I want to go back to my original interior color, medium saddle, I would need to buy door panels, console and seat covers, I bought the car over 30 years ago, and it came with velour door panels, console, and seat covers...
so I want to purchase the deluxe door panels, but I guess it was for corvettes with leather seats.. would I need to purchase the leather seat covers to match? I would prefer to buy standard seat covers and dye the rest of the interior parts. I really like the woodgrain on the deluxe door panels.., if you have a 74 with the deluxe interior please post a pic.
thanks

 

The Custom Interior included cut pile carpet, instead of 80/20 loop, leather seat cover in place of the standard "Comfortweave" vinyl, door panels with wood grain inserts and carpet trim strips added to the panels, and wood grain trim added to the shift console. On the leather seats, only the actual seating surface was leather, the sides and backs of the seats were vinyl.

It's your car, so you can buy any seat covers you'd like. There's nothing keeping you from using the standard seat covers with Custom door panels. Corvette America makes vinyl seat covers they call "leather like", using the same vinyl as they use for the sides and back of their leather covers. These covers look like the Custom covers, but are cheaper to buy.

 

thank you..
Didn't know about the console woodgrain.., got to look online for pics.

 

Hi madvette74,
Here's of pic of my '73 with the deluxe Oxblood interior, so you can see the console woodgrain insert as well as the deluxe door panels. Note...The deluxe interior (with leather seats) was only available with black and saddle interiors in 73 & 74. Deluxe Dark red (Oxblood) interior became an available option starting in 1975. My original standard vinyl interior was switched out and redone back in the late 90's by the second owner. Has held up really well. Just as gb states above....it's your car to do with as you wish!
JP

 

that's nice, my dash is the same color.. I just ordered $2200 in interior pieces.. ouch, and I still need more.

 

The door panels for the custom interior are the exact same vinyl covered panels as the standard interior with the exception of the applied wood grain inserts and a carpet strip with chrome trim at the bottom edge. The carpet is the plush, cut-pile so wouldn't match your existing 80/20 loop carpet. Given those specifics, you could just buy the standard door panels and apply the wood insert (I believe the "wood" from the regular vendors is really printed contact paper but I think there are some individuals making them from real wood veneers) This way you'd skip the carpet strip mismatch.



These are '77 panels but you get the idea:

 

the door panels I have now are velour. With the chrome trim and carpet, I did order the carpet that would be correct with the deluxe panels.. I ordered medium saddle. I like to get the leather seat covers, but just to much..

 

I can tell you from experience that when you start messing with saddle interior using new and old pieces nothing is going to match, even OEM factory saddle stuff didn't match when new. New door panels will never match older dyed panels, than you have the issue of the saddle dye being a shade or two off from can to can. If I was doing this job and wanted a uniform look I would look for a set of used door panels and dye those along with the rest of the interior parts.

Also I would not use spray cans, I would use the quart can of dye and a spray gun and spray everything at the same time. One of my winter projects back in the 90's was a refresh of the saddle interior in my 74, I removed every interior part that was saddle in color and sprayed them using Corvette America spray cans and installed new carpet and seat covers. I thought it turned out looking good given this was my first doing this. Later in life dealing with a couple of saddle C2 interiors I got wise on the "not every can of saddle is the same" thing. Talked to Corvette America on this very subject and they admitted the saddle was a tough color to mix and using the quart can with spray gun was the best approach to maintain a consistent color through out the car.

Very doable project with the right planning. If you don't have a spray gun and compressor you can rent a compressor for the day and buy a cheap spray gun at HF. Do a couple light coats, let them tack up than a final coat. Once dry rub the panels out with an old cotton tee shirt. Interior will pop and look awesome.

 

Also, used OEM panels are going to fit much better than new reproduction panels.

 

I remember when we were building our 71 coupe, I made the comment....
"Every single piece of the interior is $300.... which isn`t bad, unless you need.... every single piece of the interior!"

 

Any pics of the velour? Blue, red, <gasp> purple, <urp> chartreuse by any chance?
You can always do the leather seats later and sell the new vinyl to help offset the cost a small bit. Did you also order new seat foam?

 

yes, I will take some pics..
I did not order the seat cover or foam yet,, I did have to order console,, cause that was velour..maybe this spring I might beable to get the leather covers, so I want to wait on that..

 

I got the lower column cover off and removed the ac parts under the hood, I was going to install vintage air, but I rather get interior, plus I pulled the motor sanded the firewall, and replayed it,, cleaned up the frame area under hood and used por 15 .. I am ordering eldelbrock pro flow 4, my complete front suspension is removed, got all moog parts.. so I am at the point where I have to watch what I spend my next dollar on..I do have have a polished air gap port matched to AFR 195 heads, proform 750, fairly new msd tach drive , msd 6al, msd timing control, msd blaster 2, and perhaps glass roofs.. and maybe more, so in a month or two, I will be listing parts in our classified section.. just not upto boxing and maling, atleast right now.

 

That's not just a velour interior, that's a VELOUR interior; looks like it's been flocked! The center console and door panels look well done but wow that's a lot of fuzzy redness! Be thankful they didn't decide to velour the dash and steering column too. Are the t-top panels veloured too?

Sounds like you've done a lot of work with plans for a lot more. Best wishes to you!

 

Thank you.. Yes, lol I didn't want to admit the tops were done also..lol..
30 plus years ago when I bought the car, it looked nice but it wore off quick

 

here is a pic of my vette, I did all bodywork and paint.

 

That interior looks like it might have seen a trip to TJ Mexico.

 

the only thing that was good, the seats were never hot, when you ever you had the t-tops off..

 

Maybe the woodgrain panels are under that velour!

I redid my deluxe interior this spring and opted to not install the carpet on the lower panels, however i did put the chrome strip back on. I also reused the woddgrain, u turn and lock plate trying to keep as much original as possible.

Like others said unless you are looking for judging correctness its your decision.

 

I was thinking the same thing, perhaps by taking the velour off I could atleast saved on buying new pieces, but then you know, maybe someone would love this interior in there vette. 😆 🤣