marsrvr

Re-upholstered my headliner and rear cabin panels in crushed velvet.
Two tone: snow leopard pattern on silver up top, straight black on bottom.
A selection of pictures from the adventure:





























I still have to do the dashboard, front columns, and door panels. But I was in enough trouble with the headliner and the rear cabin panels. Let my wife calm down a bit from having my car in pieces all over the garage for two weeks, then we'll go again with the next chunk.

Had a friend and master Scion modder help me disassemble the thing for the first time. Had another 2 very experienced friends help me finish putting it back together late Wednesday night at our crew's regular parking lot meeting.

In between all that I spent a week with a Japanese calligraphy brush water coloring on the leopard pattern by hand in India ink. I also did all the panel spray adhesive, layout, trim, and tack-down myself. Fun project, even more fun to show off. But definitely don't dive into this project end alone.

Fave part: my rear center brake light has a hoodie now.

dfish

Waiting to see what you'll be doing next on this!

Fish

surfcitylocal

It does look cool. I'd like to see a shot of your seats? Did you recover them?

marsrvr

Haven't modded any of the seats yet. Honestly nobody regularly sits back there so the seats themselves are only good for show.

Practicality out the window then: my plan is black 1/2-inch pile faux fur butt-side with a snow-leopard skunk stripe down the centers.

And then diamond-plate on the seat backs for cargo when they're folded down...which is next to always. I'm planning to bolt on diamond plate on the storage bin lid, and the front floor mats as well.

Black deep-pile faux fur is easy to get. I'm just looking for somebody who can source and cut diamond-plate sheet metal...cheap. Free from scrap would be ideal.

Pannyman

i was going to dynamat my car but after seeing your pics; i fear it; lol however there is a little knock by the rear of my car; how easy are the panels to remove; in first gen xb i could take off seats, remove rear wiper rip out the dash but i think panels are a bit above me; what do you think?

marsrvr

Its not a solo job. Every xB in our club's had their headliners and columns done so I had very experienced friends helping: Edric spent 2 hours helping me tear it apart in my garage. Then Matt and Andrew spent another hour and a half helping me fit it all together again.... at our weekly meet in a strip mall parking lot after hours.

We're the real old-school deal at NorCal Scion.



I suppose you could pay an upholstery shop for the job. For a pro I'd expect the job's about 10 hours labor, plus materials...and they get the bragging rights and you're stuck flying their logos. And you'd miss all the family fun.

I put in about 25 hours labor, plus 5 hours total among 3 friend's help. Materials were 4 cans of adhesive at $12 each, and 6 yards of material at $6/yard. I had the Chinese calligraphy kit lying around from art school.

Now I'm the only owner, near as I can tell on the planet, with a snow leopard cabin (like any big art project I did lots of research before starting). I'm also the only owner I've ever seen so far to get carried away do the lower panels as well. The lower panels were 10x harder geometry to cover than the columns with a single piece of material: lots big holes, cup holders, and long dangly bits to contend with. I got it done though. It is not impossible.

Bragging rights: priceless.

surfcitylocal

Lots of hard work and it shows. Love the re-installation in the parking lot. Been there, done that. Keep up the good work.

marsrvr

I just brought home an 8-year-old foster kid yesterday. I'm haulin' around a 2nd passenger now. She's lovin' it back there. But that nixes any thoughts I had towards further awesomely impractical rear seat mods :?

surfcitylocal

Dude that's so cool you are a foster parent. Thank you for making a better life for that child.

marsrvr

Yeah, well let's be honest: she's starting to quibble with the wife over who gets the front seat in the iQ. Once the leopard print spectacle wears off, the rear seat is still um...substandard for live cargo.

The extra "livestock" is impacting mods on the rest of our family's Scion fleet too. Here's where my summer mod budget just went:
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...=193492&page=2