Turning a Bad Interior to Respectable for About $100

When I bought my LS400, the interior was really bad. Among a bunch of small things like panels popping out, the seats were torn to crap. I always say it looks like a dog owned it. So many rips!

It was time to re-do the interior and not spend too much money on it. I wish I had a picture but the original interior had brown floormatts, a woodgrain and brown center console, and torn seats. The actual back of the back seat wasn't torn much, thankfully, allowing me to do some creative use of seat covers. The center console was ripped up along with the majority of the seats.

As you can see, my car now rocks a brown and black interior. It looks much better in my opinion. This seat cover actually covers the top but I had the great idea to tuck it because the top part is horrible. It constantly comes off and you can neither lower the center armrest nor put your seatbelts on without taking off a part of the cover.

I used the following things to re-do the interior:
1. Vinyl Paint - $15
2. Seat Covers - $50
3. Flat Black Wrap - $25
4. Steering Wheel Cover - $20
5. Leather for Shifter - $0 (taken from trashed couch)
6. Two New Woodgrain Front Window Button Panels - $25

I used the wrap to change the look of the center console. The clear layer on the woodgrain was starting to fade and wasn't looking too good so I turned it flat black and it made a huge difference in how the car feels. I decided to leave the center ashtray original because I replaced the other woodgrain panels.

I actually used the cloth from a sweater to reupholster the part that opens because that gave it cushion. I really love the way it feels. It was supposed to be a test and ended up working out great.

There's a tutorial on this website but I essentially unscrewed the plastic piece that attaches to it to tuck the new fabric in. I left the old leather but it was torn up too. I had to do this because I had never seen such a ripped up interior! In the future, I plan on just getting new seats but I do want to customize some things - the door and dash come to mind. Suede anyone? But that will run you more than the $100 we have planned.

Next step - cleaning the inside of my windows. I would like to hear any ideas when it comes to customizing your interior. There's a couple things I want to do, as I mentioned, but you will have to wait.

Tip: If you do this to a car you're trying to flip, it will surely raise the value if the interior is bad.