Cool interior, Malibu.
I've got the light grey interior and it looks sorta like yours.
But nowhere near 1/2 as nice as yours.

Surface treatment of the wood? I did some small pieces in my Audi
with clear stain and polyurethane clearcoat. Wetsanding the wood before
helped pop out the grain.

Wish the curve on the door panel echoed the 928 roofline.

Hey Stig, I fabbed a shift skirt for my old Audi with Chamois.
You know, the stuff for drying the car. You can probably dye Chamois to match interior.

Ernest (NYC)

 

So another car with gills?? Need pictures pleeze...

Anyhow here is picts of the Stereo taken last summer... the car is still in the shop, hopefully back in my possession this weekend...

It's a single unit (Eclipse) DVD and NAV and needed to move the heater control to fit the unit...

 

This is playing a DVD... it's actually not that distracting with music video and adds alot to the experience...

 

Why isn't JAWS playing on that screen?

 

Top notch work on the interior, but i have to say the door panels ruin the whole efect. im a full time designer been designing 23 years... here are some suggestions.
keep with your theme, lose the wood grain and go with the alum,trim
when changing from one plane to another make sure thier is a flow line. abrupt changes ruin harmony. i would suggest mimicking any flow design in the area that you have the star like holes for the speakers. also paint or change the red in the speaker grill in the rear, its too differant.
And after all that can i hire you to do some work.?

 

I think it looks great! I really like the suede. The color does look a little cold, but oh well, it goes with the seats and carpet. Did you do most of the work yourself? I like the hump on the headliner where the rear light is located. I do agree that some more wood accents would really help keep what you have from looking out of place. I don't guess there is really anywhere you can add alot more though. I'm adding carbon fiber at the moment, and basically have it everywhere wood is located on yours. I would love to see the car in person, pics seem to never do justice.

 

Hey Rick,

drop me an email at champagn@stx.rr.com
I can make you a set of brushed aluminum pieces to replace your wood or a set of door panel inserts in wood to put over your aluminum. Anyway you want to try it, I'm willing to help.

Paul

 

Malibu:

The Eclipse is sharp. Nice work getting it to look at home in the console.

 

Does the heater control move pretty easily or does it require new mounting holes or bracket?

Also can you use the factory trim around the center section or does that have to be changed as well?

 

This is Rick's car, and the whole purpose of it is to make it beautiful for his eyes - we can only add our personal opinions, but he is the judge that matters.

Having said that, I totally love the suede, which could also be alcantara material. I also like the arches in the door panels - they really update the look. But I'm not crazy about the holes in the upper door panel (why isn't it the same material as the arches?), and the door insert could still use a bit more refinement.

If Rick would call me for advice on his interior, I would suggest to reduce, reduce, reduce. There are way too many materials and colors present in this interior, making it unnecessarily busy. The key is to look at the interior as a whole, not just at each individual element. The whole space is complex enough, so consistent materials can be of great help in keeping things tied together.

Here are the items that [visually] jump out at me:

- The console has aluminum and mappa - unify all inserts with either material to get a calmer, more organized look. Make a general decision for the interior: Either Mappa, or aluminum, but not both.

- The door panels currrently contain 6 different materials or colors - that's at least two too many. Consider skipping either the aluminum or the wood (depending on what the whole console will be), and making the upper panel in the same material as the arch. Make the insert so there is no separate bezel around the door opener. Then consider finding an invisible replacement for the bolts, or space them evenly right under and along the arch, skipping at the door opener where necessary. I don't know, if the opener can be relocated, but there might be a better place for it further down. If you can do this and match the "arches"... also think "arches" for the speakers - let the shapes flow into each other...

- The steering wheel has a "game console" look with black, grey, aluminum and carbon in it. It looks exciting by itself, but out of place in the environment it's in. A simpler steering wheel, the 930 wheel for example, would look much cleaner and more elegant. Maybe it could be done in suede matching the roof liner, or grey leather to match the seats?

- I'd suggest a shifter with a softer, more ergonomic shape, and a large boot in the same material as the above steering wheel. Think a bit "Lexus", where every piece of the driver interface is designed to feel consistent...

I attach a few quick and dirty mockups... 2nd and 3rd require modifying the door opener. The lighter areas in the door speakers should be arches of suede like the large one already in the door panel.

I hope the above makes sense. Feel free to disagree and say so. I'm just trying to steer you into a direction that I personally would consider more elegant.

Best of luck!!!

PS1: You must be quite tall, if you can live with those short visors - given my height they would not do me much good...

PS2: It looks like there is a plasstic seal/beading missing between your roof liner, and the body. Mght be intentional, but wanted you to be aware in case it's not...

 

Hi just a few thoughts on you interior , I love the suede work everywhere you have it it looks great, as for the wood and aluminum,I would try to figure out a way to recover the aluminum panels with the same suede you already have, then the wood panels might be less obtrusive.
I like the center cosole treatment, however the tachometer that is tacked onto the pod should be removed, it has no business being there, it ruins flow , if your factory tach is inop I would get it fixed.
If you were to recover the aluminum panels in the suede it might be a good idea to use some thin foam to rest your arm on and mak the door panels a lot more inviting, just my 2cents Stan

 

WOW! I love the wood instead of the aluminum! It's not the Mappa, but it looks great... I'm sold... Thanks, what a wonderful job you did... again... WOW! Also, the tach is gone, went with a heads-up display projected on the window, that was an old picture (note it also does not have the three rear view screens).

A small setback happened and hope to get the car back today. The Engine Balancer which is required on a 383 stroker motor had a defect and burst apart when I drove the car from the interior shop to the flat bed to take it to my mechanic to fix some leaking transmission cooler lines... a coincidence for sure, so now I'm getting the top of the line balancer, but they have to recreate the exact weights of the old one... I'm hoping to get the car back today. At least they are standing behind teh work so there will be no charges...

I need to change the rear view camera to a narrow angle lens (the body shop lost the lens replacement), and then seal the camera and have an emergency open switch installed incase I lock the keys inside the car. I'll take the pictures to the interior shop and see what they can do... again ... WOW!

The rear suede panel was modified to house the camera.. nice job, huh?


The moving of the heat control box required fabrication work... I had it professionally done... I think including the system, the total was under $4K. I did not do any of the work on the car, so from a technical standpoint, I'm not much help, but I can sure share what went wrong and what went right and what it costs.

Again.. WOW!

Rick

 

Nicole
Nice photo shop work!!! I like that look better and the speaker grills are sweet!

 

That photo shop stuff looks good. If you got that route, you could add more of the Jager wood pieces and dump the aluminum stuff. Would look nice.

 

I'm glad you guys like my "quick and dirty" photoshop mockup! I did nto mean to discourage the use of the mappa wood - I just wasn't able to duplicate it well in photoshop.

Just remember that the last one requires a major change to the door opener - it might require fabricating new openers in the right shape. In the second one the factory door opener was just lengthened. The first one just had a big panel covering the existing bezel, but it looks like something is missing there. The shape of the door opener is such that it needs something connected to its upper right/rear corner.