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Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pics!
I’m getting ready to gut the interior in my t/a and I’m looking into re-upholstering the factory seats with a kit from Hawks. My interior is gray but everything is so faded its hard to tell what color I should get. I was looking at either the light charcoal/Chino velour, silver/Regal velour, or possibly trying the vinyl. The silver/regal seems to be the closest match in cloth, and the 702 charcoal/Madrid if I was going to get the vinyl.
I did some research but can’t really seem to find any pics in the Madrid vinyl. Has anyone installed a set? I’m trying to see if the charcoal is going to be too dark, as well as the overall fit and finish of the vinyl. The other question would be which velour is the closest to the factory upholstery? Hawks has Chino velour as being the best match to factory, but they don’t have the silver color that seems to match my interior.
Anyway I think it would be really helpful if we can get a detailed page going showing how these covers and colors will look installed. Please name the color/upholstery type as well as the manufacturer or retailer you bought them from. Thanks in advance for any contributions to this thread! Also pics can be of any year, any seat style, and either Camaro’s or Firebird’s.
My current interior..
Screenshots from Hawks’ site showing their colors for 85-92 Firebird’s with standard seats.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
99% of the Firebird upholstery kits are coming from Acme. They're reproductions, so they are obviously not 100% accurate. Whether they're close enough or not, comes down to personal preference. I'd say they'd look better than shredded, faded, OEM cloth. If I had a set of OEM Pallex or Metrix cloth, that wasn't torn or too badly worn, I'd opt to remove the covers and run it through the washer, or go after it carefully with cleaners and copious quantities of water. Obviously with big pieces of cloth missing and tears, you're past the clean up stage unless you find a donor set.
I picked up a set of Acme Silver Regal Velour covers last spring because they were dirt cheap. I've got a decent set of seats for my project car, (mixed and match from 3 different cars), but figured if I had them maybe they'd come in handy. As of yet, they're still in a box somewhere in my Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse. I did do a quick comparison to the aged factory Pallex on my door panels when the covers got here, just to see how close they came.
As the photos show, the pattern of the cloth is sorta similar, but under the silver the covers are darker, and the weave for lack of a better word is much more open. From some angles it doesn't look too bad. I could see how some people would be OK with the deviation, and others would be annoyed to no end. Like I said, I got them dirt cheap and I'm still not sure I'd use them if I had a more accurate set available.
Classic Industries has some upholstery sets from another vendor that are supposed to be reproduction Pallex. Sometimes you gotta cheat the years a bit, because the seats were used with a couple variations from 84?-ish to 92. Classic doesn't list the Pallex covers for all years that used the same seats. Anyway, the larger issue is that in typical Classic Industries fashion they're listed as Arriving Soon! in most cases. That's Classic Industries speak for maybe we got them, maybe we don't, maybe we know when we'll have them in stock, maybe we'll never have them in stock... It's pretty much a garbage status that implies they don't got em, and might never have them, but hey dawg at least they're in the catalog, right?
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Yea I noticed on the Classic Industries sight it said that the covers for my car were coming soon.. I’m not concerned with a 100% factory match, I just want to make sure I pick the color that will go best with the rest of the interior. I’m keeping everything gray and already have a new headliner, carpet, and dye to freshen up the plastics. I’d love to try the vinyl but I haven’t been able to find a kit in light gray. I’m not sure how the charcoal will go with everything else being silver/gray.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Color is tough because you'll have a GM color name, then you'll have whatever random color names Acme made up, and then you've got all the hokey color names that forum members come up with.
The original Pallex colors are Med Dk Gray (seats outer), and Graphite (seats inner).
Silver, gray, charcoal, dark gray, anthracite, blah blah etc are all names someone has made up after the fact. Disregard the acme color names, pick the sample square closest to what you want, then order that color and hope for the best.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Originally Posted by Drew
Color is tough because you'll have a GM color name, then you'll have whatever random color names Acme made up, and then you've got all the hokey color names that forum members come up with.
The original Pallex colors are Med Dk Gray (seats outer), and Graphite (seats inner).
Silver, gray, charcoal, dark gray, anthracite, blah blah etc are all names someone has made up after the fact. Disregard the acme color names, pick the sample square closest to what you want, then order that color and hope for the best.
You’re right, thats another thing. The original seats are two tone, nothing available reproduction is.. I’m gonna wait and see if anyone chimes in with photos of vinyl seats to see the fitment and color. If I decide on cloth it looks like I’ll be going with the silver in the regal velour.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Alot of people on here have used Princess from Lethal Interiors. I personally bought some repo's from Classic Indrustry if I remember right for my Camaro. My Camaro ones were I beleive was PUI, I know my new seat buns were. Anyways, I have seen quite a few of the Lethal interiors in pics, and its some quality stuff. Plus I believe members here was having custom stuff done too (like putting in Camaro or Iroc on the material, or custom stiching). Like what was mentioned before is there are some small differences. Mine matched color wise pretty good, but the lines on my edges all went one way, instead of away from each other. Didn't even notice until someone pointed it out.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Trouble with Firebird seats is the Pallex cloth. Same stuff and colors used in the GN, thus there is no NOS Black or Gray fabric out there that isn't horded, to the best of my knowledge. Which is why the PUI Pallex offering is interesting.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
I have no idea. I'd really love to see a pic of the vinyl installed. I'm leaning towards cloth right now unless the vinyl looks good enough to be passed off as leather!
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Contact the Maestra of 3rdgen upholstery, Princess! Her business is called Lethal Interiors, and she's in northern Florida. A lot of threads here on TGO showing her great work; just type Princess into TGO's search engine. She reproduces 3rdgen Camaro and Firebird factory seat covers/patterns on an individual order basis, and she can do it in whatever material the customer wants: leather, vinyl, fabric, including Pallex cloth in the correct colors; not sure if it's NOS or Repro, but she has a source. You can supply the materials if you want something unique or unusual, or you can leave it all to her. She's awesome! She works with you so closely, that you feel like you've made a new friend. So if you're set on new seat covers in that 85-86 Trans Am two-tone Pallex cloth, Princess is your best bet.
Edit: Looks like we were typing at the same time. But yes, good move.
Last edited by LAFireboyd; 03-08-2020 at 10:53 PM.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
I’ve been speaking with Princess from Lethal and she has been VERY helpful answering my questions. I decided on leather, and at the moment I’m probably going with light gray, no two tone. I’m thinking of having a dark blue screaming eagle embroidered on each front head rest as well, but I haven’t decided yet. I’m going to place an order later on as this car needs a lot more than just seats at the moment.. Regardless I’m glad I figured out the route I want to go with the interior!
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
These are vinyl I got from Classic Industries years ago. I installed them myself. They are holding up great. Thick and sturdy. I am very happy with the fit too, and they are so snug to the foam that it took some finesse getting them stretched on.
Black seats go well with all the black trim in these cars, although it's hard to tell that from these because all the other black trim isn't really visible in the pictures.
I even installed heated seats elements at the same time.
I originally had cloth, but with my odd color combo the cloth was only available NOS, which would have ended up costing me 2k plus so I went with these. Never was too crazy about vinyl before, but I like these. My wife likes them so much she has been after me to replace her nice gray Camaro cloth seats with the same vinyl.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Hi Matt, I have the same color seats in my TA and I literally just received my seat covers today and I was searching post for installation help.
I got mine from Hawks, but had to call them to custom order the two-tone colors I wanted. I got Chino light charcoal on the bolsters and dark charcoal on the inserts. The good thing about calling them to order, is I was able to only purchase front seats to save a few bucks. Like others said, they were made by Acme, it took exactly 3-weeks for me to receive them direct shipped from Acme.
Upon opening the box they look pretty good, colors are move vibrant, but I'm not sure how well the pattern looks. I'll post some pics side-by-side later.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Originally Posted by ChevalierSS
Hi Matt, I have the same color seats in my TA and I literally just received my seat covers today and I was searching post for installation help.
I got mine from Hawks, but had to call them to custom order the two-tone colors I wanted. I got Chino light charcoal on the bolsters and dark charcoal on the inserts. The good thing about calling them to order, is I was able to only purchase front seats to save a few bucks. Like others said, they were made by Acme, it took exactly 3-weeks for me to receive them direct shipped from Acme.
Upon opening the box they look pretty good, colors are move vibrant, but I'm not sure how well the pattern looks. I'll post some pics side-by-side later.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
I too am looking at the seat covers from Hawks. But I just reached out to Lethal Interiors with a detailed email. Thanks for the conversation. My interior needs a refresh as well.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Originally Posted by ChevalierSS
Hi Matt, I have the same color seats in my TA and I literally just received my seat covers today and I was searching post for installation help.
I got mine from Hawks, but had to call them to custom order the two-tone colors I wanted. I got Chino light charcoal on the bolsters and dark charcoal on the inserts. The good thing about calling them to order, is I was able to only purchase front seats to save a few bucks. Like others said, they were made by Acme, it took exactly 3-weeks for me to receive them direct shipped from Acme.
Upon opening the box they look pretty good, colors are move vibrant, but I'm not sure how well the pattern looks. I'll post some pics side-by-side later.
Nice I would love to see the hawks two tone being we have the same colors as well. I planning on going with lethal as of right now being I’m considering leather.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Because of this post I reached out to Princess. I am going to have her take are of my seat cover needs in the near future. She responded right away, gave me price quotes and the low down on the factory look.
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Just thought I would follow up on my previous post in here about ordering the seat covers for the deluxe gray from Camaro Central.
They are made by PUI and are made to order... not stocked... it took about 10 weeks to get mine... ouch...
They do have the "Camaro" embroidery... the material is clearly different all the way around. more fuzzy velour and less cloth. Overall the seat covers went on pretty easy. No real problems... just wish i order the backs also. Now the back seats are original material and fronts are not... but not too noticeable... I laid out the old driver's side seat next to a newly covered passenger seat.
old drivers seat on left... new passenger on right new front seats... old rear seats
Nice seat covers... not correct material.... doors are still original also....but a lot better than the torn originals...
Anyone have the ACME version of these?.. I would like to compare... maybe buy the rear seat ones...
Re: Anyone with reproduction factory seat covers? Please step inside and post some pi
Originally Posted by cplhardy
Are these retail seat covers or an upholstery shop?
Upholstery shop Not to hijack this thread, but I found a local upholstery shop yesterday that impressed me. I'm dropping off my seats next week to be done. I probably would have ordered the pre-fab reproduction covers, but my PMDs need some of the foam rebuilt...
03-06-2020, 02:28 PM
