non expensive ways to fix my 1991 240sx headliner/all carpet

[jonah blanks]

I love my car, but the interior is not in very good shape. the car is getting a new paint job and the I want the interior to be looking good also, so someone please give me some ideas/ ways to make it look better.

[MoldyOldy240]

Give us a pic; I bet then we could cook up some ideas; and tell us what your going for.

[2k5Rex]

I have a tan and brown interior that I am converting over to black... I started by removing the entire interior of the car and west to town scrubbing ALL of the plastic interior pieces with soapy water... I let those dry and sprayed them with black upholstery spray... so far, they have turned out pretty nice... you might just get a color matched spray to freshen up the panels... as far as the headliner is concerned, I know on my Subaru, I got great result using a moist chamois and just rubbing/sctubbing the headlner to remove the dirt and grime.

[ilovecoupes]

I have a tan and brown interior that I am converting over to black... I started by removing the entire interior of the car and west to town scrubbing ALL of the plastic interior pieces with soapy water... I let those dry and sprayed them with black upholstery spray... so far, they have turned out pretty nice... you might just get a color matched spray to freshen up the panels... as far as the headliner is concerned, I know on my Subaru, I got great result using a moist chamois and just rubbing/sctubbing the headlner to remove the dirt and grime.

Doesn't your car smell like spraypaint now?

[thomasjamal]

I just spray painted my headliner with duplicolor fabric/vinyl paint. It looks a 1000 times better. I used the charcoal gray color. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Yeah, it will smell like paint for a few days. If you put some ground coffee in a bowl and sit it in your car it will absorb the odor. I learned this when I worked in a coffee shop and it works really well. You will be amazed.

[hapaboi39]

I have a tan and brown interior that I am converting over to black... I started by removing the entire interior of the car and west to town scrubbing ALL of the plastic interior pieces with soapy water... I let those dry and sprayed them with black upholstery spray... so far, they have turned out pretty nice... you might just get a color matched spray to freshen up the panels... as far as the headliner is concerned, I know on my Subaru, I got great result using a moist chamois and just rubbing/sctubbing the headlner to remove the dirt and grime.

Do you have pics of your painted interior?I am thinking about doing something similar.Thanks

[thomasjamal]

Here's my painted ceiling (it looks almost black sitting in the car but this was taken with a flash so it looks a little lighter here):



And here's a painted floormat (carpet soon to follow):



Here's by bowl of coffee:

[hapaboi39]

good work buddy!Does the paint make the fabric kind of hard though?

[fayceoff]

It does at first, but if you scrub it a little with a stiff, dry scrub brush it'll be better. That's what I did to mine...

Also, it's really easy to take the headliner out and recover it with a different fabric. I bought five yards of gray camo knit from ebay for $35 and recovered it. The camo's kind of redneck, but it's temporary until I can afford a big enough piece of suede...

Here's a pic.No matter how many times I read the sticky, sometimes posting a picture is just beyond me...

*Fixed for ya *

Modified by fayceoff at 7:30 PM 12/18/2006

[hapaboi39]

Man that is good to know.I want to give my interior a makeover.My carpet and headliner can be painted/restored.Just need those s14 seats.....

[hapaboi39]

the camo looks great man!suede will be even better.

[thomasjamal]

Took out my seats and carpet today (took about 30 min) and cleaned the carpet. I'm painting it tomorrow and will post some pics of before and after.

I've had the floor mats done for a few weeks and would recommend just buying floor mats. They just get too much wear for the paint to last. But with some floor mats the carpet and roof work great.

[thomasjamal]

Here it is. So I took out the seats, carpet, center console and dash. I cleaned everything and sprayed down the interior with flat black rustoleum just to keep everything nice and clean. Then I painted the carpet and it's reinstalled. I also painted all of my trim except the door panels (which I still need to get) and the dash, since I already have a black one (which I'll install tomorrow).

I almost forgot to take a before pic of the carpet, so here is one right after I started painting it:



Here is after the first coat of paint (only did 2):



And this is after a 2nd coat and reinstalled:



Tomorrow I'll get everything else back in and take a few completed pics.

Now I just need door panels and seats!

[fayceoff]

Ask member Poppop. He always has everything I'm looking for. I've gotten door panels, visors, and a bunch of other stuff from him and he's an excellent seller. Just search for threads made by him. He's always parting something out.

[thomasjamal]

So here it is. Here's my ghetto cheap interior remodeling from doo doo brown to black.

I painted the ceiling and carpet charcoal gray and all of the trim black. I bought a non-cracked dash. Now I need some S14 seats and black seatbelts and I will be good...

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

It's not perfect but it looks waaaaaaaaaaaaay better.

[thomasjamal]

Oh, and I was going to strip the tweed of the door panels but I after I painted the door panel black, I actually liked it.

[elvis240sx]

beautiful work thomasjamal, its great to see the transformation went so well! i love the champagne exterior with black interior. do you plan on recovering s14 seats if you find them or just rocking the cloth?

[thomasjamal]

Depends on what I can find. I'm thinking that tan leather would be big pimpin but not sure what the chances are of finding that. I'll proly stick with the cloth if I find some in good shape. Besides, at some point I want to paint it mazda titanium gray and go black or gray with the seats and door panel inserts.

[fayceoff]

That looks great. I usually think people should keep the brown interior with the champagne exterior, but I really like your nod to the brown by leaving the contrasting door panels.

I just finished swapping my painted blue carpet out for charcoal this morning; my hatch's interior is officially swapped from blue to black.

[topairhead]

so wat kind of paint did you use? i want to do the same thing.

[thomasjamal]

I used duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint for my headliner, carpet and trim. I used a dark gray for carpet and headliner and black for trim.

Be aware that heavy use will wear the paint on the carpet. I bought some black floor-mats and it works out perfectly. I also don't recommend painting the tweed if you have it on your glove box and door panels. It sucks up a lot of paint and still looks bad.

[TRBOMOFO]

thats nice stuff dude

[niemczykj]

i just wanted to throw it out there that i did this to my carpet and it looks brand new....first i shampoo and cleaned it, then i vaccumed it good and did the paint....like i said looks brand new for like 15$

[nistangclan727]

wow i didnt think that fabric paint s*** really worked i figured it was some cheap s*** ricers would but it seems to work very well and good quality. any tipsn for painting the steering wheel. i have a 96 infiniti g20 that im converting from brown/tan to black

[lbrowne]

Dude, black/tan interior combos rock. What I would do to make it look more professional/factory is paint the plastic peices on your seats while the fabric part stays tanned. Trust me, it would look cool. (even the small plastic piece in the headrest) Leaving those plastic pieces tan/brown gives the impression that the interior used to be that color.

edit: also the plastic peice in the door panels that you use to pull the door closed.
Modified by lbrowne at 8:10 PM 8/3/2007

[Mr1der]

if you get the good fabric carpet paint, it works like a charm, most of it will cover vinyl well too. It's about 10 dollars a can though.

for the headliner, I'd pull the ***** out and recover it, it's not a hard job.

[fayceoff]

Most fabric stores carry headliner material in a few different colors with little bit of foam on the back. Then all you'll need is a can of spray adhesive...

[ikantor]

Amazing job thomasjamal! I cant believe how well it turned out. Looks like u bought a whole new interior. I'm so happy I saw this post before I went and bought an all black interior.