I'm looking for suggestions on what color to change my interior to. Factory, it was gray. The carpeting needs to go as there is a 2' rust stain in the passenger's foot well under the heater core. The trim panels have problems of their own. Both door sills are broken in one spot. The driver's side hatch trim is broken around the hatch strut body mount (oops!) and around the locking compartment, where it's almost completely broken apart. Half of the mounting holes in the hatch headliner trim are gone. And the seat belts are stained. Neither seat, but especially the driver's side, holds the seatbelt guides at the shoulder, the driver's side is ripped, and one of the headrests doesn't stay in the seat (no up stop) along with both being stained.

With that, I'm looking to do something other than the blah boring gray. My family has had several cars now with the boring blah gray interior, and I want something different. As of right now, I have the dash painted black along with some of the interior panels. I won't be reinstalling the back seat or the rear seat belts, and a speaker box will be custom made by a local shop for the back seat.

The exterior is going to be metallic black with a single 3/4" Chrysler Inferno Red stripe down the side. I have a console from an 02 I've already installed, and I'm looking for a way to get red digital gauges. I plan on the interior being both black and red, but I'm not 100% sure how. I've been looking at getting a set of early 4th gen Camaro cloth seats and getting some black upholstery with red inserts, but those seats are proving difficult at best to find. I've found other import style racing seats on eBay and places, but none really that I've liked a 2-tone on. I have 2/3 of a car worth of beat up charcoal interior out of an 84 base model Camaro in my garage which may or may not be worth cleaning up (it's badly scratched and scuffed). And I also have a set of black front seat belts I have replaced the broken buttons in.

What do you think would be the best color option?

 

A Black with red stripe exterior. You said metallic, what color metallic?

What shade of red is the stripe?

A Bright red interior in a black car is ok, but a darker Garnet red interior can give it a "blood red" appearance.

I like accenting. You would be suprised how just a touch of a different color can bring out an interior. A red insert in a seat doesn't look right to me, but a black seat with some of the welting (or piping) in an accent color with some embroidery on it can really bring it out.

You are right to not choose one of the 1000 shades of gray interiors.

If you two color the interior, what would be be one color and what would be the other?

4th gen seats in leather have a dual reinforced top stich on the outside seam.
A black seat with a red stitching with possibly some embroidery on the headrest area could be all you need

 

 

The black metallic is going to be as black a metallic as I can find, even if I have to use a straight jet black and then use metal flakes in the first clear coat. I forgot to mention that the Inferno Red (stripe color, as mentioned above) is also a metallic.

The Bright Red interior will probably be a no-go since the Inferno Red is a darker red (almost a maroon). I'll have to get out the driver's side fender and get a pic, I suppose. I do not want leather... I hate sticking to it like you wouldn't believe and sitting on it when it's hot. I was also thinking of some embroidery on the headrests.

I'm also debating deleting the rear speaker mounts and maybe just fiberglassing or covering the sail panel areas with vinyl, getting rid of the cloth covered inserts where the speakers currently are, possibly having some sort of accent in there as well (possibly an embroidered Bird?). I also might decide to put some carpet or other material on the rear panel trim similar to the way some cars came from the factory.

One or both of my father's Grand Prix's had a 2-tone gray interior (think it was the 07 but I'm not 100% on that). The darker tone was on the bottom and the lighter tone started at about the tops of the door panels. I'd imagine this to be rather difficult to do in a 3rd gen, but that's kind of what has inspired this. However, I will have a black headliner; there's no compromise there.

 

Actually leather is quite nice I have had leather in my DD for almost 6 years now and I heard every horror story about leather interior when I bought it but I love it. I have never "stuck to the seats" as you have heard, also on hot days the seats are warmer but they have not burned me and I have black seats. My biggest complaint about leather is without heated seats they don't warm up until you sit in them on a cold day you can let the car warm up for an hour and they will still be ice cold until you sit in them for a little while. But the best thing about leather is they don't stain and they are super easy to clean. Leather does have it's drawbacks like cracking but by the time leather starts cracking cloth seats will probably look worn too. I guess what I'm trying to say here is what you've heard about leather is very common to vinyl interior that was common in the 60s 70s and 80s but newer leather interior (which in most cases today is vinyl too or synthetic leather but much better vinyl) is great. I guess I wouldn't rule out leather interior based on what you've heard.

As for your original question what I would do and what I am gonna do is get black interior with red stitching and I think it would look awesome. What I plan to do is making custom seat covers black with red stitching new door panels black with red stitching and a black shift boot with red stitching (all in leather or synthetic leather too). From the way I understand it some of the 5th gens are made this way so I would check it out and see what you think on one of those. Let us know what you decide and lets see some pics when you get it done.

 

I happened to stumble upon some of my interior pieces. I have a thread here on the 89 I'm restoring with pictures of black/gray

I found great deals and allow me to itemize what I paid. You will need to get extemely lucky to match the prices I found

my cargo area rug was OK after a shampoo so i saved there

new passenger area rug, new headliner and sun visors- purchased from stockinteriors.com when they had a 5% off sale $491 shipping included


complete black interior plus excellent weatherstripping and a couple of windows in good shape. This was every piece of the plastic interior including the center console in good shape, good black door panels all of the hardware etc. I got everything for $175 from a guy on the other side of my state. If you check sites like hawks etc you would pay more than $1,000 for all of the pieces I got

Here is another killer deal. A complete leather interior. This isn't seat covers. It's the upholstery you use to re-skin the seats. I removed the tired old cloth and installed the black/gray leather. I have found the same exact set for $899. I paid $260 to a guy 90 minutes away.

So, if I didn't happen to step in the sh*% luck pile, I would have paid around $2500 (probably more because I also got weatherstripping) instead of $835. I still need to remove my dash cover and repair the few small cracks.

Interiors are darn expensive. If you can't find decent upholstery, then I highly recommend Coverking on Amazon and their custom fit seat covers. I put them on my 95Z and they fit great and cost less than the same product sold by Iggee on Ebay. $150 for the front seats

 

Couple more things on the seats:

I don't like leather, period. It's too expensive for my small budget, for one, and I've never really been thrilled with it in any car I've sat in that's had it, for 2.

My current seats will be replaced. The pass side one has had the handle broken off of the seatback adjuster (the handle next to the door) and I don't know of a way to repair it, and the driver's side is just plain worn out. I've been thinking about maybe getting a set of fronts from a Dodge Daytona and putting those in. I had one of those for a couple of months and those were probably the most comfortable seats I've sat in in a car, period. There at least was a couple of them in the junkyard I normally go to, and I'm pretty sure one had black interior.

I have a pic of the fender so people can see what the exterior will look like. I'll post it in a bit.

 

I will not say to use leather as you obviously do not like it. A good cloth would be good looking anyways.
What I am planning for my car is black plastics, had custom black carpeted given to me, with a dark red carpet and dark red sail panels.
I will have a black headliner. Seats will be black with matching dark red center inserts and want black w/ dark red for the doorpanels.
I can not say what you should do but toss out what my plans are for my own Bird.
I sounds as if you have some good ideas. I agree with getting others opions and then changing them slightly to have your choice of interiors.
Though I would not try to say to get leather I love it in my DD Pickup. I did not think I would like it but when I bought the truck beggars couldn't be choosers and it was the only one (and nicest, go figure) that I could afford at the time.

 

You know I bought a set of seats out of a 2000 Trans am and they are by far the most comfortable seats I have sat in, I'm sure you've seen them but it's another option and they bolt right in so it would be easier to install them other than wiring them up. Also I don't know if I missed it but are you planning on making your own seat covers? I have read about doing it and it doesn't seem as hard as it would seem and then your options would be limitless plus if you got seats out of a daytona I don't know if there are any suppliers for those seats if you are interested in the thread that I read about making your own covers let me know and I will post a link.

 

Black with Red Trim/Accents would be my Choice.

I also agree on No Leather. I have Leather in my Daily Driver (99 Avenger POS) and Absolutley Hate it.

 

Mostly black with some subtle red tones

 

I don't have the replacement seats yet, but I'm looking into options. Besides the F-body seats, I've been looking at other GM cars (Grand Prix, Grand Am, etc), the Daytona seats, and even seats from a Probe (only looking, mind you) as possible options with the pattern I'm looking for or similar.

As seen here: http://www.classicindustries.com/cam...009300227.html

And this is the pic of the fender. In the spaces where the stripe is separated on either side of the wheel well, there will be emblems (going to have to find a shop around here that does custom vinyl graphics as painting those is a real PITA as I found out).

 

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