Good morning, I'm replacing the OEM seat covers from my 89 RS convert.
The factory color is called carmine red. While looking for new seat covers (that are close to OEM) I do not find any described as carmine red. What color should I be looking for and who might have the closet thing to OEM.

On a different note, I saw some pics of a red camaro convert with a tan interior and I thought it looked pretty nice. Any opinions?

JQ

 

Everybody's color names are a little bit different. Stock vs. aftermarket carpet companies vs. seat cover fabrics vs. headliner material, etc. All the names are different. You need to look at sample colors for the seat fabrics to determine what will work best for you.

Here are my fabric sample sheets:




Just keep in mind that when you replace ALL of the fabric of one type (i.e. carpet or seat covers), it's not as important to choose a color that's as close to the original as it is to choose a color that best matches the other materials in the car. If you were replacing just 1 seat cover, then you'd obviously want the best match you could get, but when you're replacing them all, you get a little bit more freedom in that sense. This becomes especially important when you consider that the factory seat fabrics are no longer available, so no matter what you do, it's going to look different. The best you can do is get something that's still visually pleasing and retains a stock-like feel.

 

So...If you were going to replace the seat covers and carpet that were originally carmine red, what would you go with?

 

It's hard to say, because it's really an issue of personal taste. If it was a black or dark gray car, I'd probably go with a brigher red that had some "pop" to it, rather than the darker, drab red. On the other hand, on a white or light grey car, a slightly darker shade would probably look a bit better.

If I were you, rather than look at thirdgens for inspriration, take a look at some Corvettes. Some of my absolute favorite C5 combos are black with red interior, silver with red interior, and dark gray with red interior. Yesterday I saw a white C5 'vert with a red interior and it also looked fantastic. C5s seem to look very good with red interiors, while the thirdgens seem to look old and cheap with them. The fact that red shows wear so much has a lot to do with it, but I think it's also because the C5 red interiors use a very bold red, but also use a lot of black to balance it out.

C5 torch red interior:



C5 darker Firethorn interior:


C6 with a darker red interior:

 

Having a bit of problem posting, I'll try again.
I wish that my car was black (or even white), unfortunately it is red (with some fading). I'm thinking about a complete change to a tan or black interior. I guess it just depends on how much money I want to spend. Thanks for your thoughts and photos.

 

Besides carpet and seat covers, the only remaining items are door panels and interior plastic. Interior plastic is only a few cans of SEM paint away from being any color you want. The only real expense you'd incur would be door panels, and used tan door panels are cheap. Black tend to go for more, but you can always pony up a few bucks for new aftermarket door panels that use the same fabric as the seat covers, which will give you great results.

With a red car, I'd definately go with tan or grey over black. My car is read, and I'm in the process of converting from a gray interior to graphite to match my seats.