New Interior Estimate

[geojerry]

My local pro Interior shop gave me the following rough estimate to redo the 78 Avanti II ( with a sun roof) from white vinyl to black vinyl.

$4,200 OUCH !!!! These guys do outstanding work and charge accord.

I will order new Black carpet from SI and drop off.

I will order two new front Black Vinyl seats ( Procar) from Jegs ( about $350 per seat) and have deliveredd to shop. My front Camaro seats will be junked.

They will redo all inter in Black vinyl and existing Back seats. The dash will be resprayed to Black. New rubber installed around Sun Roof ( I already ordered from Nostalgic - $ 95 ).

[Gunslinger]

Kinda gives you religion doesn't it? To be fair...to redo the interior of any car these days is not inexpensive. The advantage of an Avanti II is that every car was not built to a cookie cutter standard...each was unique for an individual buyer. You can change or customize one any way you like and it won't hurt its value as long as it's done well. Then again...some of the flamboyant and outrageous interior combinations of some Avanti II's (particularly the tasteless 1970's era) scream out for a makeover.

[Bob Fouts]

I"m corious: where is the shop that is giving that quote and how comfortable are you with their reputation?

[Ryunker]

OK, I am new here in the "Avanti world" but I have had expirience rebuilding classics to include my most recent '68 Torino. Now let me begin, I am not a master technician nor professional interior dude, but I am handy and can see thru logical stuff.

With that being said, I do believe insanity would describe a complete interior on anything. First of all there has to be pieces that you have that can be reconditioned, by cleaning painting either vinal or metal. All the pieces no matter how large or small (even to include hardware and clips) will drive down the cost huge. The labor cost includes normally many hours of stuff you need to do yourself, and when you do it yourself the quality is so much greater. No one will take total care of every piece like the owner of his own ride. My (father in laws) Avanti II does not need any work on the interior at all it is a 60k mile original 1967 car. As for my last project !968 Torino, I did the entire interior, new carpet, kick panels, sent the front and rear seats out to be redone,, reworked the complete dash, door panels, rear interior 1/4 panels, and new headliner. It ran just under $1,000 600 of that was the payment on getting the seats redone at a local shop. The key to keeping the cost down was I reworked what I could, along with I never even considered a "Restoration shop". The place I used to do the seats was a furniture repair shop in Chicago, the do couches etc... The boss turned me on to one of the guys doing car interior on the side. I had concerns but the finished product was just perfect. Very close to original vinal, reused to original ornaments in the proper locations, surpassed all of my expectations.

Long story short, I do believe the restoration shops do great work, but someone has to pay for their overhead. Resto shops usually do not have the quantity of customers to spread that overhead around thus the cost is overly inflated, everyone is in business to stay open. You can do just as good of a job on your first as the resto shop will do on yours, if you go a little extra step on cleaning and paying attention to detail, the completed job will blow away any resto shop job for about 25% of the cost. It does not matter what type of car interior you are working on, they all break down to fabric, foam, carpet and paint. All of that with a little patience and elbow grease will always get the job done.

Rich

[jmenacker]

We paid about the same a few years ago for new leather from roll bar forward (seats, door panels, headliner and A pillars) and wool carpet in cabin/trunk.

Fresh interior completes the impression of a much newer car. The incredibly timeless design of the body is remains fresh after fifty years.

As much as I enjoy doing my own work, there isn't much chance I could have come close to producing a similar quality interior in a reasonable amount of time. I get paid fair enough for what I'm good at and don't mind paying someone with a different skill set for quality work. My hat is off to those that obtain great results on their own.

Edited December 5, 2009 by jmenacker

[WayneC]

Considering that a large percentage of Upholstery work is labor, you might

inquire about upgrading to leather instead of vinyl, the difference may not

be a lot.

[geojerry]

The performance/restoration shop is located in Sunrise, Fla ( sub of FT. Lauderdale ). Been there since 1987.

They just finished Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins 67 Elanore Mustang. An incredible job on

the interior, new Rousch engine ( $ 38K) and body work. It's probably pocket change for Jason ( about $ 175K so far) for this project. Seen other interior work over the past 3 years on much lower value cars such as my Avanti and its top noch. I do not have the ability nor the space to do this myself. Also, I received this info about new seats:

"I thought about either the ProCar Rally or Elite seats as well. ProCar told me the adapters for installing seats in the Avanti can be provided by them price is $99 per seat. Once you get them in your car take some pics and also comment on how well you can slide in under steering wheel and whether or not the side wings on seat bottoms make getting in and out difficult."

Bruce has been thru all of this with his 1970. Like he says, quality work and materials are not cheap. No leather for me. Vinyl will do.

PS - The new Grant Wood Classic steering wheel was installed today and it looks great.

[geojerry]

Joe, I noticed from your pic that new white/black gauges were installed. They look great. Since my dash will be pulled, might as well upgrade my orig with new modern ones. Any issues doing this using existing frame. Jegs has many style gauges listed in their cat. Not sure what model# are for an Avanti. Maybe you or Bruce can provide me some info. Also, should I go with led lighting ?

[geojerry]

This is me. Muscled up abit and waiting for a new interior. I hate the RAKE.

Want to lower the front about 1 1/2. Hope a spring replacement will acomplish.

[Gunslinger]

Jerry...

Joe and I don't live far from one another. We used the same upholstery shop for our interiors though I believe Joe's was more extensively done than mine. We each replaced our gauges with Auto Meter gauges, though he went with white faced gauges and I went with black faced. Look at an Auto Meter catalog or their website for ideas...they have a really bewildering array of gauge styles, but only a few list clocks to match. If you don't want a clock, add a volt meter in place of it. I wanted the clock and replaced the ammeter with a voltmeter. The gauge sizes are standard, so the selection is there. There are also other gauge manufacturers as well. We just happened to each go with Auto Meter. I believe Joe went their Phantom line of gauges...I went with Auto Meter's Z line.

As far as the gauge lighting, the Auto Meter gages came with gel covers for the bulbs...red and green. You use a standard bulb and slip the gel cover over it for the color lighting you want. Places like Pep Boys carry similar gel covers in other colors.

Installing the gauges is simple if the dash is out of your car. You can even discard the metal boxes the original gauges are held in with as the Auto Meter gauges come with their own brackets. You can take the old gauges and mounting brackets and sell them on Ebay...that helps offset the costs somewhat. You won't need the original tach sending unit in the car as well...sell that with the original tach. What you like can depend on the dash inlay...one style may look better than another.

Here's the differences in my car(pre-Recaro seats)...with the original gauges and the Auto Meter...

[geojerry]

Bruce,

Thanks for the info. I have the latest AutoMeter Catalog.

They show models for Full Sweep MECHANICAL guages and Full Sweep ELECTRICAL gauges.

Which gauge type should I use - Mechan or Elect ?

Also, like your metal trim on the Brake and accel pedal. Was that spec ordered from a vendor ?

Jerry

[Gunslinger]

As far as mechanical or electrical, it depends on the gauge. Ammeter or voltmeter are by necessity electrical...same with clock and gas gauge. Speedometer can be either...mechanical from a cable or electric if a sending unit is used. Oil pressure can be mechanical or electric...stock Studebaker is mechanical. I chose electric for my new gauges...I never liked the idea of an oil tube under the dash which could rupture anywhere between the engine and the gauge itself. A mechanical oil pressure gauge is probably faster acting and somewhat more accurate, but it probably makes no practical difference. The vacuum gauge is mechanical by necessity.

The brake pedal and accelerator trim is due to the speed shop changing from a floor mounted gas pedal to one mounted on the bulkhead. When they installed the fuel injection and needed a cable setup rather than the bellcrank, the floor mounted pedal created problems with setting it up. They mounted a steel plate on the engine side of the bulkhead and installed a Lokar gas pedal. I asked them to find a matching brake pedal pad and they did.

[Bob Fouts]

Has anyone tried to upgrade their interior using the Color-Plus line of products?

[okc63avanti]

My local pro Interior shop gave me the following rough estimate to redo the 78 Avanti II ( with a sun roof) from white vinyl to black vinyl.

$4,200 OUCH !!!! These guys do outstanding work and charge accord.

I will order new Black carpet from SI and drop off.

I will order two new front Black Vinyl seats ( Procar) from Jegs ( about $350 per seat) and have deliveredd to shop. My front Camaro seats will be junked.

They will redo all inter in Black vinyl and existing Back seats. The dash will be resprayed to Black. New rubber installed around Sun Roof ( I already ordered from Nostalgic - $ 95 ).

Before you junk your Camaro seats do you have a picture of them, and what is their condition. I may be interested in them because if they are Camaro seats from a particular year span I think re-upholstered they would make a nice match with original interior but with higher back and neck protection.

If you can email me or post some pictures,

Thanks,