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Location:
Northwestern Sydney
Registered:
August 2002
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Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Sun, 13 April 2003 11:48
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I'm after your opinions guys. I'm in the throws of nutting out and budgeting what to do to my RA28. In stages of course depending on money at the time.
This is my 3rd 28 added to 1 RA40 coupe and a sprinter.
The Opinion I'm after from you "knowledged Ones" is:-
Should I Remove the original interior and build some tasteful
door trims etc. or leave the interior intact and work the stereo install around it?
The interior is in near perfect cond. a real tribute to the previous owner. but the first thing I modify in a car is the stereo / dash, my area of expertise is Car Audio, I've gone to the garage a few times hell bent on stripping the interior out to rework it but can't do it.
It's not that I don't like the interior, and a hidden stereo install would be an interesting challenge and diffrent in it self.
But... would You guys prefer to see a neat modified RA28 with a leather tan cowhide interior or a neat modified Ra28 with an original interior sitting on the grass in the show and shine??
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Location:
Finland
Registered:
November 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Sun, 13 April 2003 16:13
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Its easy! modify your interior so that you dont have to make any holes or cuttings or nothing and save your original parts so you can return it to orig if you start regret your mods. Style is up to you. I personaly prefer original style(seventies) and something timeless and classy like leather and precious wood(mahogany, teak...). I couldnt be less interested about nowadays hype like carbon-fire, aluminium and what ever shit. Those would be so "out" in few years.
Some might say that interior mods are useless but thats not me  .
My interior is in top nick too and Im saving all the original parts.
I try to keep my interior so that someone might think that its the original one.
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Location:
Northwestern Sydney
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Mon, 14 April 2003 01:51
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The styling I was planning on is a retro fitout of the interior using modern materials (similar to what you see in a PT cruiser)
keeping the same styling (woodgrain, circular gauge pods in the dash facia etc) with modern gauges and colours (not silver paint) if you look at a PT cruiser interior and reshape it to look like a celica's dash setout, your seeing what I'm planning.
However as a daily driver an interior like that is just asking to be broken into and wrecked. So an original look with modern stereo install hiden behind panels etc would give the as final product but would it look as good or better from an old school point of view.
I do have another interior that I am going to base any mods on so to retain the original if like you say I regret it (or F*#k it up).
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Location:
Madrid - Spain
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Mon, 14 April 2003 03:45
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I guess it all depends on the look your after. My interior was done before I got the car. There is a few things I would change but it don't look too bad and it's cozy.
I like the brand new original look, but a lot of the trim bits on early celicas are fragile and often hard to get in good condition.
If you do decide to go for a custom look, my advice is rather than butcher the good stuff you have, try and get hold of an average second set and use the bits from that. For instance if you are going to make new door trims, you wouldn't bother with 25 year old masonite. Get a stuffed set of trims, and use the steel molded parts and make up new craftwood panels and buildouts. Then you can either keep the good set or sell it. You won't have any problems getting rid of it if it a good black interior.
Either way have fun, I have a fast fours mag at home where a guy did a really neat job in a RA28 with leather trim and a good tidy up.
I am sure there are a few people here interested to see how it turns out
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
November 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Mon, 14 April 2003 04:52
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is retrimming expensive to do?
i've been interested in getting a retrim, but was curious as to the cost...
would it be expensive to get somebody to make a copy of existing interior panels and cover that in, say, leather?
how about retrimming a cracked dash?
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Location:
Northwestern Sydney
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Mon, 14 April 2003 11:51
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Which issue fast fours mag. I'm Interested in having a look.
I've Knocked up a few door pod panels from fibre glass and Mdf to fit in depending on the front stage setup I go for. and a sub enclosure for the rear. but on test fitting it looks pretty out of place so I'm scraping it and starting over. I might try to work around the original interior. Does anyone know if you can get the chrome plastic strips the the door trims have new or reconditioned??
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
December 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Mon, 14 April 2003 13:54
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evilshyt,
It all depends on what you want to do with it and who you know it also depends on what you class as expensive.
I have had the whole of my 23 retrimed the dash was striped and repainted seats built etc new carpet and all the works stereo is ok although still needs some money spent on it. And all this and a little bit more for a price of what i origionally paid for the car in the first place.
The fact of the matter is do you want to feel comfortable in your car or do you want other people to feel comfortable looking at it as you go past.
Try not to put holes in the car for speakers etc because it is so easy not to with a little bit of help from people on this forum and it is a shame to see good cars being turned into swiss cheese.
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Location:
Madrid - Spain
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Mon, 14 April 2003 22:53
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I will have a look for it tonight, I will try and scan it and host the article for you.
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
April 2003
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Mon, 14 April 2003 23:34
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Go for the interior trimming - ie: taking everything you can remove from the dash / door trims / seats / etc and cover it in leather / fake leather / pleather etc. I've found prices of interior trimming is wide and varied between dirt cheap DIY, and uber expensive (but oh so fine) professional jobbies.
In my opinion, don't go half-assed and only do a few pieces. If you're mad keen on doing the interior, go crazy  It might take a while, but between doing some yourself (removing bits and pieces) by doing a piece at a time, the end result is... well, we've all seen 100% refurnished interiors and how good they look 
Question is I guess, how good is the original? If it's absoloutely flawless... maybe leave it for that *unique* look
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Location:
Northwestern Sydney
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Tue, 15 April 2003 02:31
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What I may do is look at installing a good stereo system without cutting, covering, bolting to or hiding the original interior.
As I am staging construction that would give me a clean interior and clear tunes but leave my finances clear for the brake upgrade I'm planning prior to putting in the engine and spraying the car. once the drive line is sorted and the car exterior looks like a million dollars, then I'll pull out the original interior and either sell it complete or store it for all eternity and rebuild the interior from scratch.
Gold28 if you could do that it would be great. BTW a few months back was your car sitting out in your driveway for a few weeks
if so it is a sweet looking Toy (I used to drive past it every morning while taking a short cut to work.)
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Location:
Madrid - Spain
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Tue, 15 April 2003 03:05
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If you saw it a Castle Hill, then it probably was. It got relegated to the drive because I was trying to keep another car clean so I could sell it. I hate leaving my baby out in the cold.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
December 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Tue, 15 April 2003 04:07
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This may be a stupid question but how does a hidden installation work in regards to stereos? Going to need to put a stereo in my baby soon and was wondering if its worth doing this way. What is involved etc.
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Location:
Northwestern Sydney
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Tue, 15 April 2003 12:36
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If you have a look in any hot 4's mag you'll see almost every car has some outstanding stereo setup. They look great no doubt about it. Thats good if you have a show car and can afford full comp. insurance to cover it. and the best alarm to protect it. but for most people who own cars around our age we can't afford to lose what we have in our car. Personally I've had far too many systems stolen out of my cars mainly because all the components are visible to the low lifes who "window shop" 
A hidden system is one where as many components that make up the system are out of view as possible (all if you can) with out comprimising on sound stageing or imaging. this way when a low life scum of the earth walks between two cars looking in the windows and see's one with a stock interior and not a speaker, amp, sub, tv/dvd etc. and looks into the other car with every thing on display which car is he going to defile??
however the "stock" car could have $10,000 worth of equiptment in it and sound totally awsome. but the scum bags can't tell by looking.
in a modern car hidden systems are fairly easy to do with only a head unit on display (detachable face off) as most manuf. have pods in the doors with grills to cover the standard equiptment. this standard equiptmentcan be replaced with better speakers an an amp mounted somwhere where it can't be seen from outside the car (eg boot, under rear seat). However in an RA28 celica where the doors only have masonite lining to the doors and no room for a speaker with out cutting steel this adds a challenge to the project which I'll find interesting to find a solution for. And the first challenge will be where to hid the sub drivers.
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Location:
Barossa valley SA
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Tue, 15 April 2003 13:24
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Fortunately if you are willing to fork out the cash some of the more expensive brands such as DLS make low profile speakers which make a hidden install a little easier.
after reading this thread I think I may invest a bit more time in concealing the splits I have just bought, because as it was mentioned there are plenty of low life dickheads around.
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
April 2003
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Tue, 15 April 2003 13:26
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Well i'm going to have half red, half black through the corona for something differant. Maybe go half half with somethign else??
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Location:
Northwestern Sydney
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Tue, 15 April 2003 13:43
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Orion also make a very slim rather powerful 8inch sub base driver that can fit in less depth than your standard 5 inch mid.
really good for sub enclosures behind door/rear quarter panels
they were around $360 a piece last time I checked (after the four I had in my sprinter went bye bye) 
I'm trying to source some more for my RA28 for behind the panels in the rear seat I don't think they make the same speaker any more.
Do DLS have a web site with vital stats.
I'm looking at a pair of Clairon X^2 series speakers. I installed these in a honda a few years back and they impressed me no end and again are resonably slim.
mind you I'm also impressed with Jaycars Response Kevlar splits
I put these into one of my mates cars in custom door pods and they sound good too if installed correctly.
red and black???
black and Cyan
White and Cyan
I might do some sketches could be interesting!!
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Location:
Madrid - Spain
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Wed, 16 April 2003 00:15
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There is heaps of room in the rear quarters. My previous RA28 had a 10in sub in each quarter. They were a fairly deep speaker too. You can seal off the bach of them (over the wheel arch) for about 2-3 cubic feet of space.
Just make a noce grill to fit where the bins were and whalah hidden 10in subs.
It is a bit more difficult to hide a front stage and still make it sound good, but you wanted a challenge rite???
I found the Hottest fours and roatries mag with the retrimmed RA28 in it. Not what you would call a hidden sterio, but a nice trim job none the less. I will scan it and put up a link some time today hopefully.
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Location:
Madrid - Spain
Registered:
August 2002
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I supported Toymods
Location:
south of the big smoke
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: Interior Mods - Yes or No?
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Wed, 16 April 2003 07:45
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gee anthony what a top bloke!!!
i wonder if the stereo would give you a run for ya money
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