Just gonnta rant a little. Did alot of reading here and all over the internet about installing the 4th gen interiors into our 3rd gen cars. Contacted www.hawksthirdgenparts.com along with a whole list of others trying to run down the parts I needed. Bruce at Hawks was a great guy. Kept in constitent contact via E-mail and phone calls, he got my vote for top notch vendor. We're working on a deal right now and hopefully it'll be paid for tomorrow and shipped providing the little stuff we talked about goes through. Getting a dash and door panels from him, minus gauges, radio, air bag, wiring harness; but with the HVAC controls so I can make a sniper panel to hide my delay box. Price is right on track. Currently my car is undergoing serious exterior upgrades and will finally be painted PPG 70 Chevelle Torch Red-Base/Clear. The dash is charcoal? color, same as the door panels but the panels have red inserts from the factory. Don't know what it'll look like with the inserts, don't want it gawdy, but the little red accent might break up the new charcoal/black interior and kinda tie it in with the exterior paint hugh. Found a site that talks all about center consoles and sells them so I faxed a cover letter and hopefully he has what I need and I can purchase that tomorrow as well, that address is www.tacreationsusa.com/consoles.htm as I know many of you are wanting that as an upgrade item-DO NOT buy anything until I get mine confirmed and on the truck
The only thing I'm now regretting is that when I installed my cage before it went to the body shop is that I fitted the door bars to work with my 86 door panels, knowing my luck the new 4th gen panels will hit and cause me to cut them back out and redo-not looking forward to that, but WTF right? This car is mainly strip driven, but now I'm past the stage of spending too much, and the guy squirting it is putting a show paint job on it now, cause I traded some more work out for the added detail, no wonder the wife gets pisssed at me. The end goal of this project is to have a super clean drag car, I want to break in on some local shows and shows at the track events, and if *** willing maybe grace the pages of a mag or two. Right now I got Pontiac High Performance in my sights. I already have some more performance parts so have about 3 too many irons in the fire right now, but I want it all done by the season opening race in April. Once I hit high 12's I'm done and will move on. Here's some pics to look at, nothing much, but hey, it's winter time and what else have you got to look at besides naked women

 

door panels

 

at the guys shop

 

shop 2

 

most have probably seen this pic, but mine will have a little more flare, racing seats-no Summit ones though, I have a full set of Autometer Phantom gauges that'll hopefully fit inside the A/C ducting and in the new dash insert
This is the guys 86 or 87? Formula with a 97 trans am interior swap

 

those door panels look familiar Your car is going to have an all new look to it!

 

I hope so, I already know that the car and myself are bracker racing masters-now I'm gonna jinks myself for this season-and since it was such an ugly beater last year and I always got made fun of, hopefully by overkill it'll catch some well deserved attention for all the right reasons when done. Bought the dash and panels today, Bruce @ Hawks hoped to have them shipped out tomorrow (Fri.) found a guy in Chicago that had a center console, but he would'nt send me a pic "ahhh, we don't do that" he told me. "It looks brand new, I'm standin here lookin at it" There were other parts of the conversation that made me leery as well, so the search continues. I'm installing an aftermarket shifter, either a quick silver or the hammer shifter, could I use either auto/man console since it'll be custom, or better off w/ getting the manual to start with?

 

If you find the website for the pic (two pics up) of the 97 interior in the 86/87 Formula, you'll find out he was in the same situation as you. He already had a rollcage in the car that was made for the stock 3rd gen interior. After swapping in the 4th gen door panels, he noticed the cage didnt fit right. I remember seeing a pic where the door panels were damaged a little on the bottom from hitting the cage. You might want to think about using the 4th gen Camaro door panels without the 'map pockets' (or whatever) at the bottom. The T/A doorpanels he used are a little thicker than the Camaro counterparts because the T/A doorpanels have a different speaker setup on the door. Just an idea. I'm waiting untill I get my 4th gen interior(s) in before installing any rollcages.

 

Too late! Bruce called me this morning and it sholud be shipped tomorrow. If they hit, they hit. It'll be work taking them back out and redoing, but I think the end result will be worth the extra effort. The guy with the formula, I was reading everything in his site, had to do everything outdoors, and then the cage with an arc welder. I'm fortuate enough to have purchased about every tool I ever needed for any project plus I have a nice big garage to work out of, it just getting over the fact of having to redo. Still need a console though.