my 'black' friday!

[Sijray21]

Hey guys,

The story:
I've been somewhat unhappy with my car (integra) since not long after i purchased it in July of '05. I missed some luxuries (sunroof, keyless entry, and v-attack!) from my old civic. I decided what i really hated was the tan/beige interior. It's shitty and black on black would look soo much sweeter. I was checking out prices for black seats, door panels and stuff and i just couldn't find anything of reasonable (IMO) price.

Here are the pics of the interior:






i kind of gave up the idea of a new interior...until...

The deal:
Chris' coworker mentioned he had an integra for a part-out. I needed an antenna and several other misc items to fix on mine so i inquired about it. It had black interior...mint! I bought it for cheap and Chris helped me to remove everything from the donor car (door panels, dashboard, seat belts, carpet!, and any other misc thing that i could find that was interior specific. I can't thank Chris enough for his help with this and thank his coworder Jeremiah for the deal.

<insert Chris' pics here>


The swap:
The only issue was that it was from a '94 integra. The '98-'01 integras had very slight differences in their interior fitment. The newer integras had a steel reinforcement that ran across the base of the car in the rear (right under where your knees would be if you were sitting in the rear seats). I realized that if you just take it out the rear seats would fit in their designated holes. Now i had all the parts from the old interior out. I've never done any major interior work at all, and i certainly wasn't going to pay for something like this since i'm a cheap-ass, so it was kind of an intimidating task for me. The dashboard installation and removal was hated by most who i talked about...and i found out why...


notice the slight difference...the handy dremel did the job! Although i found out that by removing that steel reinforcement i didn't need to :?






yeah...this is what sucked the most. And the way i approached it? i didn't label the wiring harness when i removed it (mainly what took so long) since it would've been better to do that to know how to route the wires for the installation.


you can kind of see the black steel reinforcement just under the carpet in this picture.


Mike came over to help for a little while (ps - you left your sunglasses here :-P) and my mom stopped by to help me as well! She brought me food and played photographer too.


Replaced the carpet first (and it already looks a TON better at this point). We cleaned the car when it was completely stripped down to make sure all those old McDonald fries that found themselves underneath the carpet made it out of the car prior to putting it all back together.


...almost finished with the front so i started working on the back. Working into the wee hours of the night i had my 'trusty' miners light that burned out around 10:00. The rest of the night was interesting with my little led light and halogen lamp.

fitment and getting it to fit almost perfect was the most difficult and time consuming part. i have a new appreciation for people who do this everyday... hock: Finally i finished around midnight last night after starting this operation around noon with some prep time before hand. My hands are sore, my back aches, and my knees are killing me at this point. If i were a midget it wouldn't be such a problem working in and out of an integra, but i'm 6'1" and it's a little irritating.

The Result:
After spending 12+ hours in the garage yesterday i finished what i aimed to do: A complete black interior swap into my integra! I also fixed the irritating problems: antenna and driver's side window toggle switch. The main issue that i have is that the climate control for temperature doesn't work. Theater cable was a PITA and now i have to adjust it 'manually' at the heater core under the dash. i may hire someone to fix this problem, because i don't have the right tools and i'll be damned if i'm removing the dash again. I may have the right tools to do the job, but i'm using that excuse to convince myself to not mess with it. Anyway, on with the pics!







..whew...now i just need to vacuum the car and wash it. Black on Black on Black Friday FTW! I'm pretty happy with the swap/outcome.

[Mike]

nicey nice work! you could have also done what the previous owner of my car did and just spray the dash black i wouldn't have ever known it was sprayed until a bit of it flaked off when i removed some mounting tape.

[WRXtranceformed]

Wow, that's a lot of work... looks great!!

[.RJ]

Great job Jay - looks much, much better now!

:madprawpz:

[ScottyB]

holy crap nice job Jay, that looks infinitely better! i don't even want to know how hard that dash was, i've taken like 1 panel off mine once and that was enough to make me never want to touch it again.

[Feersty]

Looks good J. That beige interior was indeed an eyesore.

[Ginger]

Werd up Jay, that does look good!

How come we get a pic of Mike, but none of your mom?

[Sijray21]

How come we get a pic of Mike, but none of your mom?

:middlefinger:

thanks guys, it truely was a PITA, but the cheap cost (hopefully no cost after i sell some of the old interior parts :twisted: ) and the fact that i wanted a nice presentable car was a motivating factor for this all-day interior swap day.

for all the newbies - it's really not that difficult if you take your time. I never did much interior work and i never looked at a manual when i did this, but i did have one handy incase i wanted/needed to glance at one.

[Beej]

The e30 will be getting the same treatment in due time. Looks great!

And yes, it does suck. Yanking dashboards sucks.

[HAULN-SS]

+1

I totally would have dyed it though. SEM dyes are like magic for that kind of stuff...easy to use, and as far as I can tell, It's not like a paint, it actually soaks in, so I'm not sure it could flake. Maybe wear through in places you have to touch a lot, but for a dash it's money.

[D_Eclipse9916]

+1 for being tall and having it suck, working at Circuit City, we had to take rear panels and door panels off every other car. I loved door panels so easy, but those back panels are a bitch because im 6'2 like you and it just sucks to be back there cramped.

I did the same thing to my eclipse over the summer, I had a gray/black interior that someone for some reason wanted, who had a tan interior. So we met up and started taking apart both cars. It was quite a mess having 2 eclipse full interiors spread out over the garage.
I would go pure black interior but I got my tan leather swap for free, and the black swap would be like 800-1000 dollars and I wasnt gonna spend my money on that.



Looks good, a little tip if you have any panels that dont match the black, get umm is it duplicolor truck bed spray? Yeah you spray it finely on, one or two coats and it perfectly matches the black, doesnt look like spray paint and is very tough and never fades because it is meant for a truck bed that will be in the sun 24/7. I was weary about it at first but after the first two panels, I was convinced.

[Jeff]

I've pulled tons of dashes at the garage, I feel your pain. It looks good though man. If you need help fixing the climate control I would be more then happy to help with it. I need to that in the omni when I get it running again, I had its dash out to replace the heater core and something didn't get hooked back right...no vent controls at all.

[.paul]

looks great - 100 times better

[JustinG]

I would go pure black interior but....

^^^yea me too

J, excellent work, Black FTW