V2Rocket

I've always known this to be a fact. However lately I truly realized just how accurate this statement is.

My car is old.

This December will be its 24th birthday. And with that age comes faded, smelly carpets, cracked vinyl, armrests worn down to bare material, grand canyon wannabes in the dash, torn and loose trim, and an incessant rattling of every single piece of plastic in the entire car.

I see some of you have done full restorations to your cars, Johan is doing one to his S2cab right now. I'm curious as to how much you think something like this would cost.

Seeing as my seats are maybe a year and a half old those don't need to be done. The guy I am considering for this job did my seats at a cost of $700 for the pair in Porsche vinyl/leather and did a great job. He recently quoted me $450 to stitch and fit a vinyl dash cover (I have done the prep work on the dash already).

Basically what this would include would be:

- All new carpets, all around the car. Whether they be from WorldUpholstery and need work or something this guy does on his own doesn't really matter.
- Recovered dash
- Recovered/repaired doorcards
- New headliner all around
- Recovered steering wheel (non-airbag 3-spoke)

How much might this cost?

Po924S

Carpet from WorldUph is around 400-500 dollars, but it is very good quality. As for the dash, if your gonna spend all that money on a new cover for it, don't get vinyl, get leather. It feels and smells much better. Down the road, it'll also look better. Same with the doorcards, get them in leather.

Nurburger

Depends on how much of the prep you plan on doing yourself. Most of the cost of interior restoration comes from the removal of all of the necessary items & the material itself.

If I were you, I'd probably budget a couple of grand to do it right (don't do it unless you're going to do it right...).

V2Rocket

I really would like to do it in leather but it gets so hot all the time down here that the leather would dry and shrink. I've had numerous conversations with Paul Champagne, Rob Budd, and my own upholstery guy and they all agreed on this point. Vinyl will hold up better to the heat/dryness and doesn't need as much care as leather will. Besides, finding a matched hide to my dash color has been pretty hard, and I bought a big sheet of vinyl that is nearly exactly the same color for about $10 a yard.

Po924S

I could see why getting vinyl would be better in your situation. And it cost less. My car stays in a A/C cooled garage, so the leather wouldn't be a probaly lol. It's also not a DD, only gets driven once every week, ha. Make sure to get everything done right, unless it'll look pretty crappy.

V2Rocket

The guy is a professional, every time I go down to his shop there's some variety of car that stickers $50k+. I walked in one time as he was fitting a new top to a 550 Barchetta (convertible). The job he did on my seats is phenomenal.

Yea, my car is a DD for me...average temperature here is high 70s, it gets as cold as 35 in the winters and over 100 in the summers. And I don't have A/C in the car and the car is stored outside as the garage is full of crap.

Po924S

550 Barchetta!!! I would of never left his shop, I would have stared at that Ferrari all day, lol. Yea, the guy we have in Chico does very nice work. He does the seats for all of the Harley Davidson bikes. Last time I was in there, he was working on a Detamoso Pantera. He's kinda lazy thought. Does great work, but it takes him a while, lol. Get that crap out of your garage! It's very nice to have your car inside.

Marcquito

Hey Spencer,

Be bold and do a late dash swap.

white924s

I don't know if I would call what I did a "full restoration" but I can say that it looks a million times better already (and its only getting better)...I have found many parts used/at discount, but I'll try to give you an estimate of what I've spent (admittedly doing only a small part of the labor myself due to a lack of garage/workspace)

I've replaced my entire interior with black (was brown), and upgraded a few things along the way. Neglecting things like window switch replacement, the costs go something like

new dash, doors, quarters, center console, carpet (parts) - $800 or so (the little bits really ended up adding up)
installation - $2000 (I think it was like 24 hours of labor...)

Momo seats, steering wheel, shifter (parts, including seat brackets) $1400
installation - $500 (I did the shifter myself! most of the labor was adjusting the brackets to get the seats as low as possible)

headliner - neglecting the cost of template pieces, $300 for a custom-made vinyl headliner and iinstallation

jager wood-trim kit - $300 i think, or whatever it is they charge

so I think around $5k or so...the end result (so far) is shown in pictures in several other threads. I think that it looks good, but its not quite perfect...the dash has a crack or 2 and the center console has some empty slots for switches that I'd like to fix. At the same time though, the carpet is much nicer and the car seems like a much nicer vehicle than it did with the original interior

white924s

oh, and all the above isn't including my planned/dreamt up "stage 2" interior....rear-seat delete with custom bolt-in powdercoated rollbar, and GT3 seats. that could be a lot more money, but first things first...I've got a bunch of shiny parts to put under the hood and a pair of euro bumpers to put on the outside

mark_uss

soory spencer off topic here
Marcquito i wnat to do a full dash swap.mine is early model want to put including A/C servo stearing ...i haVE purchased already a 88 944 with some body damage..
QUESTION : HAVE BOLD DO I Have TO BE)

shaynes

Robert Budd's complete resto of my 928 was over 11k... so it ain't cheap, all leather though, like everywhere.

yellowline

I would have to ask "why?"

With the money I've put into my car, I could've easily had a red S2 with LSD, fresh Konis, and a bunch of other options. No dash cracks, only has a PS weep and a need for new belts. Instead of purchasing it, I dumped money into my own car. My brother ended up with the above S2 for under 9k.

In terms of money, I'm probably beyond the majority of S2s and close to 911SC territory. I do regret not holding onto my wallet when things like 26.8/18 sways and Saratoga tops popped up FS.

Marcquito

The late dash seems to be something people rub off as being "impossible" in terms of retrofitting. It's really not, it just requires a bit of fabricating when it comes to creating an OEM feel within the cabin- the main challenge being the heater box (the part that lies under the wipers behind the dashboard). It works all of the climate control switches and whatever. The gauges also need to be rewired (speedo, especially) and some other jazz. It's really pretty much straight-forward. You need the dash, center console, door panels... pretty much everything from the late car to do the work.

I'm currently tackling this project on my '83. I picked up many parts from a wrecked 968 and the retrofit process has already gone smoothly, but it's going to take a bit. I will only post pics when the process is making a bit more headway so I can show others it's not really impossible... and so there can be a thread on Rennlist. Oh- and I just really hate the early interior. :] Good luck.

Sorry Spencer, threadjacking over.

shaynes

It is all relative, the cosmetics on my 87 944 were perfect, concours in fact, but I just dropped serious money completely going though suspension, clutch, torque tube, bearings, rotors, pads, line, water pump, belts, you name it. I now have way more into it that I could ever get out, but man will it be nice.