22 replies to this topic

[MattM]

Hey there,

Well, since I first purchased my c70 coupe the one item I have wanted to change most is the interior. I have the "biscuit"/tan interior now and I would love to convert it to black. I realize my options are, A-just purchase black interior pieces, B-take it to an interior shop or C-dye the panels. Finding any c70 interior pieces(not including the dealer), rathermore in black is nearly impossible. I had considered taking it to an interior shop but I don't see how they would be able to wrap items like the dash, side panels, etc. I have seen dyed interiors before that looked great but for every one that was done well there were 10 that ended up looking like crap. Has anyone here done an interior conversion before? Any ideas? You think a shop will do it?

thanks for any help,

Matt

[theunderlord]

Matt,
Will did it on his 854.. but he started collecting the interior pieces over months and months, and he said that it was a huge bastard to get it all done... Just a thought man.. I think if you're gonna do it.. it's gonna take time..

[S70 R]

yea dont know if its worth it man, just keep the tan clean, when its clean its looks better then black

[StickThatClutch]

If you dye the pieces you might as well just get new upholstery. You could get some decent leather and suede inserts and stuff like that.

Shops around here do that work all the time. You could get some weird suede going everywhere in your car and be like those pimp my ride guys...


Good luck.

[MattM]

LOL, I'll just do the whole interior in Gucci fabric(jk). My new seats are black alcantra and I had planned on doing my rear seats and door panel inserts to match. Would like to keep everything else black though. I don't even want to go to the dealer to see what new parts would cost and finding a c70 in a junkyard is freakin impossible.

Matt

[StickThatClutch]

Yeah, that's not really that hard for any interior upholster shop to do. I'm not sure how common they are out in Philly but I know out here they're easy to come by and labor isn't that bad. Material will vary in cost depending on your taste and quality. I would say the faux alcantra would be probably $25 a sq foot while good leather would be more on the order of $45.

I remember guys doing they entire sedan civic interior with vinyl and the cost was $1500 installed. So that gives you a good idea of how much you might be paying. Of course labor should be about the same but the materials in your case would be higher.

Good luck.

[PyROZen]

faux alcantra shouldn't be more than $15 a yard, I got mine on sale for $5 so make sure you shop around. Not sure how much leather would be but $45 a yard sounds a little expensive. The vinyl i found at a fabric store near me was about $13 a yard too. If anything you could buy all your fabric and then take it somewhere, im sure upholstery shops mark up their fabric or they'd be losing money/

[MattM]

thanks for the replies fellas,

Yeah, I have had a set of seats redone before(in my old celica). I used marine grade vinyl which looked pretty neat and held up to everything. Im not as concerned with the seats/door panel inserts as I am the actual panels themselves. Things like the a-pillars/flat pieces shouldn't be a problem but im looking at the dash assembly, rear c-pillars, upper door panels and what I should do with them?

thanks again,

Matt

[StickThatClutch]

If you get some premium grade leather (think more on the lines of current R nordkap) it is quite expensive. $45 a yard (sorry I mean yard not foot) is probably what they go for. It may be less or more. Really depends on the leather.

As for the plastic trim, I have had a couple friends dye their pieces with mixed results. I think it would just be easier to get it upholstered or try to source predyed components. The dash is probably the hardest to do. But you can get it covered for a decent price.

What I would try to do is to get a scrap trim piece from a wreck and try to dye it and see how the results are. Make sure the finish is durable, which seems to be the major problem with dyes.

Good luck.

[MattM]

Hey there,

Yeah, I have actually dyed some parts before but wanted to avoid it. Back in my younger days(mid-90s) I was into the import scene and had a 1994 celica that I modified. It was painted chameleon and the interior was done in all white/purple(no, I don't like purple, I just tried to match the paint). The dash came out really well but I just want to pursue other routes before doing that. Here are a few pics I have of the car, it is definately not my style now but I was 17 and lived near Myrtle Beach. I guess it was good for cruisin at the time, lol

Matt

[Will]

don't do it

there were times in the middle of the conversion in which i just sat in my drivers seat and cried. it is so unbeleivably hard to do

[MattM]

LOL, I know it will be a pain in the jerk, but here is my logic. My dash is already making noise and I have to pull it to fix the clips. Plus one of the mounting holes for the lower dash piece is broken so I had already planned on fixing that. I don't drive the car daily so I don't have to worry about driving around with no interior(I did that for about 2 months in the celica and hated it). I know its going to suck but I don't wanna deal with the tan anymore.

Matt

[jwmerrill]

Matt,

Just sell your C and buy mine. It already has a black/graphite interior.

jim

[MattM]

Hey Jim,

Sent ya a pm.

Matt

Edited by saffron98, 08 February 2005 - 12:28 AM.

[PyROZen]

just asking, but why such hatred for the tan? I love mine, mostly because all the 850s i see have the black. If i could just fix my cracked up front seats...

[C70drvr]

I'd like to see someone take a C70 coupe with black interior, and make all the seats blood red, with matching door inserts and rear seat side arm rests. While keeping the rest of the car black.

[C70drvr]

Now here is a nice example of a two tone C70. Looks like they dyed or reupholstered the seats from Volvo's graphite to jet black, and did blue inserts. Very nice, I would like this, but with dark (blood) red.



Here's an example of ugly two tones. It just doesn't work with the tan interior, "maybe" the grey, but not the tan. The only color that might remotely work with the Tan would be black.

Edited by futrC70drvr, 08 February 2005 - 05:52 AM.

[StickThatClutch]

Matt,

That's a pretty interesting interior on the Celica. Did you do the headliner and pillars/dash?

Not my style. But you can tell the work was put in.

Cheers.

[MattM]

Hey there,

Yeah, every piece in the interior was redone. Trust me, it isn't my style now either but I was working at a car stereo shop at the time and I was young. I won some pretty big shows with it and had a few first. It was the first 6th gen celica with white face gauges, first car in the southeast with an autopc installed, and the first fwd with 19"wheels in the carolinas. Are any of these a big deal? No, but it was fun working on it and I learned alot.

Matt

[Veneficus]

just asking, but why such hatred for the tan? I love mine, mostly because all the 850s i see have the black. If i could just fix my cracked up front seats...

I'd have to agree. The more I think about it the tan interior is much much much easier to keep clean. My dads dakota is all black interior (grey ish) and its a real pain to have clean and keep clean. It takes a good 4 hours to get that thing to look nice where as I can simply run over mine really quickly if I need to do so and have it clean up nicely and very quickly.