I was hoping to discuss the do it yourself tan to black interior conversion.
I am curious how well it is holding up for those of you that did it a while ago (a year or better)
What exact products did you use? What prep methods were used if any?
Also how did you address things like seatbelts, felt liner around the sunroof (for you guys with tourings), cabin light cover, head liner etc..
I have been searching through alot of the old posts but i wanted to get this discussion going again.
any input is appreciated. except for the reply "use the search button"

 

Also while im thing about it. Does anyone know of a company that makes a ready to install carpet for the 3rd gen. I have always looked but have never found one..

 

Projects went that well huh?

 

Keep yours tan. It looks good with the blue

 

I did mine last june or so. Do a search on my screen name and "paint" or "Dupli", it should pull up the thread. Actually It may be on my OLD OLD OLD s/n OneKrazyGuy. Anyway been almost a year and everything is good. I'm really too lazy to go into the process, but just search for "Paint and Interior" and lots of threads come up. I used duplicolor vynle paint. Oh what the hell heres the process. buy the damn paint, clean the area with alcohol or mineral spirits (I prefer mineral spirits), make sure that you remove all dust with a tack cloth or something like that. the temperature needs to be above 70 or it will turn white haze (trust me). Spray the paint with thin even coats, it dries within a minute or so. I put about 3-4 coats. It has never bubbled up or peeled off in the last year. I painted my dash, doors. Keep in mind that you cant use regular spray paint on the door panels, it will never dry, trust me. In a week it will still be sticky. the other thing to consider, I have a 94, so my car was all black except the carpet and seats. Do a search on my screen name and "Leatherseats.com". You will see my pics of my installation and other stuff. I dont know that I would want to paint tan door panels black, but I think others have done it, and mine have not peeled off my car in a year, so it may work.

one more thing worth mentioning, dont even think about dying the seats black. Just spend the 575 bucks for leatherseats.com, its worth it.

Oh yea..I dyed my carpet black too with the same stuff. keep in mind that you need to get new black floormats. When you dye the fabric, the areas where your feet always touch will wear through the dye and tan will show back up. Meaning, you will have to touch it up sometimes. Its not much of a problem if you have black floormats. I would find maybe every 6-8 weeks i would have to touch up a small part of the carpet. I eventually found black carpet used for $125.00, so I installed it in my car. Really, I only bought the carpet cause it was so cheap, the dye works fine.

later.

 

Thanks
What about seat belts and the head liner??

 

My cars headliner is black, but that dupli-color stuff will work great on the headliner, cause its vinyle. If your seatbelts are tan (mine are black) the stuff will not work. Anyplace that you have friction, such as the seatbelts, the stuff will rub off, showing the color underneath.

The thing I had problems with is the plastic covers on the sides of each seat. Mine were tan, I have found nothing that will stay on it. When you adjust the seat, it rubs against the edges wearing the color through. I will be buying new OEM ones for 55.00 each.