I'm in the process of possibly changing my interior color. I think that it's time given that the headliner's torn, the carpet needs redone, and the seats need reupholstering. Oh yeah, and I hate the tan interior. It gives it this "grandpa car" vibe that I hate. I'm going to put either white or black vinyl on the seats. I personally like the look of white vinyl in cars, but my dad thinks that dirt will show up and make it look terrible. He wants me to go with black, but I think that'll be hotter than hell in the texas heat. So, my question to you all is: should I go black or white? I'm also open to other suggestions. Also, I'm going to paint my racing stripes the same color as the interior. I did some really quick mockups in ms paint of what I want it to eventually look like with the stripes, except I didn't carry the stripes all the way across the body, like I will when painting it. Sorry about the quality, my digital camera's broken, so I had to use my phone's camera.
I could also do a racing stripe like the one here: http://www.graphic-express.com/ford_maverick.asp I would mask it off and paint it, mainly because I'm 16 and have no money
I think you are on the right track as far as co-ordinating the stripe and interior ... shows that you have a handle on the bigger picture, your exterior color. I really like white interiors in cars with paint that contrasts well. Look to 1970 Mustangs for inspiration there. Some came with white seats, and door and side panels. The rest of the interior came in black ... very interesting combo, and one I considered for my own car. I ultimately settled on black because when I started my interior project, I was still choosing between three exterior colors and hadn't made up my mind. That, and black is easier to do and find parts. You can dye vinyl parts and paint the hard plastic with Krylon Fusion, but you are best off starting with original stuff that is at least close to the end color. (i.e., start with a black panel and paint it white, you are asking for trouble ... scratch it later and it will look like crap.) You currently have tan? That is not a bad starting point to go white. Keeping white clean? I always drive with a towel on my seats ... keeps you from rubbing the uphostery too much getting in and out of the car. If you are sweaty, (I live in FL ... it happens) the towel will protect the seat too. Forget about light colored carpet ... I did that once, wrecked it in under two weeks. BTW ... do not paint your dash cap white ... in bright sun it will really reflect into your windshield and make it hard to drive.
If you are 16 and have very little money, converting to white will wipe you out. Better stay with black.
Thank you so much. I think I'm going to go with the 1970 stang style interior. It's a very interesting take on the interior, and I think it'll turn out great. I'm also going to paint the racing stripe white. I mocked up sort of what it will look like, using photoshop and paintank's car. I'm definitely liking it. I figure I'll start on it soon.
It looks like you have a bench seat car. If you are switching to bucket seats, keep in mind that 71-73 Mustang buckets are the same frame as 71-72 Grabber/GT seats. I was referring you to 70 Mustangs for the color combo only ... those seat frames are different. Fred Carillo (board member here) makes uphostery skins that are very good repops of the factory stuff. As another option, on my own Comet, I got a standard upholstery kit for a 71 Mustang Coupe. This required some radical surgery to the rear seat bottom, ... took two inches of height out of it. A friend that did upholstery for years looked at what I did and said that the new skin ought to work fine after he mocked it all up. I will be reskinning the cushions soon and will do a tech article on it.
You know, I actually like the bench seat. I'm assuming that Fred makes skins for bench seats as well? How expensive are they, because I was just planning on getting a seat cover from jc whitney. I've seen a few cars with them installed, and they look really good. I found a pic of a gto with the color scheme I want and bench seats. I really hope that mine will turn out that well.
I like that GTO interior. If I had decided to paint my car orange, I might have leaned more toward this. Fred's stuff for bucket seats is around $500 ... don't know about bench. I imagine a little less.
