I have been thinking about swapping in a cool interior since I cant do any body work and paint in this winter weather. After searching around I found two interiors I like the most; V8 archie's and the Firebird's. Let's compare the two:

V8 Archie's:
Exotic style
Easily customized (gauges,controls)
Expensive
Much fabrication needed

Firebird's:
Modern stock style interior
Not alot of options for customizing (gauges, controls)
Fairly cheap and easy to find
Comes completely finished and upholstered

Which one is more difficult to install? I have seen plenty of build threads for the Firebird's but none for Archie's. This is going to be put in my daily driver so I would like to have either interior done in about a week or two. Is that a reasonable time frame for about 6 hours of work a day? I would like to hear your opinions on both interiors. Thanks in advance for your input.

I wasn't a big fans of Archies interior until I saw the Bobby & Alex's Widebody GT. They used black leather (I think it's leather) with white sticking. Incredible and the seats match too. Don't care for the orange interior. Besides Archie stand behind his product. I purchased Rocker panels from him several months ago and recently got time to install them, the lip that goes against the door frame was warped. I contacted him, gave several things to try to solve the issue and he offered to replace them. THAT GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SHOWS YOU HE STANDS BEHIND HIS PRODUCTS. Thats a good business man.

quote Originally posted by urbanairpaint: Firebird's: Modern stock style interior Not alot of options for customizing (gauges, controls) Fairly cheap and easy to find Comes completely finished and upholstered Which one is more difficult to install? I have seen plenty of build threads for the Firebird's but none for Archie's. This is going to be put in my daily driver so I would like to have either interior done in about a week or two. Is that a reasonable time frame for about 6 hours of work a day? I would like to hear your opinions on both interiors. Thanks in advance for your input.

I can speak to the Firebird, especially since you posted a pic of my car.

The Firebird parts are getting cheaper and easier to find. They are still looking modern, even though they haven't made them in 5 years. As for customizing, the gauges and controls you have a few options. Anything that is out there for the firebird, can be used, such as electroluminescent panels, white face and carbon fiber bezels. Not as much as for a totally custom dash but a few.

As for being completely finished and upholstered. That is mostly true for the dash. You are going to have to either trim the stock panel between the dash and the windshield or make your own. There will be a couple of areas around the A pillars that have to be filled in.

The door panels are more challenging. You will have to trim them to fit then figure out how to finish the ends. What you see I did was to hand build fiberglass end for the panels and then smooth them into existing firebird panels. It's going to take some effort and is not a bolt on ready to install project.

Nevertheless, the firebird interior is becoming popular because for a lot less than most custom interiors you get something that is a lot closer to being already finished.

Both look good, I imagine the firebird interior would need a lot more work to get the gauges to function. The Archie unit looks like you can reuse the Fiero gauges in their original form.

quote Originally posted by v8fiero400: I imagine the firebird interior would need a lot more work to get the gauges to function..

It depends on your definition of "a lot" in the 4 years since I did my dash I have perfected a plug and play harness for Fiero to Firebird gauges.

I wish someone made a kit for the FBird/Camaro interiors, I think they look sharp.

Archie

Seems I remember Archie talking about "flocking" which is something that could make a huge difference in the appearance of the dash he offers...

quote Originally posted by F-I-E-R-O: Seems I remember Archie talking about "flocking" which is something that could make a huge difference in the appearance of the dash he offers...

I don't want to speak for Archie, but the Roadster pictured above has been flocked and it looks real sharp. I don't know if he is planning to offer them pre-flocked or not, but it would look really nice and not have to be upholstered.

quote I wish someone made a kit for the FBird/Camaro interiors, I think they look sharp. Archie

Archie and I have talked about this, and it would make a nice kit. But there is a huge difference between a one-off interior and a kit that can be installed by just about anybody with a wrench.

The kit builder would have to build several of them and work out all the bugs. Then research into all the possible varations that exist out there for Fieros and make sure the kit works with all of them. Then provide all the little bits and pieces to make the kit work properly. After all that research and development there would have to be enough sales to recoupe the investment. We all know that maybe one out of every 10 that express interest would actually buy, so the initial price would likely be pretty steep.

So in the end, a firebird interior kit would cost about the same as the other custom interior kits, and people would complain about a firebird dash kit for $1500 when they just saw a broken up moldy dash in the junkyard for $50. So I think that's why the vendors out there are not selling Fireibird dash kits.

On the other hand, if you just want the plug and play wiring harness, I can help you out with that. Send me a PM.

There is another interior kit that I thought about, well a dash anyway. The 2001 dash that comes with the new Lambo kits. I think that would look good in a fiero, and since they are made for the Fiero it should be a matter of upholstery and install.

You have to be careful with the lambo dashes - the one's I've looked at will not fit a stock fiero because the dash fits the lambo doors and windshield (which is NOT the same as stock fiero).

quote Originally posted by urbanairpaint: This is going to be put in my daily driver so I would like to have either interior done in about a week or two. Is that a reasonable time frame for about 6 hours of work a day? I would like to hear your opinions on both interiors. Thanks in advance for your input.

No - not a reasonable time frame for the Firebird dash if you never done it before. Especially if you want a nice fit and things to line up nicely.

Dash: There is a fair amount of cutting/fabricating/test fitting that needs to be done. Wiring needs to be modified (or buy JScott's plug and play harness), heater box needs to me modified, steering column support needs to be modified (not necessary, but has to be done for the dash to fit as far forward as you get get it to go).

Console: also needs cutting and fabricating - not near as much as the dash. This can be done is short order.

Doors: needs a lot of time to complete.

That is just my opinion - it looks way easier than it is.

You can always skip doing the console and doors panels and just install the dash as PBJ did. That will save some time.

I'm in the middle of a dash swap right now and I can tell you that it is a lot of work but I think well worth it in the end. I chose to install a dash from a Dodge Stealth mostly because I think it looks sleeker than the Firbird dash but that's of course just my taste. The advantage of using a dash from a different car is that it is prefinished and many of the componenets can be adapted as needed.

If you want to have a look at some of the work involved you can start on this PAGE in my ongoing thread.

Nolan

Agreed. 3000GT and Steath looks 100 times better than the Firebird.

quote Originally posted by CoryFiero: Agreed. 3000GT and Steath looks 100 times better than the Firebird.

x2

------------------

My Build Thread

quote Originally posted by CoryFiero: Agreed. 3000GT and Steath looks 100 times better than the Firebird.

Agree. And I still haven't seen a fiberglass dash kit for the Fiero that doesn't look ugly as sin.