kiwi 911

Pel - I think I could live with these brown seats in my car.........

Macca

Buba. Slow down to second base. I haven't had my man hug yet!

Macca

IMO the interior is one of the most important parts of any car to me, more so than the exterior. Its the place I sit and view the world when driving. I spend more time connecting with the car through the interior than any other part, whether it be the door handles, the steering wheel, the shifter, changing the stereo, the seats the belts, instruments or simply winding the window down to hear the flat 6!

Unfortunately I have no pictures of my current interior. It looks similar to what you see below however now has custom CF RS door panels (with red pull straps) and a P61W "Sthaul Grey" painted Heigo half cage (rear red seat belts and backs removed).

Im not too proud to admit I spent far more on the interior than any other part of the car and I only recovered the seats. Im not sure what it would cost to buy the parts today with the exchange rate and Porsche price hikes over the last decade but I dont think 15K would leave you any change before the labour costs to fit it all. There are over 80 detail changes down to the warm white LED back-lighting for the dials, centre panels, HVACs control. Then things like auto window lift for the drivers door (absolutely a must do in a 964/993). Towards teh end of the 993 they offered rain sensor system and auto dip mirror as an exclusive item. They work great especially at the track in the wet with one less control to worry about. The instrument dials were my labour of love along with the seats, both fully custom built for me the dials by VDO distributor REAP in the UK and took alot of pain to acquire. They are classic grey with my own custom moniker ("anniversary") on them. There stereo is one of my prize pieces. Its nothing special today but is an "audiophile" grade Kenwood with 1 but bur brown DAC, gold plugs plus optic and weight more than it looks. Billet front panel with (very rare) the volume **** on the drivers side. It doesnt do much other than play CDs but it has one button that cuts out all the noise circuits. I dont think it was sold in NZ, it was a gift from the MD of Kenwood for some consulting I did for them years back. My hearing isnt so great so I have no idea if its sounds good but in the right car it probably sounds brilliant.

Interiors are so personal. Many will hate what I have done or classify it an utter "waste of time". For me, well, I went to Bologna a few years back to visit Pagani and sat in Horacios Zonda mule. Sitting in that car in 2007 made me realise just how I wanted to my 993 to feel inside - not OTT but like a beautifully built swiss timepiece. I just love it. Every time the door closes like a bank vault and I caress my hands across the leather and carbon three spoke wheel with custom inlaid silver crest (Jim Doriack of fame on this board made this especially for me) makes me feel Soooo Gooood. Heck I havent even turned the key yet (colour coded fob my Mont Blanc). Yip a friggin Jaffa!

By the way. What Paul says is true. Ive been through two sets of upholstered Porsche seats, spent many hours in the trim shop at Auckland Sunroof (later Retro) and spent untold time ordering in samples and testing colour matches.

If I were doing it all again Id only use Southbound for the product side. For the craftsmanship Id use a specialist in the USA for the Recaro PPs. Very hard to get just right without a pastern (copying form cloth is not feasible).

As with many things in "outlawing" a 964/993 I learnt the only way to do it right is to spend the money and go to he people who have done it again and again. You can find who they are on Rennlist.

Ill be boring a few here with these photos and they are old - the car now looks a bit different/better inside but for those newbies may find something of interest here (there is a dedicated thread on my car on the 993 board for more, but I havent updated it for 3-4 years now).

Only rule you need to know is there are no rules. Do whatever inspires you and make it your own individual statement. Lifes short, who cares about the next guy (but keep a shed full of the original parts just in case LOL!).

Maxem

You are welcome to borrow my load of samples if you are following a brown theme. Everything here can be procured reasonably easily via NZ suppliers. I was quite narrowly focussed in terms of carpet, leather colours and texture but it still took months to pull together and make a final decision.

Maxem

I think that is an improvement. The 993 has quite detailed and bulky door panels and extra texture could tip it over though. I quite like the black highlights you point out in your next post

Obsessed

Yep, still need my daily fix of Rennlist NZ talk.

You first on the family pics...

Ah yes, I'd forgotten you were part-owner of a Horsche. Giddy up cowboy

Ooooh, I'm loving the sound of this. Will these be like the Ardmore event a couple of years ago, except with no gravel and a better surface? That was one of the best events I've done, except for wrecking a near-new set of 888s

Obsessed

I like the look of that, except for the fat bottom lip. Excuse my ignorance, but is that stock?

Spokes

Hey Macca,

Thanks for your post. Love your interior. I am working on upgrading my interior to complete leather. Just looking at the leather interior you have done, particularly the centre console, is that white stitching? I am stuck on whether to keep stitching same as the leather (classic grey) or two tone the stitch.

S

Macca

Stephen. I never had my centre console, nor upper or lower dash nor door card arms upholstered in leather. I did consider it but after a few years observing many such cars (993TT was a common car with full interior leather) I found that the centre console and door arms would wear quite badly in classic grey. They get a dark patina. On the door arms finger nails leave indents. The big issue with the upper dash is shrinkage. Ive yet to see a NZ car that hasnt suffered from this. My observation after living in the tropics for almost a decade is that the NZ sun is about 50% more harsh than the Islands and 100% more than northern hemisphere where the car was designed. The glues dry out and the leather looses its oils. If I were doing the bucket seats again I would have then stitched in a grey stitch maybe 1 or 2 shades lighter than the leather but not white the contrast is too much and makes the interior too busy IMO.

I did cover the door cards in leather (original was vinyl).

You could spend alot of heart ache time and money recovering a 993 interior in leather. If the cars a long term keeper it could lead to disappointment downstream. the other option would be a grey alacantera like I have my seat inserts. This wears well, fades off in a fashion that ends up looking natural due to the lay of the fibre pelt and isnt as expensive and quite sporty in nature.

As it stands Im very happy with the decisions I chose 4 years ago with my interior. Since those pictures were taken in 2011 the car has been driven almost 20,000km including a 5 day Targa Tour event and 10 track days and lugging 2 people and all their gear around NZ for over 10,000 kms of touring (almost 4 weeks worth) in North & South Island. Sure its doesnt look quite as fresh today as when the work was done and the pictures taken but probably only I would notice the difference (mainly its the over mats and definitely some bucket seat patina and leather cover change on driver side and maybe also a bit more where on shifter and steering wheel cover from hands and gloves etc). Im 100% if I had have gone full leather nterior by now myself, my wife, or one of the tradesmen would have put a number of scratches and wear on tear on it by now.

I wish my exterior had survived anywhere near as well!

The interior is always a hard. You have to plan very much in advance and consider all angles, do your research get samples talk to tradesmen and their clients. Daves taken the right approach. The end result will not be perfect, it never is and he will learn a tonne for next time (if there is one). But it will make him feel very satisfied. You get a bit battle worn after prototyping all this stuff. It either wears you out and you say never again and buy off the rack and leave it like that or you dive back in like a addict. The third option which I see challenges many is you finish up, stand back, sigh with a warm glow then spend the next decade enjoying your work driving an living with it....each to heir own you learn alot about yourself in these projects and everyones personality is different.

peterC2S

Sorry to sidetrack the 'interiors' thread - but for RSG members, with many thanks to Tony & Gary @ Playday, they have made a final RSG trackday @ HD on Sat 13th available to us - posted up on the RSG site. Any newbies who want to come for a look and maybe share a few sessions in a relatively relaxed environment feel free to get in touch via messages.

As you were then....

Paul - personally prefer the black inserts to the houndstooth and I would go further with black headlining & carpets. Then a bunch of subtle enhancements line Macca - bezels etc

Macca

Buba. I agree with Pete. The black will match you favourite stilletos better

O2GO

Paul, I like the black contrasts more than houndstooth too. Simple, classy.

Micheal, gidday!! We are missing your prose and humour around these parts.

Lola goes to Pirongia at long last next weekend. :-)

Macca

Doug. Congrats. Be good if Steve can crank up his old Polaroid and post you some 6x4s of progress when she gets there so you can update us on your other thread....

kiwi 911

IMHO - two tone.

Having the same interior as you - I'd be keen to see what you get up to.

Was helping H clean her car for the concours again today and saw this 993 Turbo S:

kiwi 911

You punched well above your weight that day. If memory serves me correct you were in the top 5 with some seriously fast cars there.

Yes - will be soft asphalt.

I'm trying to do events to get more people to come (like all the lurkers on here......)

Would be good to get some new faces and cars come along.