on this as a do it yourself. The best way imo is to replace your fuse box with a painless kit. You will need someone with experience to install it and wire the car and that can take a lot of time and effort and expense. Once you start messing with wiring in new gauges and removing stock computer controls it gets ugly! It was a huge mission to completely custom wire the whole car.

However if it is a lifetime project like mine is, to me it is absolutely worth every moment invested and there is nothing like having gps maps or whatever you are looking at that big as a touch screen on your dash. If it is something extraordinary you want and are willing to put the effort into it the rewards can be very satisfying.
Also consider the stock plastic interior might be more durable in frozen weather or extreme heat or sun exposure. If MDF soaks up moisture it will expand.

If you want to do it right gut the interior and remove all rust and use dynomat or something on the inside before starting. I spent many hours reconditioning my entire interior prior to dynomat.

I left my door panels stock, It was the only thing I felt did not need updating. I plan on making nice padded arm rests and hand made billet handles/bezels.

I highly suggest you look at GTO seats. They are much cheaper then newer Corvette seats. Fiero seats are nice and they fit but these are way way nicer.

GTO seats will need fabrication to bolt to a Corvette floor.

 

Another suggestion is a nice Momo steering wheel. The italian leather just makes it feel like a completely different car.

 

Those GTO seats look sweet. It would be nice if you could get the flags stitched in them.

 

Awesome job.

 

are there years to avoid on the GTO seats? I do like that as a replacement option and can see that finding a decent pair in black leather woudl be fairly easy. I could then pull my original vette seats and sell them OR hold onto them for a future restoration......

love the steering wheel option as well!!!

 

I think the GTO was 04-06. The leather on Pontiac seats is thick. And they are very comfortable. The back sides of the GTO seat floor brackets are not level, and will need to be cut and have a bracket welded to fit.

Just a heads up on new seats. It can get expensive.

Getting new seats to match heights in a Corvette is not easy. Newer seats are generally taller then stock seats and depending on year if you had a driver side electric seat or not, the seat pans are different heights.
If you want dual electric seats to function and fit properly you need to drop each of your floor pans different amounts for them to match height and if you do that, plan on only being able to run side pipes because there will be no room to run exhaust pipe back under the seats.
Or you can just make one electric (or none at all), and remove the electric frame and bolt it straight to the floor with spacers to level them out.

I dropped both my floor pans for maximum room, before installing dual electric 04 Vette sport seats. They are nicer imo then GTO seats (even though Pontiac used higher quality leather) but also are more expensive. The electric functions work on both sides and they are level to each other and fit perfect for maximum leg and head room.
I only run side pipes on my car.
I have also seen nice 04? mustang seats used somewhere, they can be easier to get then GTO maybe.

 

Fiero seats with MR. mike covers are a nice touch also.

 

Didn't forum vendor Double D Mods recently say they were working on a C3 interior upgrade? Does anyone have info on progress there?

Would be great if Double D Mods made some products for the C3 for sale. They do a great job with radio bezels for later cars.

 

OK - step one....ordering glass today!

Now - quick question....seems to me it would make more sense to make a door panel back out of laid up glass vs. mdf? I could tape off the existing door and in theory have a perfect mated back panel for a custom door panel (with cutouts of course for the lock and handle). The only concern I have right now is how to mold the top edge to receive the window gasket/trim? Any thoughts? Maybe better to tape up and mold glass over the back of an existing door panel instead for the starting point?

Once the panel back is created - I am currently leaning toward pourable foam which can then be sculpted. I have not found anything related to whether it would or would not adhere to the fiberglass - anybody know. If not, I can experiment I suppose.

 

First 2 Concepts.....mold the top with fiberglass as separate piece and cover with leather or paint to match car color - extend to form new door handle in center maybe?

maybe do inset as accent leather color.....maybe pleated/patterned leather

maybe do armrest door lever area as leather with carbon fiber inset or painted inset.....