This was a tough decision for me, mainly becaues blue was a lot more ‘vibrant’ than my current color scheme of black, steel grey, and silver. Also two-tone interiors tend to be very ‘flashy’ and i wanted it to be much more on the subtle side.
The material i used is Alcantara. Alcantara is different from ultra suede, though they are very similar, Alcantara is thicker and more durable. I ordered this from the UK from the supplier of Ferrari.
I wrote this DIY for a BMW forum, so the disassembly/assembly doesn’t pretain to most vehicles, but the actual process of changing the fabric is pretty generic
*****DIY as typed for the BMW forums **************
For those who wish to two-tone their own interior using their own material. I have composed the following DIY and tried breaking it down as simple as I can. Depending on how anal you are, the project shouldn’t take more then a weekend.
The following will assume you know how to remove your door panels from the car. There are seperate DIY’s showing how to remove the panels from the car.
The following tools will help:
- Aprox. 2 yards of fabric/material
- Scissors
- Contact Cement
- Drill w/ 1/2" drill bit
- Torex 20 bit
- Razor knife
- Energy Drink
- Mineral Spirits
Scissors:
Contact Cement (and brush). If you choose this brand of contact cement, make sure it’s the red can, not the green can. The green can is environmentaly friendly… and i hate the environment. Also, the green can doesn’t stick well at all.
Drill and a 1/2" drill bit (or slightly larger)
A torex 20 bit
Clamps and some padding. The padding will help distribute the weight so you don’t get creases in the fabric while the adhesive dries.
Razor knife
Energy Drink:
Mineral Spirits for and adhesive clean up, don’t confuse with the energy drink.
I.) Disassemble the inner panel from the outter panel.
1.) Use a Torex 20 bit to unscrew the 8 screws from the backside holding the armrest in place
2.) These screws are marked with RED CIRCLES in the picture above
close up of the torex screws:
3.) Once the screws are removed, the armrest should just pop off.
4.) The PINK ARROWS show where 4 nuts are located that hold the air bag panel in place if the air bag is deployed during an accident. Simply unscrew these 4 nuts. You can do it by hand or with a 10mm socket
5.) The GREEN CIRCLES on the above picture indicate plastic rivits that have been melted to mount the panels together. Using the 1/2" drill bit, drill out the melted portion. All you are doing is removing the plastic that’s melted. Remove as little as possible, you will be using the remaining plastic to reassemble the panels. Drill out as little as possible to release the hold.
Drilling the plastic rivits:
Once all the rivits have been drilled out and the armrest removed, you should be able to pop the center panel section out. You may find that you need to re-drill some of the rivits to free the panel completely.
II.) Preparing the panel to be covered with fabric
1.) Clean/degrease the panel with soap and water on a towel. This will help to remove any Armor-All or anything else that will prevent the adhesive from working properly.
2.) Place the panel on top of your fabric and cut the fabric to the apox. shape/size. Try to cut atleast 2" larger all the way around the panel. This will give you room for error and enough material to wrap around to the backside of the panel.
III.) Bonding the fabric to the panel
3.) Now time for the adhesive. It’s very important to do only the larger flat, centeral sections first. For larger panels (the doors) I broke the process into 3 different time periods. By doing this, you allow the fabric to fully adhere and setup so you don’t shift the material around too much over a large area. This keeps the material from sliding all over and preventing wrinkles or a poor bond.
Put a fair amount of contact cement directly on the leather and spread it around to get nice thick, even coat. Let the adhesive set for a several minutes until it has formed a gel-like consistancy.(like boogers during a mild flue). You may have to do a few layers of adhesive.
By doing this, the adhesive won’t bleed through the fabric, causing more issues. If you wait too long, it won’t bond well with the fabric. Expierment on a scrap piece of material to figure out your time period.
Wait until these areas are fully bonded/cured (15mins - 20mins) before you move on to the next section so you don’t get wrinkles from shifting material.
The picture below shows an example of the first section I did (about 1/3 of the total area). I placed the fabric on this and pressed firmly all over until the adhesive set (aprox 15 minutes) and form a good bond.
Repeat this until you get the majority of the panel’s flat areas bonded. Try to place the fabric so it falls natural, if you’re stretching it to get it to fit… the fabric will likely wrinkle later on.
Once you complete the main areas, cut holes and ‘relief slits’ in the fabric so you can from the fabric into the tighter cornered areas. Cut away the material to clear holes for armrest and screws.
Remove as little fabric as possible so you have enough to fill the voids once the fabric has formed. The picture below shows the upper armrest mount.
this pic shows a reference to where you cut the slits and openings in comparison to the panel:
Once you cut the material, place some more adhesive between the panel and the fabric where the armrest compresses the fabric. Don’t forget to let the adhesive tack up. Then bolt the armrest on nice and tight and throw the little “airbag” labeled piece in as well. This will pull the fabric into place.
Once you have the armrest in place and tightened down, leave it on. By leaving it on, you won’t get any surprises when you go to bolt the armrest back in place. If you pull the fabric tight around all the corners to the backside of the panel, then bolt on the armrests afterwards…that may pull the fabric and screw up all the work you’ve done. So leave the armrests on.
