Has anybody replaced their complete interior from a upholstery shop or bought one of the sets that are suppose to be fitted from Hawks thirdgen? I wanted to swap mine out and the only problem is I wanted to know if anyone on here did it and if they can post some photos of it. I wanted to swap the center console and the interior on mine even though mine is in pretty good shape I want it showroom new. Please, anyone. Andrew

 

Andy, I did a partial int resto on my Formula a few years back. Got the carpet and the headliner/visors/sail panels from one of the sponsors. They all sell the same stuff made by the same company anyway. The carpet was really nice but the fit over the trans tunnel was not as nice as i would have wanted it to be, it was not round and had some excess in it. It would have needed to be glued down to look neat and factory. The headliner was another story. I had a TTOP car so I can't speak for the hardtop cars, but there are 2 "bitch" clips that hold it on in the front and there were no provisions to use those clips on the new headliner. I went through a few hours of R&D and took it down 2-3 times before I got everything to stay in place. Never got to install the sunvisors or sail panels but the sail panels had no provision for mounting them at all. It would have been velcro or just glue them on! Did not do any seat upholstery.
The products were nice and made the car smell real nice and clean, but by the time you figure out how to attach everything you'll probably get the new stuff so dirty from taking it on and off so many times that you might as well have left the original stuff in the car in the first place. Also the color of the TTOP sunshades did not match the headliner nor did they fit perfectly in the space provided in the headliner.
This was just my experience, this was sometime around 2002-2003, I don't know if the quality has changed since then.

 

If you want to know about interior replacement go over to http://www.knightregistries.com/forum most of them have replaced carpets headliners, seat covers etc. and they will gladly help you out with your questions. You don't have to be doing a Replica to get a good straight answer from them.

But as most after market parts there will be some fitting issues but mostly nothing you can't fix and from what I have heard and read over the years, hawks does a good job, as do most other reputable after market vendors.

 

Thanks guys, I am also thinking of just getting a local upholstery shop do it with their best fabric. I want good quality fabric and a nice factory fit. I also am watching my center console on eBay which is about to end. Does anybody know why the console wraps around the hand brake pending? Most I see has the hole open a bit wider. Andrew

 

Smokin87TA has a nice write up on repairing the headliner
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/nw-i...x-writeup.html

Also, not sure what you're asking in the last few sentences of your last post, ???, but if you're talking about the park brake handle leather peeling, even though a Formula would not have come with leather, then I know a place that can recover that for you. I had them recover my steering wheel, shifter handle and park brake handle this winter in new leather and they did an outstanding job. Let me know if interested I can give you the info.
Those center consoles are going for a ton right now, not sure of the one you're watching but ModerDayMuscle sold a brand new one on ebay a few months back for something like $400 or $800 and since then the prices skyrocketed.

 

The part I am talking about is not the handle, but the console area where it has the narrow opening for the brake handle to be raised. Notice how some widen in that area, mine did and car was never a sun car left out to burn up or warp anything due to the heat.

I was watching the console, but you have to be stupid to pay 630.00 plus for that, come on this is not a Porsche part. They will be reproduced again in the future and I will wait. One interior part is not worth a quarter of cars value.

Andrew

 

Ok,I know very well the part of the console that you are talking about. Yes it is weird. Don't know why it does that. It also tends to pull away on the side by the shifter area. I have a fix for that that I used on my Formula and it worked real well but the part you are talking about, I have not had to repair one of those yet, knock on wood.
Mark