Flamin' bird

iTrader: (24)

I am contemplating doing this myself. When I have the t-tops out you can see its pretty faded and now it's actually started to wear away and you can see the foam showing through. I get the yuckies feeling when I see foam/stuffing along with torn upholstery in things....seats ect I cant even sit on a seat in a restaurant if the seat is torn.

Anyway the visors are looking the same way so I want to replace it all. I found a few places to get the graphite cloth online for a fairly reasonable price.

Has anyone else attempted this theirselves??

TIA

-Michelle

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Well, if you want to go new, I think YearOne sells new headliners and sunvisors.

http://yearone.com/pco/G_0307/0010.asp

The cloth covered one is $187.00, which isn't bad in my opinion.

Ling_650vette

iTrader: (1)

Big Mike 2005 (or something close to that) has a custom headliner for his TA, so I'd ask him some ?s. Even if you're just wanting to re-upholster it and not go custom, I wouldnt be surprised if he couldnt give you some pointers.

Flamin' bird

iTrader: (24)

Thanks for the replies. I do know Big Mike so I'll see what he has to say.

ezekielta

I replaced the headliner in my 93 (Hardtop) and my wife's 98 (T-Top). I recommend going with the injection molded set-up that is offered byHawks Third Gen Parts . They cost a little bit more per unit but it is WAY better then the fiber board crap. Just my

Unstang

iTrader: (26)

I changed from nuetral to ebony interior, I took my headliner to a local shop, they charged me $45 to do the color change on it. My car is a hardtop...

Flamin' bird

iTrader: (24)

^ I think things are alot cheaper in Iowa . Around here they would charge alot more.

Thanks for the replies and info. The one from third gen is nice but more then I wanted to spend right now

Trent

iTrader: (3)

I recovered my headliner in suede to go with the rest of my car's interior and it was no easy task. The curves that it makes around the T-tops are VERY tricky to do and make look right and the added weight of new material WILL make it sag if you aren't careful. The visors proved to be too difficult for me since they are stitched together, so I opted to remove them completely. Much cleaner look that way anyway. Just be very careful and VERY tedious if you plan on doing this yourself.

SRZ

iTrader: (14)

Got any pics? Interested to see how it turned out.

transambandit

iTrader: (6)

well i know there is a guy on ebay that sells hard plastic replacements for the ttop

Trent

iTrader: (3)

I made a thread about it, but yeah here's a few pictures. Not wanting to hijack the thread or anything.

motownZ

how much does a suade job like that usally cost materials/labor? and my friend did a red color on his sides and after install the plastic door handle bar felt not really connected. he had to make a lil wood plate behind that for some big screws. did you have that problem on your doors???

Flamin' bird

iTrader: (24)

As far as I know the cars with cloth on the door panels rather then the leather are made differently and can't be removed from the handles/panel itself. At least in my case that's how it is. The panels is all one big piece with some big plastic holding everything to the back and are like melted over. Its very odd.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone.

Trent

iTrader: (3)

The door handle has two screws holding it in. You sure both of them are secure? The door handle itself has about 6 screws in total holding it in, and until every last one of them is in, the door handle won't feel solid. All my screws/bolts are back in and it feels just like it did when it was stock. No problem at all getting them secure.

I don't know how much it normally costs. I did this all myself for about 200-300 in materials and about 40-60 hours in labor to get it how I wanted it. I actually redid a few of the panels to make absolutely sure they came out how I wanted them to. Ultimately everything came perfect, but I don't even WANT to know what an upholstery shop would charge to do it.

Unstang

iTrader: (26)

Car stuff is not cheap around here. Our body shops are @ $52/hr, pretty much the top tier in the nation right now, there are tons of states that the ave is $10/hr cheaper than here.

The shop that did mine does all kinds of auto upholstery stuff, typically they are not cheap at all, but it is a pretty quick job.

Have you gotten any quotes yet?

Flamin' bird

iTrader: (24)

I'm going to attempt it myself with a kit I bought. I also found instructions so I am hoping I can do it. I've done a ton of stuff on the car myself and other things in my life including alot on the house I owned: ripping out alot of stuff, laying a tile floor, refinishing the wood floors, re-siding the front of the house...and the list goes on. I've done alot of appearance stuff on the car myself too so I'm not afraid to attempt it.

I do know upholstery work is expensive as it does require a skill. I had my 94' Firebird's seats redone in a red tweed type fabric with grey vinyl inserts for $700 and that was way back in 2000 in PA in the Amish country!

VIP1

No, they are exactly the same.

I have the cloth interior and recovered the black cloth in the door panels with silver stock-like cloth that I got at a fabric store for $5 or $6 a yard. I bought 4 yards (in case of mistakes and to have left over) and only used about half.

Here is the write-up I followed to do the silver inserts in my door panels:
http://www.lastofthebreed.com/Instal.../DoorPanel.htm
Except that instead of re-melting the posts, I used a blob of LockTite Plastic Epoxy on each post and kept some pressure/weight on the panel to hold it together until the epoxy hardened. I didn't use contact cement for the whole thing either, only the edges that get folded over so that I didn't get any glue bleeding through the cloth. I used some "carpet tape" also around the edge that doesn't get folded over to help hold things in place.

I also covered the center console lid in the same silver cloth.

Sorry, no pictures.

lo_jack

iTrader: (27)

He's right about that. I redid mine with stock material, and with t tops it is not even close to as straightforward as hard top. Because you can see some of the top side (the side where everything folds over) when the tops are off, you have to be very careful about how much material you leave for it to not turn out badly on the edges where there is a curve by the t top gaskets.

However, when you leave material it becomes necessary to stretch the material a lot over the curves, which is where I had trouble. Came out ok in the end and I got my material on clearance, so it only cost me $8 for a can of permatex and the material, but I am not 100% happy with it. It's staying how it is though.

The visor stitching got me too...I have no sewing machine so that was right out.

Reject

iTrader: (24)

what exactly dose graphite fabric look like?

i'm bored of the intereior's blend in with everything nutral color and want to give it some life

Flamin' bird

iTrader: (24)

Graphite has some blended colors in it. But just the graphite cloth for headliners is one solid color....not like the cloth interiors on the fbodies. I wanted to have my headrests embroidered but the cloth ones done come off like the leather ones so I found a local auto upholsterer who was able to order a yard of the fabric and I made the headrests myself.