I picked up my interior parts from JPM Coachworks this week and I need to install them before a car show next weekend. The dash and steering wheel will be the most time consuming part of the R/R. What will I need to disconnect to disarm the airbags, aside from the negative battery terminal? Does anyone have information about removing the dash?

 

What car do you have?

 

It's a '99 T/A. I spent about 6 hours yesterday and 4 hours today on it. I only have the driver's side A-pillar and the panels underneath the dash to install. There were a few spaghetti wire issues with the aftermarket car alarm that set me back a couple of hours. Overall, it was simple to do but it would've been a little easier with the help of a friend. There are three hooks behind the gauge cluster used to hold bundles of wires that was difficult to move upwards because the wires were stiff and hadn't been bent in 13 years. The weight of the passenger side airbag made it difficult to maneuver. The AC vents are also very fragile. I successfully broke 3 of them while pulling them out.

 

Wow, that dash looks great.

 

Thanks! I wanted to replace the dash a couple of years ago. When I found out a new dash from GM cost over $1000, I decided to buy a used dash from this forum and reupholster it. Since I replaced it myself, the used dash and the labor to redo it was less than $1500. Most of the interior is covered in Alcantara. The co-owner of the shop that did the work said he stripped off the outlayer and used body filler to raise the low spots and even out all of the surfaces before he covered it.

 

You're welcome. That's a lot of time put into that dash and you can definitely tell. That's interesting that he stripped off the outer layer like that. That's not something I would have thought of. Something to think about when I go to do mine.

What kind of seats are those?

 

Wow, that looks great!!!

I've been talking about doing this for over 3 years now. I even have a used dash just waiting to be messed with. Maybe i'll get to it this winter along with all the other stuff I have planned.

2nd on the seats, the look nice.

 

Thanks! It took me and Joe [of JPM Coachworks] a few hours to layout different color and material combinations. I wanted to upholster more pieces in Alcantara, but Joe said the size and shape of certain pieces were difficult and awkward to wrap in the material. We bounced around the idea of using beige Alcantara instead of grey, but we ruled it out because it shows stains easily. I bought the seats a few years ago and wanted to base the rest of the interior color scheme around them since they're genuine Italian leather (they're the Sparco Milano Prestige seats) and I didn't want to cut them at all. We wound up opting to replace the door inserts with perforated leather, dyed to match the seats and then add contrasting beige stitching to the dash and door. If you decide to use Alcantara (or any material for that matter) the options seem endless: you can choose a perforated surface with large holes, a perforated surface with small holes, a perforated surface with X patterns, etc. That just scratches the surface too. You can then consider all sorts of stitching patterns, like diamonds. I would just imagine how I'd like it to look while I'd drive it. After looking at it everyday for about 6 months, I knew how I wanted it to look.



I ordered new vents from David Maus Chevrolet. Here's a tip: Try not to break the driver's side one (or any of them if you can help it). The driver's side vent is no longer being made by GM and the other vents retail for $30 (or half that amount, excluding shipping and handling, from an online store).

 

That interior is clean! I don't to often care for tan interiors...but I wish that was my interior. I can't wait to do some interior work to mine.

 

What kind of seats are those!?

 

Wow.
Want to see full pics when done.

Very nicely done. Bets it going to be really comfy and not so gm cheap feeling when all done and together.

 

In his last post he said they were Sparco Milano Prestige seats. Damn good looking seats.

 

That is the same seat as mine but those are dark beige (I assume the ones that most people order). The one pictured is a rich, dark beige color. I had both of them at one point in time. I ordered each seat 2-3 weeks apart from Synergy Motors (an eBay seller with a storefront up north). The first one I received was dyed in the color in the picture. The second one I received is the one I eventually installed in the car. I contacted Synergy Motors and they said the dying process could produce different shades of leather and each batch could vary slightly in color and my seats must've come from different batches. The difference was dramatic though and I pulled the B.S. card. I shipped the dark seat back to them (at my expense for a cool $100 because they clearly had no quality control over Sparco's products) and they shipped me another one. They said the one they shipped me was the last one in stock that had the same shade of beige as mine. I really liked the dark beige color because it looked luxurious and had a smooth texture. I decided to go with the light beige because it matched the rest of the interior and I didn't want to replace the carpets or reupholster the rear seats to match them.