Tom, I'll but you'rs and give you mine to paly wth

 

MY god. I want. That's it, it's decided. That's the way to go. WEEE--OO!! On a side note, how do I get those carbon fiber accents? Custom made?

Not a HUGE fan of the recaros, but still wicked seats, and if they make rails, I could probably get a different seat, couldn't I?

 

Direct freak....did you do the CF yourself? if so how much did it cost and have you posted a how to yet?

 

Aren't those seats from an FD? What kind of prices do those go for?

 

I'm really curious on the interior dye..Do you spray it on with a hobby type airbrush? How are carpets and headliners done? Is it expensive? Any links for the lazy?

 

You can use carpet dye for the headliner and I used regualr spray paint. I used sandable primer and I've had mine painted for a year and its still perfect.

 

My bad!

I posted in the wrong thread

-Rich

 

Add me to the list of guys drooling over Directfreak's interior.

I love it

 

Yeah, I had a friend of mine copy the Recaro Rails.

No, it is NOT Real Carbon Fiber. Pictures do NOT do it justice. It looks deep, and 3 dimensional. It has a Weave pattern which is extremely realistic. It is a process called Photolithographic or “water-transfer” printing. It is what car dealers use for “Wood” Trim as well.


This is a regular "Blank" wall receptacle cover.


The process is called Photo-Lithographic. They take the part and dip it into a weave pattern resting on top of the solution, and dip it straight down. Then, they clear coat it. Right Next to REAL Carbon Fiber, you cannot tell the difference until you smack it to see it's density.

Check with your local high-end dealer, and ask them who does their "wood" trims.

 

Very nice, so you essentially just took your stock parts in to have this done to them, right?

 

Yes, With the exception of the 3 gauge holder under the new 1 DIN sized Radio mount. Which I made from Plastic first, and then glued it into place.

 

How much did doing the coatings cost? If you don't mind me asking.

 

I took them all the parts, sanded, and primed.
They charged me $200. It's kinda steep, but it looks amazing.

 

I'm not sure exactly where to bring it, what kind of shops would carry that sort of thing?

 

Oops, forgot one minor detail..

"Check with your local high-end CAR dealer, and ask them who does their "wood" trims."

 

There we go. Thanks man !

 

Wow DF, I thought you just did the CF film thing. No wonder it looks so good.

 

No primer required--- but you do need to THOROUGHLY clean the vinyl, leather, and plastic panels with laquer thinner before spraying.
The stuff is called vinylkote and works very well on vinyl and leather, and not bad on plastic trim, but tends to run or orange-peel on plastic if not careful when spraying.
Supposedly will work on carpets and cloth too, but requires "brushing" before it dries in order to feel right. I didn't do my carpets so I can't say first hand.
You cannot apply this with a brush--- it will streak. A paint sprayer would be ideal, but I used an aerosol sprayer and bottle available from (only) Home Depot called a "Pre-Val sprayer--- lousy for exterior painting but works ok for this job. You'll need one spray bottle ($10) and at 6 to 8 of the aerosol spray cans that attach to the bottle ($6 each) to do your entire interior.
I had to mask off my dash and instrument panel, but all other components were removed, cleaned, sprayed 2 coats, and then re-installed. This stuff dries to the touch in 15 minutes, so the entire job shouldn't take more than a day.

 

bump

 

Just wanted to get back to my black and red interior. For those wondering about the seats: those are FD seats, original trim (cloth) is removed and artificial leather is used to re-do them. So no paint! Putting the seats in isn't easy, btw. The doors etc are also retrimmed in the same material, no paint again! Only painted parts are the rear plastic pieces where the speakers are. I'm going to build custom fiberglass-pieces someday, but these parts do for now. The black carpet in the front area is cleaned original from an 1980 SA. The rear deck one is custom tailored, to fit selfmade storage bins (EU spec 1st gens came with rear seats).
Next on the list is the center piece of the dash, wich will be red, with CF inserts (real CF) for mounting the switches I'll add (fuel pump relay, DF ignition relay, fog lights...).
It takes a lot of time to do an interior as mine, and professional people. My mom did all the leather stuff, my dad the carpet stuff. Good thing I had them!
The pics look really red, but in the car everything looks in balance. And a lot nicer then the boring grey/black trim I had before!

 

All of those interiors look awesome. It really demonstrates how if you take your time and DO IT RIGHT how awesome it can look. I think if my interior was not as clean and original as it is, I would pursue a complete makever (hmmm..one STAIN is all it would take!! ).

 

That beige interior looks classy, it's almost the same color as the interior in my Lamborghini.

 

Alright, got some really good information. So taking off the dash and cleaning them / spraying with plastikote, and maybe dying the carpet. Does anyone know where someone could buy some OEM replacement carpet in a different color?

I'm still a little confused on what to do about the material part, the dash and all the plastic parts I can use plastikote, but what do I use on the carpet and headliners (sorry, I just didn't quite understand that part)?

 

I'm not sure about the USA, but overhere special paintcans exist that are meant for dying headliners, carpets... You'll need to clean them well, of course. As far a I know Mariah motorsports ( http://www.mariahmotorsports.com/ ) makes/sells carpets for 79-85 RX-7 in about 30 colors.
Just check, and tell us.

 

This is an old pic of my interior. I couldn't get the camera working. BUt when I do I will post the other. and my gauges.