I recently purchased a 1988 Camaro. The guy had left it out in the elements for about 7 years and let the weather just beat it up. The first thing that i looked for was the T-tops to have leaked. But to my supprize they had not, all the damage was just from the sun and heat.

Here are some pics of what it looked like when i first started out.. My best friend said it looked like it cought fire or something,, lol

I have since torn out the headliner, and dash cap. With the dash cap i found that i could break off the shell very easily and did so next tearing and scaping all the old foam off. I them refoamed it with 1 in foam i bought out of the crafts section in wall mart and them recovered it with marine grade black vinal. when i was done i was evn suprized at how good it looked. see the picture.

What i did find to my suprize is that the carpet is is fairly good condition. It is stained and stuff but no tears or rotting. I am thinking of bleaching it out the redieing it grey or maybe black. Any sudgestions on this??

I have also taken my dash panels and door pannels and had them done in a red crome, The picture does not do them justice, think of how metalic red would look in the light..

my next endevor with this is the seats, the front driver seat is total trashed out, the guy like weighed over 300lbs and rolled out of the car and would wear down the sides of the seats, not to mention how dirty they were undeneath, i found the first half of a Mc donalds under the front seats and the other half benith the rear seats, and he coulnt figure out why the seats woulnt adjust anymore or lock in the upright possition..

If anyone has any sudgestion on racing style seats with 4 pt harnes let me know since i am kinda leary to do this from previous exsperence with seat mounting brackets not lining up corectly.





Thanks a bunch i hope to be a active part in this post, i think it will make this exsperece with restoring this beauty more exciting...

 

i also want to put racing seats in my ride i am about to put in my diamondplate aluminum door panels ill post pics soon

 

I'm not a fan of bring to much color to the interior; I say black it or just replace it.

 

I would just replace the carpet I have done some redieing looks good for a little while but soon fades.

 

Ya that might be a issue here in the south with the heat and sun i think that it may fde out in time, and i would like this to last for as long as possible.

Thanks

 

I didn't have good luck dying my carpet. The carpet I had was flame red and it just burned my eyes so bad getting into the car with all that red, so I dyed it black. I didn't really have good luck with it. From a few feet away it looks good, but you get up close and you will see streaks of red that come up after a vaccum. It also makes the carpet very hard and stiff. Too much to my liking. If you only want it for a temporary fix, I'd say go ahead and do it. But personally, I'd say just spring for new carpet. I was only looking to have a temporary fix myself because I was too busy spending my money on suspension peices. I still havent got new carpet yet, but that's because I decided to take the car off the road so I can put more money into it.

 

Ya, I have it off the road right now myself. I am working on replacing both fenders, and doing something with the hood yet. I am thinking of taking out the hinges on the hood and going with a 4 pin mount system for it.

I think that red would be hard on the eyes too. I think i will go for black. What type of die did you use? I was thinking of using just normal fabric die you can get at walmart and such. I did alot of dressing up on the engine tonight too, god i forgot how much work loom was.

 

Actually I used some spray on fabric dye. I'm not sure what it's called. It can be found at walmart, autozone, etc. I know plenty of people will give me hell about it but I took all the major precautions like bending the carpet to try to get in each and every crevice, vaccuming in between coats, etc etc. Still didn't do too well. But hey, it put less of a strain on my eyes while I was driving it for the summer. Good luck man, you can go ahead and take a stab at dyeing your carpet, but it may just be a waste of money. I know I'm just going to spring for new carpet eventually.

 

I picked up a set of leather racing seats on Ebay. Solid black, I think they were about 250 with shipping. If you are short like me (5'8") just take the tracks off the old seats. I quick hole drilled and seats are in. Took about 2 hours and that included staring at included brackets and drinking beer. If you were over 6' might be height issue.

 

see im completely the opposite with ya there, no disrespect but i think that the interior can make or break a guys second look at a car, the first being the exterior paint. granted you dont wanna be blinded when getting in but a solid bold colour shows your attitude and others see it.

i think thats cool

*EDIT* what colour is your exterior? white?

 

Give it a good scrub and wipe down it will look 10 times better but i think it is already on its way

 

None taken. I've just seen so many people not having taste when they bring color inside. Some on the door panels and maybe the beading around the leather seats and possibly some logo on the mats, but that's about what I can see.
Is this to me? Are you meaning my interior? I'm working on making the interior black right now.

 

Definately replace the carpet. Spraying it will never turn out right.

-Bill

 

id say replace it with black

 

Get rid of that dashpad and just keep everything STOCK!!!!! it looks waaay better!! Also replace that carpet and clean up the plastics and then shoot them with meguairs interior spray. Oh yeah and loose those jap seats.

 

Yah i would say redo all the inside i have an 88 camaro to and i have the same problem with the dash and my headliner i took out and am trying to find a replace ment for it but not luck.

 

I would put a black carpet in and keep the gray door panels. Recover the sear with a nice gray material and remove the red from the dash as it seems to over power the rest of the interior.

My Camaro came with red interior and I've never really liked it. I've got most all the stuff to redo my interior with black and gray.

Good luck on your redo.

 

diilon, how did you do you vents in blue? did you just paint them? cuz they look sick and id love to do mine in red

 

Re-doing the interior is a lot of fun. I'd suggest if possible, sourcing any needed plastic materials (and other goodies) from wrecking yards. If you can pull the parts yourself you can be very selective about it and have fun with it at the same time. If you decide to change the color, it's a great way to go.

I'm with most everyone else here when it comes to carpet. Used is okay if you want to sell it or just need to cover the floor pans. Otherwise, invest the money in a decent new set to cover it front to back. Search the web and a few catalogs for the best deals.

If you dont want to stay with 3rd gen seats, or have them recovered, I'd suggest finding a good set of 4th gen Camaro seats. You could probably score them from a local wrecking yard or order a set from Hawks or TA creations. Here's their site http://www.tacreationsusa.com

Same's true for the dash pad. Find one in a wrecking yard (if you can) order a cover if you're into that or put out the bucks for a good used one from a seller on ebay or one of the vendors above. Also, Dashes Only will recover yours for about $400 if you're into keeping OE stuff. One other thing, if you find a good used Firebird dash pad, it'll bolt in just like the maro's. Just dont tell anyone.

Have fun!

 

Unfortunately, this isn't true. A camaro dashpad has a notch in the center due to the center vents. Firebirds don't. Also, I believe there is a difference in the depth of the dashpad. I do believe that all 82-92 camaro dashpads are interchangable though.

I agree that you are much better off getting new carpet. For the work and money required to clean and properly dye an old carpet, you might as well just get a new one.