Ok, here is my tan to black conversion. I cant figure out how to make the pictures show in the thread without you having to download, so if there is some special thing I need to do let me know. Carpet was dyed black, seat covers were replaced with new ones. I painted my dash and doors, but they were black to begin with.

Pic 1

 

drivers side door painted

 

inside view of leather seats from drivers side

 

better view

 

another inside view

 

here is a pic of the carpet close up. Used to be tan. its needs vaccum

 

Here is a pic a few months ago. It shows my tan seats and carpt.

 

no opinions? Its ok, you call call my interior Tacky or "Getto" if you want. I can handle it.

 

thats freaking awesome. excellent job man. what dyes/paints did you use again? and how long did you have to let it dry.. take a bunch of coats? really nice work.

 

Remember....

The seats are new leather from leatherseats.com. To paint the door panels and dash and carpet just use plasticote or dupli-color vinyle/fabric paint. The stuff dries in 2 mintues to the touch. Put about 2 coats on the door and dash, 3 to 4 coats on the carpet. I want to mention that the stuff dries really hard on the vinyle but its VERY flexible. The temperature must be warm <70 outside or it will dry white. I found that the hardway.

I did my doors months ago and even in the heat have had no problems, it doesn't peel off. To mention again, spraying the carpet works great, floor mats are another issue, you will need to buy black ones. The seats obviously cant be painted, so just replace like I did. The vinyle paint works great for the dash and the door panels.

I have had problems with painting the plastic trim peices for the seats, they were tan, the paint comes off them. I am using just general purpose spray paint. Does anyone know if they make a special paint for the interior plastic that is used for the pieces inside the car? Regular paint just comes off. Maybe I need a clear coat or something.

Thanks for the compliments!

 

Interior looks great. A lot of work, but it pays off.
Most parts stores carry paint designed for interior trim.
Scrub plastic with Scotch Brite pad and alcohol.
Good Luck

 

great job! What kind of tools are needed to install the leather? I also need to know what I should use to paint the interior plastic pieces (ashtray, vents...etc), does anyone know? And should I strip the old paint first and primer or is it okay to just paint over them?

 

to install the leather u just need hog rings and a hog ring tool you get for 25.00 from leatherseats.com. Are your ashtray and vents, etc painted from the factory? I thought they were naturally black or tan.

 

they are black from the factory but I wasn't sure if the plastic themselves are black or if there's paint that I should strip off before I paint over them...

what did you use to paint the ashtray cover white and how did it turn out?

 

I painted my ashtray cover Chrome. Just the part that slides out. I also painted the speakers in the door and the center speaker chrome too. Its just a different look. I think it looks cool with an all black interior. The cool thing, its easy to paint black again if you don't like the look.

none of the black plastic pieces are painted from the factory unless i'm mistaken!

 

heh, they are painted actually but they're painted black. the paint is the stuff that ends up peeling off on the older 93 cars.

 

oh..thats not the case with the 94+ I Know they are not painted.

 

Looks much better than the before pics. That is a strange interior set up that you had. All black except for the seats and carpet.
I would rather have the black My self but my panels are all tan It would look "Ghetto" for me to try to paint them. He He.

Anyway Your car is looking good not ghetto....

 

Thanks, you know 94's and 95's with the tan interior have only carpet and seats Tan, it makes it easy for a coversion, but it looks so retarted. Its like mazda said...

"Hey we have to have some physical inperfection in the interior.......I know lets make everything black except the seats and the carpet, that way they will stick out"

Really I *think* it is because the paint was peeling off the 93's? So maybe they left them black.

 

Looks good. How would you rate the quality of the Leatherseats.com kit? Easy to install, fits well, good quality leather, good instructions... You get the idea. Let me know, as I might want to try the product. Thanks

 

The quality is 10 times better than the pleather that comes from mazda, you will see what I mean when you touch them. The Fit is perfect. The installation is the same as on www.leatherseats.com, but really just put them together the way you took them apart. The installation is not hard, but its tedious and time consuming and you really, really need to be detail oriented. I never did this before and it took me about 6 hours per seat. I was quoted 500 to professionally install. Also you will not get any instructions other than whats on leatherseats.com.

Problems encountered, the passenger seat does not come with a Map Pocket in the back, so I called them and they sent me one , I need to get it sewn on. The seatbelt retaining clips on the headrest are tan and not re-usable. I went to the store and bought 1 inch Nylon Ribbon and black Plastic clip connectors and will connect them to the seats. You can buy new ones from mazda I am sure. Where the space is under the headrest on both corners near the zipper they did not cut mine right on both the passenger and drivers seat. I cut some of the extra vinyle off (you get extra vinyle inside the seat) and attached, you cant tell the difference now.

In the end for 575 +25 for toolkit + 12.00 for shipping I am very, very happy. I originally wanted suede inserts, but they said the black suede is more like grey, so it has a 2 tone effect, I wanted solid black. Also, you may notice the seats have more of a Luxory look and feel to them. That is fine with me, some of you may think they are too comforitable.

 

Looks good ZeroBanger!

However, I personally am going to use the money for different seats instead of redoing my leather ones. I'm not a fan of leather.

 

i hope that you have good luck with the plasti-kote paint. i have tried [3 times now] to paint/dye the 3 rear interior panels. You know the two seat belt/speaker panels and the flip down rear access panel. Yeah, well after paying almost 500 dollars for the cubby bins, i dyed my panels. i used the plasti-kote and the clear. that **** chips and peels like there is no tomorrow. i just ordered all 3 panels in black. over 550 dollars.....my endless search for used *decent* interior panels has failed me twice......word of advice, DO NOT BUY INTERIOR PANELS FROM SOME IGNORANT *** THAT IS SIMPLY SELLING THEM AND DOES NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY DO, EXCEPT THE FACT THAT HE WAS TOLD THAT THEY GO ON THE FD...

btw, your interior looks clean, unmuttered, and professional....

-louis

 

Thank you so much for the compliments. I have to say the plasticote was only meant for vinyle and carpet. It was not meant for the plastic rear peices. I am looking into something I can use to paint some of the plastic pieces that will not peel off.

I have had the paint on my door panels for months now with no problems.

 

That looks AWESOME. My tan is fine, but just clashes too much with the black dash and what not. Keep us posted on whether or not you find a good paint to cover the plastic. Thanks for the pics and links ....