SHOGIRL1994
ExFSHOCmanager
I don't know if you'd really call it restoring since I'm not looking to put the car back to completely stock the way it rolled off the assembly line, but I'm slowly getting around to fixing it up, little by little. A brief history: The car was COMPLETELY trashed when I bought it and came a loooooong way with just a good scrubbing. I have the fortune of having a near perfect interior except the driver seat, a small rip in the back seat, a crack in the dash, and a few little ripped pieces off the rear of the headliner. I was blessed with PERFECT door panels... not faded or anything.
I salvaged and cleaned what I could as far as the interior goes, and had some extra parts laying around from a black-interior 89. (Mine has gray interior.) I started swapping a few things and like the way the black and gray looks. So far I've got the black visors and rear leather/cloth seat. I desperately need to recover the front seats and was planning on doing this myself. I know it won't be an easy job but I am going to take apart the seat covers, make patterns, and stitch new ones.
Questions about the front seats are: Are the the driver and passenger seats the same exact shape? The reason I ask is because the drivers seat is so torn up that it's "missing" a few panels and it would be hard to disect this one and make a pattern for the drivers seat. If they are the same, it would be much easier to take apart the passenger seat cover and make a pattern from it for both seats.
Would the front seats look better all black, or black with gray inserts since the overall interior is black and gray? (I'm leaving the gray carpet, door panels, console). I've found some heavy-duty upholstery vinyl that is the absolute closest thing to leather. It looks and feels just like it, the only way you'd know it's not is to flip it over and look at the back side. The only problem with doing the inserts, the only shade of gray I can get in this type of vinyl is darker than the interior gray.
Headliner: I want to do a vinyl headliner as well, with the same black material that will be used on the seats. If I go with the gray inserts on the seats, I thought about doing a gray "insert" down the center of the headliner, as wide as the moonroof. In your honest opinions, would this look silly or compliment the seats?
Last but not least, dash issues. I replaced the gauges with white-face gauges and the dash lights are now blue LED's so the white faces glow blue at night (ties in with the blue engine parts and paint). I mainly did this because the polka dots drove me absolutely INSANE. There are still polka dots across the front of the dash panel. What would be the easiest way to cover this? Stick-on vinyl? Paint? If paint, any particular recommendations as to color or brand?
Last thing is the crack in the dash. It's a clean split right over the steering wheel from front to back. I hate the carpet kits you can put over them, however, I don't want to deal with the idea of installing a completely new dash (why not, after I'm going to tackle all this other stuff, right?). Any suggestions as to how to hide that or cover the dash without it looking tacky? Maybe somehow use the same vinyl I'm using for the headliner/seats? The only thing I'd worry about with using the vinyl is I'm not sure how well the color will hold up in the sun (the rest of my windows are tinted so this is not an issue with the seats).
Eventually, for the rest of the car, the plan is to have the car painted the same blue as G2 SHO's, with either a slight pearl or kandy mixed in (haven't made up my mind yet). I've already put in a swirl-polished intake with "anodized" blue runners and valve covers. Nick has a plain polished aluminum "emissions panel" on the '93 which I think I'm going to have one cut for this car as well because it compliments the intake so well. Rolled-edge tips going on the exhaust with bumper cut-outs.
That's about it so far... so much to do and so little time (and money!) to get it done. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated and if you have any better suggestions past what I've already thought of, let me know!
I salvaged and cleaned what I could as far as the interior goes, and had some extra parts laying around from a black-interior 89. (Mine has gray interior.) I started swapping a few things and like the way the black and gray looks. So far I've got the black visors and rear leather/cloth seat. I desperately need to recover the front seats and was planning on doing this myself. I know it won't be an easy job but I am going to take apart the seat covers, make patterns, and stitch new ones.
Questions about the front seats are: Are the the driver and passenger seats the same exact shape? The reason I ask is because the drivers seat is so torn up that it's "missing" a few panels and it would be hard to disect this one and make a pattern for the drivers seat. If they are the same, it would be much easier to take apart the passenger seat cover and make a pattern from it for both seats.
Would the front seats look better all black, or black with gray inserts since the overall interior is black and gray? (I'm leaving the gray carpet, door panels, console). I've found some heavy-duty upholstery vinyl that is the absolute closest thing to leather. It looks and feels just like it, the only way you'd know it's not is to flip it over and look at the back side. The only problem with doing the inserts, the only shade of gray I can get in this type of vinyl is darker than the interior gray.
Headliner: I want to do a vinyl headliner as well, with the same black material that will be used on the seats. If I go with the gray inserts on the seats, I thought about doing a gray "insert" down the center of the headliner, as wide as the moonroof. In your honest opinions, would this look silly or compliment the seats?
Last but not least, dash issues. I replaced the gauges with white-face gauges and the dash lights are now blue LED's so the white faces glow blue at night (ties in with the blue engine parts and paint). I mainly did this because the polka dots drove me absolutely INSANE. There are still polka dots across the front of the dash panel. What would be the easiest way to cover this? Stick-on vinyl? Paint? If paint, any particular recommendations as to color or brand?
Last thing is the crack in the dash. It's a clean split right over the steering wheel from front to back. I hate the carpet kits you can put over them, however, I don't want to deal with the idea of installing a completely new dash (why not, after I'm going to tackle all this other stuff, right?). Any suggestions as to how to hide that or cover the dash without it looking tacky? Maybe somehow use the same vinyl I'm using for the headliner/seats? The only thing I'd worry about with using the vinyl is I'm not sure how well the color will hold up in the sun (the rest of my windows are tinted so this is not an issue with the seats).
Eventually, for the rest of the car, the plan is to have the car painted the same blue as G2 SHO's, with either a slight pearl or kandy mixed in (haven't made up my mind yet). I've already put in a swirl-polished intake with "anodized" blue runners and valve covers. Nick has a plain polished aluminum "emissions panel" on the '93 which I think I'm going to have one cut for this car as well because it compliments the intake so well. Rolled-edge tips going on the exhaust with bumper cut-outs.
That's about it so far... so much to do and so little time (and money!) to get it done. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated and if you have any better suggestions past what I've already thought of, let me know!
