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I always liked the classic, tan trans am interior, unthil it became an obsession
Stock interior was grey, had been washed a couple times and turned in to a light grey, in other words it was time to restore it and since I was going to do it, I decided to try and reproduce the postcard picture I had in my mind of a nice dark tan interior.
I tried to be picky with the color choice, but also had to settle with the colors that are available these days.
I will try to update this tread from time to time with color, fabric part numbers and some interior work progress pics.
Here the pics of the 99% finished interior.
Last edited by thomas1976; 10-27-2014 at 04:52 PM.
I ended up with cutpile carpet color #9205 (cognac) from ACC, ordered from rockauto.
The original carped had almost no mass back in the front, but the rear had pretty thick mass back.
Since I was going to insulate the whole interior I got the carped without mass backing. Though if I would do it again I would add mass back in the rear.
I opted for Vinyl seat covers for practicality and found it overall more appropriate for a car with t-tops.
Wanted to buy them from hawks, but the samples they sent me where too far off from the original color.
I then stumbled across this http://www.ebay.com/itm/1985-1992-Pontiac-Trans-Am-GTA-seat-covers-in-correct-Beechwood-color-MUST-SE-/251020203182?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3a71f854ae&vxp=mtr wich is wery nice, a tad darker then original just what I was looking for, he also included some Vinyl for the door panels.
I will go over a couple details on his back seat covers, that could be improved, further on.
By looking for some feed back on hog ring material and hog ring pliers I came across this great tread http://ls1tech.com/forums/appearance...ry-my-car.html plastic wraps that was THE solution for my upholstery job.
Recovering was pretty easy, I started with the back rests since those were the first parts of the used Ultima seats I ordered, that arrived.
Some surgery was needed but no big deal for some foam, good cantact glue and loads of motivation.
Last edited by thomas1976; 10-27-2014 at 04:54 PM.
I always liked the classic, tan trans am interior, unthil it became an obsession
Stock interior was grey, had been washed a couple times and turned in to a light grey, in other words it was time to restore it and since I was going to do it, I decided to try and reproduce the postcard picture I had in my mind of a nice dark tan interior.
I tried to be picky with the color choice, but also had to settle with the colors that are available these days.
I will try to update this tread from time to time with color, fabric part numbers and some interior work progress pics.
I had to find another set of seats, to complete the project.
They came with beechwood color plastics, basically what I wanted in the first place, but they did show theyr age so bad and I had already repainted all the other plastics with SEM-15173. Repainting them with the same paint as the rest made just more sense.
Ultima seats were in bad shape and begging to be restored
One mounting bracket on the seat track adjuster was loose, only attached with the rivet, I drilled two approx. 0.28 in holes trough the bracket and welded it back on.
Last edited by thomas1976; 10-27-2014 at 04:56 PM.
Washed the metal parts with degreaser and rattle can coated them, was in a hurry at that time.
To replace the rusted trough center foam supports, I used aluminium grill, attached to the original supports with plastic wraps. It passed, my stand on it with one foot and wiggle, resistence test with no sign of material stress
Some painter tape was wery practical to hold the trim support panel in place while connecting the back rest to the bottom part.
Last edited by thomas1976; 06-27-2018 at 02:46 PM.
Before bolting the back rest to the bottom of the seats, the air hoses need to be reinserted in place. Used some wire loom as protection were they go trough the grill.
The velour part of the seat cover has to be attached in place after the air hoses are routed and before the electrical parts are reattached to the seat frame. I discovered this later.
I did not have time to weight the Ultima seats, but they are quite heavier then the base seats.
Last edited by thomas1976; 10-27-2014 at 04:59 PM.
Door panels were in good condition, I have no pics of the color change process, as I did it in a hurry.
Cut the inside (towards carped) stitches and removed the old carpet insert.
Removed the black metal L retainer, prepped and painted the Vinyl.
Used SEM 38343 (prep), SEM 38363 (sand free) and SEM 13023 (satin clear), this works wery well, paint is scratch proof.
The perforated Vinyl (same as used for the seats) insert was glued directly on top of the old velour.
The new carpet isserts were cut, glued and stitched back in place using the existing holes.
Extra cutpile carpet, #9205 (cognac) was ordered directly from ACC.
I glued an extra heavy duty plastic cover on the back of the door panel for improved protection.
Last edited by thomas1976; 10-27-2014 at 05:01 PM.
Thats looking superb. I can't imagine it that tan interior is so gud. Honestly i don't like the tan interior but its the different and now i am thinking to make my car like this. How much it costs for your car? Nice shotss. Thanks for sharing.
Thecovergirl recover the sunvisors and sent me the same headliner fabric (Tan#2127) for the sail panels and headliner.
I used some Polyurethane glue to strengten the headliner on the inside, because it is wather proof, odorless and I could not come up with a better idea at that time. The downside are the expansion bubbles that need to be flattened during the drying process.
Last edited by thomas1976; 10-27-2014 at 05:02 PM.
Hey thomas1976 did you have your door panels custom made? It looks like you have your door panels with a tan vinyl and some cognac carpet to match your cognac carpet?
Hi Rob,
the perforated vinyl I used is the same that's in the center of the ultima seats and comes from the same place as these seat covers.
Removed the L retainer trim, glued in the vinyl and put the L trim back on.
For the carped insert I used the ACC #9205 cut pile carpet, I got from ACC.
To replace I removed the stiches around the old one, put some glue on the new carpet insert and sew it in by hand using the same holes.
These door panels are not too complicated, I didn't take pictures but this should help.
Oh okay thank you. And the vinyl you did on your headliner? That is very nice and mine is a soft fabric headliner and I hate it. I'm ordering a new headliner and I'd love to redo my headliner in that. It would match prefect. And you said you sent your sail panels and sun visors out to have them reupholstered to match your interior.
Headliner and sail panel fabric is soft, not vinyl, I ordered it from the Thecovergirl.
I sent her my sun visors to recover and she sent me the same headliner fabric (Tan#2127) for me to recover the the sail panels and headliner.
Ah okay. Who is the thecovergirl? Would I be able to contact her somehow to get the fabric for my gta? Oh and did you buy beechwood tan sunvisors and send them out because I'm assuming they were grey sunvisors before
Something like that, I sent her a set of used sun visors to recover, she did not put the mirror back on though. So remove your mirror before sending them out and then reinstall it yourself.
Haha yea it was. Thanks for the help I'm defiantly going to use what you said and put that to my car. I'm going to see if I can somehow get a hold of the cover girl and see if she' would do that for me or even if she's still doing that lol ;P oh one other question if you remember. Where did you get those seat covers? I looked them up and can only find beechwood seat covers with the turbo trans am on the head rest. I'd like to just keep it original like that. Thanks
Still looks exactly the same, there are some little plastic friction spots were the SEM came off .
If I would do it again I would replace as many plastics parts rather then painting, would also not settle for anything else than the exact factory color match, if I had to paint.
Still looks exactly the same, there are some little plastic friction spots were the SEM came off .
If I would do it again I would replace as many plastics parts rather then painting, would also not settle for anything else than the exact factory color match, if I had to paint.
Hi, Thomas... I'm doing pretty good, thanks. I hope things are good with you as well. I've always wondered if people had problems with SEM rubbing or scratching off on high friction areas. I figured there would be issues and now I know for sure. Your car still looks great, though!
09-02-2012, 02:42 PM
