Ive read that the dark blue interior was used from 82-84, but my original 85 has dark blue custom front and back seats with dark blue and black door panels. The rest of the interior trim black.

I have never seen another car like this. The original owner special ordered the car, so thats the only possible reason I have never seen another Camaro with blue and black interior. All of the other blue interiors ive seen have blue carpet and light blue high back seats.

Even the white book for 85 doesnt list blue interior for an option.

Anyone have any insight on this? Is their a specific RPO for seat color? Heres a few pics of my seats. My car is May 85 if it matters.

 

I believe that style of the custom cloth was only used in 85-86.The earlier style had more pronounced striping along the seat bolsters

 

You have a black interior. The '85-'86 black custom cloth seats tend to fade to a blue/purple color when they see a lot of sun. One of my '86's are that same color as yours are now, that car came from Cali and has t-tops.

 

The door panels are a dark blue. Even when you lift up the black plastic piece thats on top of the door panel, its blue too. The back of the front seats are dark blue all the way to the bottom of the seatback. And when you lift up the headrest, the material on the top of the seat/under the headrest is also blue.

I dont believe that the seats could fade so evenly, all over, even the door panels, and for a Michigan car that at one point spent 8 years in a garage, its hard to believe that black can fade to such an even blue even under door panel trim...

 

Trust me, you have a faded black interior. The head rests may have spent much of their life in the 'up' position.

I once had a car with a medium gray headliner that was sagging. I replaced it with new material that was an exact match. 6 years later upon removal, I noticed the headliner had evenly faded to a very light gray/blue color. Go figure.

Once again, I'm 100% certain your car's interior is/was black. I'd bet you my own car.

 

One more thing, look around on ebay for a while. You will see the same 'blue' interior in other '85-'86 cars, including the red and yellow cars that would have never been available with a blue interior... even if it did exist.

 

Wow I think you have me convinced.

I guess the good news is that I dont mind the "blue" colored seats. The bad news is that this is just another side effect of 80s cheapness.

It all makes sense now that in all the reference material, blue was never a option.....

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

86blackiroc is right, the black custom cloth interior fades to a blue color. I know it's the weirdest thing. Check your RPO list for 19C. I've seen many Camaros with this interior do this.

 

The red material in the same years turns kind of a brown color too. It sucks for me because those are my two favorite interior colors and also my favorite seat cover years. Mint black seats are very hard to find and I've found that mint condition red seats are literally impossible to find. Reproduction covers are available, but they are inaccurate for a stickler like me.

I once tried re-dying a pair of the black door panels and the results were very good and they still look good today. I used a higher quality spray dye (can't remember the brand) on them and they feel normal to the touch. Never tried the seats themselves.

 

Ive only seen the black custom cloth fade to a purple color.I too love the 85-86 custom cloth interiors the best.My favorite is the light saddle which I just recently swapped into my 89 Iroc vert

 

It honestly looks like someone replaced your seats with blue seats Your interior appears that it was Black...

 

I promise they started as black though.

I guess the way to describe the color when they fade would be "ink pen black". Like when you scribble a back ball-point pen all over a large area of paper, the shine has some blue and purple in it.

 

That does sound plausible that the black ink had blue/purple components to it... Perhaps some color component of the dye had a tendency to fade and the blue was a little more resilient. I kept thinking that sounded ridiculous too but the more I think about it the more convinced I am as well.

Is the piping on those seats black? Did the blue interiors come with black piping on the seats? Or dark blue piping?

 

The piping is black. Everything in the interior is black but the seats. I am convinced that they were black from the start and faded. Especially since the white book shows no blue seats for 85. Its unfortunate, but I dont mind the color. Its a darker blue than my pics show. Its faded so evenly that nobody would ever notice that they used to be black unless you told them. It had me fooled for the 5 months that I owned the car!

I ran into an 86 IROC-Z with 6,000 miles on it and it had black interior. And it was still black.


I totally agree. The 87 or 88? and up seats with the camaro embroidered in the bottom of the seats remind me of a burlap bag. In looks and feel. The 85-86 custom cloth seats are so nice and soft. The bolsters are like velvet.

 

Even the door panels feel like velvet.Ive had three 3rd gens with 85-86 custom cloth interiors and my vert swap makes 4.All were Light Saddle.IMO its the nicest interior of all 3rd gens.

 

its definitely black. i have the same exact one mines just not faded.

 

What I do not understand is the upper door panels have not faded, yet I thought they were the same material as the seats...

John

 

those door panels are black, not blue i know that for a fact. even when they look good they have a bluish tint to them

 

That is what I was saying, they appear to be Black in his picture... Whereas the Seats faded to Blue, considering that the seats and the upper portion of the door panels should be the same or similar material, I would have thought that they would have faded to Blue as well... What gets me is even the sides of the seats appear to have a bluish hue to them even though they would have been hidden from the sun for the most part...

Just sayin'

 

The door panels are just as blue as the seats. The pics do not show it because the door panels were not in the direct rays of the sun at the time the pics were taken.

In person the seats and door panels are all the same shade of blue.

Even my seat belts are blue. Even when there pulled out...

 

I know my 87's Black Belts have Purplish hue to them. Yes my Yellow car has a Black Belt... 4 of them so be aware

 

You sir, are sick!!!

 

yeah its just sun damaged nothing special about your interior bud, just left out in the sun and neglected. actually i know almost everyone hates rear windown louvers, but mine have been on since 1986 (cars and 85) and my rear plastics and carpet looks black as new

 

Did you read my post about the faded headliner? I don't understand it, but funny stuff can happen to interior parts.

 

Just to show what the black interior looks like before it fades to purple...here is an 86 IROC-Z that I saw at a car show this past summer. The car as you can see has 6,000 miles on it and by looking at this pic, I can definitely see how these can turn to purple. At the time I didnt think about it but now I can see how these can fade. Its like coloring with a black ball point pen like someone else mentioned earlier in the thread...if you look hard enough, you can almost see it lol.