Full interior replacement?

Just wondering if anyone has ever attempted a full interior replacement. I know there are lots of individual write-ups about certain components, but I guess getting it down to the carpeting is the big question, right?

There's a "Grade A" quality complete red leather interior for sale near me for $200. My current Riv is white with a tan interior that is in so-so shape, and I've ALWAYS wanted a white on red Riv....

It's been done once or twice. It's actually not that hard of a car to replace the interior in. The seats are just a few bolts each and so is the dash. The 2 hard parts would be removing the steering wheel and the center console. If I were you I would search around for a black interior. I would jump on one if I ever found one.

I agree...there's nothing really difficult in these interiors. The center console actually isn't much harder than anything else. The steering column though? No fun. Actually, the ceiling/vanity lights are kind of tricky, but the entire job would actually be kind of fun I think!

I have done it on a few cars cause of either wear or just didn't like the color combo. Its really just time consuming. As far as the column goes, just swap out the plastic cover and steering wheel. Not hard just so long as you have the right driver bits and don't strip the torx screws. I find the dash to be the biggest job but sometimes you can get away with not doing the dash if the color combo is right. I did a Lincoln town car tan with green, looked really good after I was done. Also I have done a 94 park avenue ultra, 99 cougar, 00 zx2 (that was my fav. dark green outside, black/ tan inside) I wish you the best of luck in the swap

Hmmmmmmm. I was expecting more pushback. Awesome. Maybe I'll pick up the set just to have it, and do it when I have time. I wonder if I could get my professor to have our class do it as part of our auto design curriculum. Nuthin' like a little hands-on learning, haha.

But you're right. Oh man. A black interior in a white car would be soooooo shaaaaaarrrrp.

When it comes to "easy" custom to taste changes I will do them and encourage them, but don't let anyone tell you to dye or "paint" interior pieces. The fabric will be stiff and unless you take lots of prep time plastic interior parts look awful and tend to chip real easy. Runs and blotches all round, lol. A red interior with white exterior will defiantly be pleasing to the eye. Back when I was in high school many moons ago, our auto shop teacher loved for us to bring in class projects.

gunmetalRED wrote:

I wonder if I could get my professor to have our class do it as part of our auto design curriculum.  Nuthin' like a little hands-on learning, haha.

Having seen multiple college auto classes I would have to give that a "HELL NAW". I wouldn't let anyone touch my car in one of those classes.

My interior will be painted black. One day.

gunmetalred, I was looking at mine and the dash in modular so you could in theory just remove enough to cover the old dash, all the panels you see including the little piece by the glose box will come off so you really don't have that tough of a job aside from the headliner and such.

Other than the IP, is it possible to swap the Graphite interior of a '95 into a '99? I think it would look great in my white Riv. Has anyone done it? I can't seem to find the thread if it has been done.

Everything but the dash should go in just fine as long as both cars have the same features.

The short answer is "possibly", but there are a lot of potential caveats with the dash.

As far as I know (but not 100% certain) all of the interior pieces from 95-99 should be physically identical with regard to fitment, except for the dash instrument face.

Without completely replacing, or fabricating, the 96-99 dash superstructure..... the 95 dash instrument face will not mount as it uses a different climate control and radio setup entirely.  In addition, the traction control button and rear defroster are in different locations on the 95 dash.  This latter issue is relatively minor to overcome, but the wiring harness that supports all of the above is different in 95 as well.  So the dash is the big deal.

Also, as you can see from the links below and you suggest by your question, the "graphite" (black) interior was only offered in 1995.... why I can't possibly understand as I see many of them in salvage yards, so they obviously sold  

http://rivowners.org/features/Ev_Stats/colortrim/95.html

http://rivowners.org/features/Ev_Stats/colortrim/96.html

http://rivowners.org/features/Ev_Stats/colortrim/97.html

http://rivowners.org/features/Ev_Stats/colortrim/98.html

http://rivowners.org/features/Ev_Stats/colortrim/99.html


....but here's a way around that:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t11174-repainted-dash-and-console-black


You could use a complete 1995 "graphite" interior, and then simply 'paint' the dash and door 'swooshes' like I did, except in your case a dash from a 96+.  Although your door 'swooshes' would already be the 'graphite' color, I'd recommend painting them along with the dash front as the 'graphite' is really a very dark gray and just painting the dash front black would not look consistent as that styling transitioned into the 'graphite' gray door 'swooshes'.

Anyway, just an idea that might get you there.

...really too bad they stopped selling the 'graphite' interior, or even offered true black.  Black looks sharp with just about any exterior color.

And I am a huge fan of white, silver, gray or black cars with a red interior  


But bottom line, and in an answer to the original post, changing out the complete interior should be technically trivial to do, just a little time consuming. The biggest concern will be trying to remove and reinstall plastic clips, etc that after 20 years no longer want to cooperate and break. So a lot of care has to have been had in removing the donor interior, and in removing yours such that all the mounting clips/receivers are there.... or you have the time and ability to repair them. BTW, I gave up trying to find 'perfect' pieces, although I came close. Many I had to repair as the plastic just gives up sometimes. That along with the time investment to find a complete interior in good shape and to tear yours out and reinstall are your only real barriers. If none of the parts break in a major way, you have everything prepped ready to go and you have replacement clips and plastic 'rivets' on-hand, there's no reason why you can't change out the whole interior in a long day or certainly weekend.

al_roethlisberger wrote:

The short answer is "possibly",

....but here's a way around that:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t11174-repainted-dash-and-console-black

Looks great! Did you happen to buy your car from FL? I was originally looking at a low mileage Jadestone from there.

al_roethlisberger wrote:

...really too bad they stopped selling the 'graphite' interior, or even offered true black.  Black looks sharp with just about any exterior color.

And I am a huge fan of white, silver, gray or black cars with a red interior  

Agreed!

al_roethlisberger wrote:

But bottom line, and in an answer to the original post, changing out the complete interior should be technically trivial to do, just a little time consuming.  The biggest concern will be trying to remove and reinstall plastic clips, etc that after 20 years no longer want to cooperate and break.  So a lot of care has to have been had in removing the donor interior, and in removing yours such that all the mounting clips/receivers are there.... or you have the time and ability to repair them.  BTW, I gave up trying to find 'perfect' pieces, although I came close.  Many I had to repair as the plastic just gives up sometimes. That along with the time investment to find a complete interior in good shape and to tear yours out and reinstall are your only real barriers.  If none of the parts break in a major way, you have everything prepped ready to go and you have replacement clips and plastic 'rivets' on-hand, there's no reason why you can't change out the whole interior in a long day or certainly weekend.

Thanks for detailed answer. I'm taking a look at a possible parts car this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Instead of repainting the swooshes and the dash you could paint just the dash and slap on a woodgrain kit. The wood covers most of what you would paint so the difference would be negligible.

matt270avian wrote:

Instead of repainting the swooshes and the dash you could paint just the dash and slap on a woodgrain kit. The wood covers most of what you would paint so the difference would be negligible.

Depends on what the original color is I suppose, but in my opinion I don't think that would really work well

The wood grain (and other finishes) kits do not cover all of the original plastic, and leave a fair amount peeking through around the edges and cutouts. I could be a cool effect I suppose if the trim peeking through was a nice contrasting/complimentary color to the 'graphite', but it also may end up looking like a hack job

Even if you planned to cover those panels with a kit, I'd recommend painting them to match the black. It's so easy and foolproof to paint the dash and 'swooshes' with that Rustoleum I used. The stuff hides just about any blemish and seems indestructible.

Another option could be to find one of the other stock interior colors and use them for the dash instrument front and 'swooshes' with the rest of the 'graphite' interior. Gray might look good, or even red.

Well, the graphite interior I looked at was in rough condition. Besides the already mentioned IP being different than later model years, I noticed that the Traction Control button is below the headlight switch on the lower part of the dash. I think if I change anything, it would be the carpet only; going from light gray to black and leaving the rest as is.

Similar to this...

1963_Buick_Riviera_Interior_1 by maxakemann, on Flickr

makemann1 wrote:

al_roethlisberger wrote:

The short answer is "possibly",

....but here's a way around that:

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t11174-repainted-dash-and-console-black

Looks great! Did you happen to buy your car from FL? I was originally looking at a low mileage Jadestone from there.

No, this was a car from way up near the Virginia line in North Carolina.  It literally was a "grandpa's" car that barely was driven to 43k miles, and when he passed away his family sat on the car for a few years unsure what they wanted to do with it as their family was more into trucks than a Riviera (so they said when I asked why their grandson didn't want to drive it, he literally turned his nose up to the idea when I asked    ).  Then at some point after sitting, the tires rotting and the fuel pump and A/C going out, they pushed it out into the cow pasture where it sat for a year or three.

They finally decided it was just taking up space and posted it on CL, with a two line description and no photo... but I ran up there ASAP with a trailer and bought it for $1700.  That was about a year and a half ago.

It just turned 70k miles and has been nearly trouble free.  I've been driving it about 150 miles a day for work ever since I put a new fuel pump in it after hauling it back from the pasture.

I've done quite a lot of cleanup work and maintenance, but the only things so far that have been 'broken' have been an A/C clutch, brake master cylinder, fuel pump, rear shocks and it needs a new front right hub at some point.  The only major incident that had the car down for about a week and had us scratching our heads turned out to be a bad PCM (ECU/ECM).  But about $35 later from the salvage yard, and about an hour to pull and swap the PCM we were back on the road.

I've essentially given the Riviera to my 16 year old son now, and my new daily driver is my 1997 Jaguar XJR which I also picked up with about 42k miles on the odometer, but I still drive the Riviera two or three times a week to work and it holds up very well to the Jaguar in many respects.  I never feel like I am taking a step 'down' when I drive the Riviera

Good luck on your work with the car.  If you keep an eye out, you may still run across a good interior in whole, or in parts over time.  It took me about a year of salvage yard visits to get all my dash and console pieces sorted.

Al