Spent lots of time on this over the past two days. Yet the changes don’t seem staggering. Which is the way I wanted it. I’m still debating what else to do this way. Leaning away from the seats, but sill considering my options.

I made a few changes from the stock colored interior. Including the bezels around both the front and rear doors. Also, the pics I took I lit the are with a 500 watt work light. That made the color seem a little bright than I believe it is truly represented. See my post on this subject. But all in all, I’m very happy with the results.

I’ll start with this pic. I thought about leaving it this way. After all, this was the most BLUE I could get in the interior. And I’m sure the removed parts would increase my 1/4 miles. However, my wife said we needed seats for the kids. The way I saw it, they still had seats with seat belts. What’s the big deal? :)

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Wow WHealy, you sure went to town on the car this weekend.

beautiful!

HOLY ***T THAT LOOKS VERY NICE

Did the holidays give you the blues, or what???!!!!

you have balls

good job

WHealy- you must never sleep! That must have been a lot of work.

I looks great.

Looks great! I don't think I have the guts to do that to mine though...

Wow, I can't believe how good that flows with the interior! good job WHealy

Looks really great. How long did it take start to finish?

Thanks guys. I can’t believe how subtle the change is given the time put into it. But I really like the look.

I probably spent about 2 hours removing the first front and rear door trims on Sunday with help from this post. (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14388) Then about 13 hours yesterday removing the other door trims, figuring out the rear interior trim removal (See post here (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=206854#post206854) ) masking and dying. Then about 3 hours unmasking and re-installing today. So that’s what 18 hours. I did spend time at the dealership getting new door clips. I had a trim stick to minimize scratching, but no good tool to pull them. So several broke. Ordered them “red” yesterday and they arrived today.

As for the comments on my “courage” (didn’t want to put balls into a site post like MikeB :) ), I must admit late yesterday seeing parts of the car all over the garage was a little nerve racking. I was wondering if I really knew what I was doing. But the end result was good. No left over parts either!

Originally posted by mikeb
you have balls

good job

My thoughts exactly. I don't think I would have the cojones to tear apart the entire interior. Nonetheless, looks darn good!!

Without a doubt, the sharpest looking blue 8 in the world!! Are you thinking of reupholstering (sp?) the seats, or at least the front?

Great work!! I think if you do the seats and the rear console cover it will really finish it off. :) Now you just have to change all the courtesy, dome and map lights to blue. ;)

Thanks for posting the pics of the inside of the doors to.

Yea, I'm late to the party, but totally concur on both fronts... looks great, and you've got big courage. Congrats.

so the interior panels were dyed?

Yeah, we wanna know what kind of dye you use and where you got it from?

Come on, long weekend coming up! :D

RX8Power

Just wondering..after you took your seats out, can the trunk be accesible? I have a sub im trying to put in my trunk but it wont go through the trunk opening. I'm thinking I might be able to squeeze it through the seats when i take it out.

How did you get the center console lid blue?? Dye that too??

For those wanting more information on the dye, check out this thread on the product I used as addressing color matching issues. (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16963) I think that will help with the requested info.

Originally posted by sohcpunk
Just wondering..after you took your seats out, can the trunk be accesible? I have a sub im trying to put in my trunk but it wont go through the trunk opening. I'm thinking I might be able to squeeze it through the seats when i take it out.

sohcpunk,

Behind the rear seats are panels that you can see one side of from the trunk. I tried removing one of these to access the seats only to break a plastic pin that holds the bottom part in place. I latter realized you have to remove the seats to remove these panels, not the other way around. I think you can see the panel in the first pic. It's just behind the cross beam. There's a little thickness, like 2 inches if memory serves me correct if that's what you are looking for. Trust me when I say, removing the rear seats is easy. Take a look at this thread for the info. (http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14388) If you do that, you'll get a better idea of what you're up against. But after that, I don't know much about the rest of the material that's in there.

Hope this helps.

WOW! Nice work, that changes the whole attitude of the car. This was a vert bold step to take. I'm speechless. WOW!

Looks very good,

Im glad it turned out so well for you .

thats awesome man
________
MERCEDES-BENZ T80 SPECIFICATIONS (http://www.mercedes-wiki.com/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_T80)

whealy,

have you thought about painting the silver trims on the center consule?

right now I have the shift knob masked and still deciding to paint the silver part red. but it's hard for me to picture it

Originally posted by KTM-316
whealy,

have you thought about painting the silver trims on the center consule?

right now I have the shift knob masked and still deciding to paint the silver part red. but it's hard for me to picture it

KTM-316,

No, not really. I really like the aluminium look inthe car and really don't want to get id of it. I'm even thinking og trimming my floor mats in gray to somewhat match it. Blue doesn't seem to be working :) I'd say currently I'm considering :
1) Bluine center console front to back excluding aluminum trim and seat backs
2) Bluing Seats
3) Bluing aluminium trim on console and seat backs

I doub't I get to number 3. But I did a photoshop to maybe help you. Hope it helps in your decision process.

Originally posted by sohcpunk
Just wondering..after you took your seats out, can the trunk be accesible? I have a sub im trying to put in my trunk but it wont go through the trunk opening. I'm thinking I might be able to squeeze it through the seats when i take it out.

There's a fixed metal crossbeam that would prevent you from doing that.

thanks WHEALY for the photoshop! after seeing the photo, I changed my mind bout coloring the aluminum trims.

love the look...lots of time on your hands!

NICE!

Just wondering how this is all holding up with 7+ months of wear and tear on it?

Is it un-scratched / scuffed as the manufacturers claim?

If so, seems a much cheaper alternative to a complete re-trim as we had been thinking about - also wanted blue/black leather - but on a grey.

Just wondering how this is all holding up with 7+ months of wear and tear on it?

Is it un-scratched / scuffed as the manufacturers claim?

If so, seems a much cheaper alternative to a complete re-trim as we had been thinking about - also wanted blue/black leather - but on a grey.


I take a close look at it just about every time I drive it. Still no issues. Now the paint in the engine bay on on the side vents is a different story. I'm working on seperate solutions for those areas.

Thanks.

Very classy, very sweet. Kudos.