Restoring Gutted Interior?

[Fanatic]

I'm currently looking at a S13 hatch with good mileage, decent amount of mods, and a good price, the only flaw is that his interior is mostly gutted.

(Carpets, panels, trunk, trimming, headliner)..

Would it be a bitch to restore all this? I'm sure it's going to be tremendously hard to find OEM parts for it.. Maybe a local junkyard?

Is there anyone that has restored a gutted interior here? If so, please help.

I'm trying to decide if I should buy it and TRY to restore the interior or just leave it. Thanks.

[silviaks2nr]

It's easy enough to find a stock car with a nice interior, just do that. Anytime you take apart and re-install interior parts little clips and things break, parts are scratched, etc. and the last thing you would want is rattling bits too. If you're anal like me just start with something nice.

[Fanatic]

It's easy enough to find a stock car with a nice interior, just do that. Anytime you take apart and re-install interior parts little clips and things break, parts are scratched, etc. and the last thing you would want is rattling bits too. If you're anal like me just start with something nice.

To be honest I been looking for weeks and haven't found anything as good as this one. Of course a good car has to have a retarded flaw. Either the mileage they give is false (vin check) or the car is automatic. Meh, so hard to find a legit one :bash:

[spray2020]

Its definitely possible to restore a gutted interior. I would first make sure that there are no areas inside that have been cut or removed of any sort. For example: People tend to cut the rear parcel shelf speaker area to run large speakers, cut the factory seat mounts to run racing seats and weld in roll cages to various degrees.

Your best bet is to find another s13 that someone is parting out and get all of the interior bits, maybe even remove them yourself and save all the clips and reinstall in your car. That way you know what goes where and you aren't missing anything.

[Fanatic]

Its definitely possible to restore a gutted interior. I would first make sure that there are no areas inside that have been cut or removed of any sort. For example: People tend to cut the rear parcel shelf speaker area to run large speakers, cut the factory seat mounts to run racing seats and weld in roll cages to various degrees.

Your best bet is to find another s13 that someone is parting out and get all of the interior bits, maybe even remove them yourself and save all the clips and reinstall in your car. That way you know what goes where and you aren't missing anything.

Yeah the guy didn't mess with any of the audio stuff. He doesn't use it for racing either. Matter fact, who the fuck knows why he gutted it. But, I hope it's not going to be a hassle to restore it. Thanks for the help mate.

[NAIRB]

It's easy enough to find a stock car with a nice interior, just do that. Anytime you take apart and re-install interior parts little clips and things break, parts are scratched, etc. and the last thing you would want is rattling bits too. If you're anal like me just start with something nice.



X2 on this.


And you said you have been looking for weeks? It took me years to find my kouki, I went through a bunch of shitty s13's before I finally found something nice. And if you want a clean car then it is way way easier to start off with something nice that you are not searching for parts just to get it back to looking oem.

[Fanatic]

X2 on this.


And you said you have been looking for weeks? It took me years to find my kouki, I went through a bunch of shitty s13's before I finally found something nice. And if you want a clean car then it is way way easier to start off with something nice that you are not searching for parts just to get it back to looking oem.

True, but kouki's are pretty damn rare.. I was looking for one at first, but gave up all hope lol. Then I went down to zenki, lost hope in that to, now I'm down to a S13 hatch. Fml. I honestly wouldn't mind restoring the interior, it's just I hope finding the parts won't take long. I'm guessing local junkyards.. I also head Nissan dealers can order them for you or something. Not sure.

[NAIRB]

True, but kouki's are pretty damn rare.. I was looking for one at first, but gave up all hope lol. Then I went down to zenki, lost hope in that to, now I'm down to a S13 hatch. Fml. I honestly wouldn't mind restoring the interior, it's just I hope finding the parts won't take long. I'm guessing local junkyards.. I also head Nissan dealers can order them for you or something. Not sure.


Well I wasn't looking for just kouki's, pretty much any 240 as long it was clean, an I just ended up with a kouki. But I have tried to put the interior back into one of my s13's an it was just annoying. Things didn't really fit back together that well, like some did but you could tell some of it had been fucked with. But you are from cali so there is a lot more parts out there, I don't have much to choose from where I live, so that could have something to do with stuff not fitting well. If I could pick an choose at junkyards I don't think I would have minded it as much, but they dont even have 240s in junk yards around here so it got irritating really quickly trying to find a bunch a random oem parts.

[silviaks2nr]

It took me 6 months to find my car and it wasn't even what I wanted ( a base model kouki s14 rather than an oem 5spd LE). I was searching the whole southeast... and this was in 2003 when stock cars were plentiful. Your patience will pay off.

[fliprayzin240sx]

Its just an interior, you'd be surprised how often you'd find somebody parting out a wrecked car. You should be able to buy somebody's interior for $200-300 in Socal.

[acslater9]

To be honest I been looking for weeks and haven't found anything as good as this one. Of course a good car has to have a retarded flaw. Either the mileage they give is false (vin check) or the car is automatic. Meh, so hard to find a legit one :bash:

Took me 5 months to find me a decent s13, but of course it was automatic.

[Matej]

One is probably better off seeing what condition the car is underneath all the junk as opposed to buying a car with old smelly interior and discovering rust and spider colonies under the carpet. The only way to get an S13 with perfect interior is to buy it from someone who already restored it.

[mechanicalmoron]

It's possible to get an interior.

So consider the rest of the car. You said they lied about the milage (or, it could have been auto and converted, but better be sure). And you say it's modded? Is it well done, and are the parts quality, or junk? I'd really be concerned about buying a car with no interior and godspeed/megan crap all over it, you know?

Use it as the 800lb barganing chip that it is in a daily, and, the first place to get some of it back might be him, just ask if he still has any of it.