The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Anyone know someone who can restore a interior. I got some price from Just Dashes that are big bucks.
door panel $150 ea ,rear quarter $150 ea, kick panels $100 ea , seat backs $100 ea ,piller $80 ea
dash $745 in green. package deal $1800
thanks

I have heard the repro interior panels are not good so watch out for that.

The original interior panels can be restored very well at home with the right prep and the purpose made vinyl and plastic paint. As long as you don't have holes for speakers all over the place of course.

The dash pad though is another matter. It is Just Dashes or nothing usually. Restoring cars is not cheap. You should have understood that before you got into this hobby. This is why it always pays to get a good example to start with if possible. I think $1800 is a good price if it is right. What can you get for $1800 these days anyway? It is just the cost of a pair of decent cylinder heads or a stroker crank. We only live once and you can't take it with you!

I understand that restoring car is not cheap. But some of the prices i have seen are crazy. Does anyone make a dye for the door panels. Just Dashes said there dye will not adhere to hard plastic. They have to coat the panel with a vinyl material first than dye it.

There is paint made just for this sort of job. I can't remember who makes it!

You're probably thinking of SEM vynal dye. SEM makes flexable coatings for plastics.

Sem 10/Landau black is excellent - yearone

I just restored my interior a couple of weeks ago including the interior panels. It depends on how perfect you want it... I removed everything, repainted the interior sheet metal, installed a new carpet (hell of job btw), cleaned and 'shoethingpolished' the seats and repainted all the original interior panels (doorpanels / rear panels / kick panesl / seatbeltcovers / seat backs / centre console etc.) Now I'm just waiting for a dash cover and a pair of door sill plates and my interior is like new.

Just make sure you clean the panels etc. good and 'brush' them (or how you call it before you paint anything) and spray them with a 'plastic' primer and finish it with the right color.

I'll have to say it looks quite good if I say for myself. It cost just some spray cans and a lot of hours of working. But that''s better than 1800$. As said it just depends on how perfect you want it. I will try to post a pic soon btw

Thanks for the responce, One problem i have is my interior is dark green (f8). who makes a plastic paint that color.

Easy question... first apply a 'plastic'primer to the panels. This is a transparant paint. After that you can paint the panels with any color you want, so you go shopping for (or let specially made for you) the right green color. Because of the primer the paint will not brake down after a while. You can use any kind of paint like the Motib carpaint for example. Understand? You don't need a plastic paint, therefore is the special plastic primer.

If you need paint numbers, give me your interior trim code and I will look up for it in my books for you. (there are diff green colors with diff #'s so I can't check it now)

it will flake off if the plastic has started breaking down.

The plastic of my interior was still looking good, so maybe that's why the paint doesn't come of the panels. But it's good to hear somebody elses experience about this point. Maybe there are more people who repainted the panels? Maybe that would make it someting easier for Peter.

Have restored many interiors. A good quality plastic primer or a polypropelene primer will make your paint stick extremely well. My 70 challenger i redid @ 10 yrs ago and changed interior color and no part of it has worn off or flaked yet. Use lacquer paint gives you a semi gloss finish rather than glossy which looks a lot more origional.

Seems like door panels for challengers come up often on ebay. Some go pretty cheap, usually ones that have peeling paint from a previous poorly done color change. You save money for your own work. I have never done a color change, but SEM does make a wide assortment of vinyl dyes, just check out a local auto paint supply store.
As for the cost of the panels, I doubt any of the restoration companies are rolling in the cash, these cars had low production numbers so the demand is low. It is sad to see mustang parts so cheap and available, but they made millions of them. At the same time an average challenger will be worth more than the average classic Mustang.
BTW, while the door panels are off, it is a good time to hit the window mechanisms with some lube.

Try Legendary interiors as well, they carry almost everything for Challenger interiors, but they are likely comparable in cost.

Tedd

What do you do if your pannels are chalking will this prevent the dyes from sticking and will the dye just fake off. How do you fix the chalking.

I think you half to do some kind of preping before the paint i think. i'm not sure.

I just painted my old chalky door panels for my 72 resto project. I think the chalking was from many years of wax and body oil build up. The key is to prep the panels with mild laquer thinner to remove the old wax and oils. I spent a full hour per panel. Poured lacquer thinner directly on the panel then used a scub brush to losen the dirt and wiped it off with paper towels. You will be amazed at how much crap comes out. I then used Mar-Hyde,(brand) Vinyl Color paint. They look great.

Would anyone happen to know where I can obtain 73 Challenger bucket seat foam. Year One and the Paddock don't have them. Is the foam from any other year challenger or e body close???

Have you tried Legendary?