Thanks madhatter.

Everyone else... why no replies to this? 350 views and almost all the replies are me. If you don't like it, you gotta let me know.

I will not stick with solid graphite/charcoal/black/whatever, so give me your suggestion for a color you like better if you don't like what I'm doing.

I'm no longer thinking about doing the headliner unless the car I get has a light gray one. If it does, I'll likely just go with a darker gray or something that complements the leather I choose.

 

That looks like a shade of pink. I would prefer a white with purple accent.

These are white Lotus seats in a BMW:
http://users.belgacom.net/bmw_z3_gal...r_bluebarb.jpg

http://users.belgacom.net/bmw_z3/Col...edition_gr.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...a%3DN%26um%3D1


I really like this combo on these golf carts:
http://www.brownsgolfcarts.net/Brown...s/100_0670.jpg

 

I used to want white, but after all of these years of seeing factory white leather discolor in cars sold on ebay... I have to say no thanks.

If I was going to use white, I'd probably use vinyl like shock6906 did. It probably isn't as apt to stain, though my recovered white Naugahyde computer chair would beg to differ... ... Naugahyde is crap.

I do like the pics you linked to though.

Here's pics from the other day's trip in my mom's SS (my car was in the shop until today so I didn't have to bug her too much to get it out for a spin), so here's some natural lighting. As usual, the Porsche color is on the left, the Reno leather "New Magenta" is on the right. These pics were taken just before the sun went down.







I still like this color, even though it turns a terrible pink when the flash is used.

It visually looks darker than the camera keeps making it. It must be one of the shades of purple/pink cameras and other devices have trouble representing. Try scanning a fluorescent pink post-it notes sometime if you don't know what I'm talking about.

 

I just accidentally found this advertised on dupont registry. Cool color. It's a SMS Challenger in purple with a white and black interior. This is a good example of why I don't simply want to do black and white. It looks nice and all, but the visual impact just isn't there, it falls completely flat. This would look better in a white car. I want to feel like I'm driving something special, not just have the people around me going "Oh wow! A purple Camaro!" It's gotta have something in it for me too...

I'll figure something out when I have time in Illustrator or Photoshop...






:-\

 

I'd recommend getting the purple pimp car first.

 

If it was going to be a pimp car, I'd have to get a set of Forgiato Veccio wheels

Salad Shooters FTW



However, I still prefer looking like a non-pimp. Though all my girl friends who have seen my plans love the colors.

 

Damn, that is a sharp-looking car/picture right there.

I really like the idea of white seats in a BPM Camaro. I think it'd look amazing. The best part is that you can leave the rest of the interior alone and it will still have tons of visual impact, and most importantly, won't be overdone like it would probably be if you were to cover the door panels or parts of the dash in white. Better yet, if you did white with purple/black houndstooth in the same pattern as mine, it would really tie the interior together nicely to the outside.

Damn, now I'm tempting myself to buy a BPM Camaro and do that to it.

 

Your opinion always has a lot of impact on me Alan, so maybe I won't cross white off the list yet.

These are the only two white/black two-tone interiors I have. They're alright, I actually like the first one quite a bit.

This first one is great:


This second one uses that vinyl trim stuff (the name escapes me right now) and I don't like that, but the two-tone idea gets the white leather/vinyl out of harm's way for the most part, which prevents how unsightly white leather looks when it wears and cracks:


Not too excited by how that second one looks though. I'll have to play around in Illustrator and work from scratch and see what I can think up...

 

This does look good, though I'd really hate to have the white inserts under my body. Great way to get it dirty in a hurry. Also, if you do leather or vinyl inserts, for the love of God, don't get the perforated stuff. You'll thank yourself in a few years when your inserts still look good instead of being cracked between every perforation.


I just don't care much for the way two-tone inserts look with the 93-96 seat pattern. It works much better for the 97+ seats.

 

I received a purple leather sample from leatherseats.com the other day.

It didn't photograph all that different from the Porsche Magenta leather did, but it seems to lack what I assume to be a UV protectant coating. I've emailed them and asked them why it appears to have such a matte finish, and will update when I hear back. (See second photo... you can see that it doesn't appear to have a coating on it. I assume without being coated, it would stain very easily as well as fade in the sun.)



I actually rather like it despite what I assume to be a lack of coating. The color is a lot less saturated and vibrant than I feared it would be. I was really afraid it was going to be extremely tacky and gross like a bright ricer purple color. The grain is large and heavy, perhaps a little too large for my preference, but acceptable.



It's definitely vat-dyed and quality leather, and a heck of a lot cheaper than what I would be paying for the Porsche stuff I'm sure. I'm almost afraid to inquire about the cost of a hide of the Porsche Magenta stuff from the company that sent me a sample.

I photoshopped the Porsche seat (which I found out was a '79 Porsche 911 seat) a similar color of purple and asked leatherseats.com if they would be able to make a seat cover like that for me that would fit over the stock foam seats. If they can do it, when I have the car and am ready, I will probably go with them.

If they can't do it, or can't do it for a reasonable price, I may have to shop around a bit.



I need to mock-up what the rear seat's stitch/foam pattern would be. The stock patterns won't work at all if the front seats look like this.

One step at a time...

I haven't decided on who I am going to get the carpet from. Likely the Ultra Luxe Charcoal color from stockinteriors, Essex Agate color from ACCmats.com, or Agate from f-bodycarpet.com. I'm going to have to order some more samples from the first two.

Not sticking with stock OEM materials sure is a lot of work. On the bright side... I do rather enjoy it. It's fun getting the samples out and comparing them.

 

Its all bringing back memories of a model I built when I was a kid of a car called the Pink Panther. I like the purple but the interior colors are just too fruity for me, I would use them sparingly.

 

That's definitely a concern of mine. I am going to have to mock this up extremely well in photoshop to prevent making a gigantic mistake.

I like purple, but I don't want to think of it as looking like a girl car. It's ok is other men comment negatively, but not me.

The purple Callaway with the pink/salmon interior definitely doesn't look like a girl car. But a purple Camaro with purple leather seats? Perhaps. It's risky.

I'd decided I'd prefer to stay away from two-tone seats. They're too safe and don't have the visual impact that solid colored seats have. Particularly if I can actually get the Porsche pattern recreated. It just looks so much better as a solid color, rather than two-tone. Two-toning that pattern would likely add to the cost, and I'd like to keep costs down where I can.

 

Leatherseats.com emailed back... "Yes, all of our leather is automotive grade, vat dyed, top grain leather that is dyed with a special UV resistant coating. "

Still waiting on their answer about custom patterns.

 

Okay, so this is a quote of what Bill from leatherseats.com told me about my idea for custom seats.

Expensive. Going to look around at the other suppliers and see what they say.

Hopefully this info is helping others... if not... it's at least a blog for me...

 

Here are the seat covers I had made up for my old cavalier http://www.v6z24.com/registry/bumpin_z/

Maybe that will help you a bit