I was wondering how much of the interior from a 87 and up will fit in my 86? I think for the most part I want to keep the dash the same. But like the carpet, door panels, hatch area, seats, door sills, a-pillar....and so on. Will that stuff fit? I am also assuming that the head liner will need to be out of a 86 due to the map light. Any info is greatly appreciated. I havea chance to buy a full 89 or 88 GT interior. Not sure if I should go ahead and buy it.
interior swap 86-87+
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wild86stang
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I have an 86 convertible with a complete 1993 interior. You can't tell the interior was replaced. Looks stock. Takes some time to do obviously, but it can be done.
CobraWannabe
Member
The dash would definitely be the hardest part, but you want to keep your 86 dash anyway. Everything else will fit, depending on the interior light. The ONLY thing to wacth out for is the shoulder area seat belt mount. It is in different places on different years. I had to make a new hole for it. It really sucked ruining it, but you can hardly tell if you're not specifically looking at it.
that mounting location changed in 90. he'll be ok with the 88 / 89 stuff.
fyi, if you change your rear inner 1/4 panels, you'll have to change your outer 1/4 windows too, or you'll have a huge gap.
www.50stangs.com, check out my site, click tech articles. my bro wrote a complete interior swap guide.
fyi, if you change your rear inner 1/4 panels, you'll have to change your outer 1/4 windows too, or you'll have a huge gap.
www.50stangs.com, check out my site, click tech articles. my bro wrote a complete interior swap guide.
CobraWannabe
Member
v8only said:
Yeah, I know. I HAD to have the BLACK interior in my 88 though. And black only came in the 90's.
CobraWannabe
Member
v8only said:
The 90 and up black rear quarters fit perfectly in my 88. I think you meant 84-86 (with the older quarter windows).
CobraWannabe said:
No they don't. Just because all the screw holes line up, and it screws down in place, and because it matches with the 1/4 windows without a gap, that's not the whole ballgame.
Now you've got to contend with the lack of rear seatbelts, (and that hole in the quarter for them) and the piller seatbelt hole being in a different location. To make it right, you've got to modify your car to accept rear shoulder belts, then redill the piller to mount the seatbelts in the hole that corresponds to the 90+ 1/4 panel.
For this reason, the 83 units are the ONLY plug and play pieces with no modifications needed.
CobraWannabe
Member
OH yeah. I forgot about the rear shoulder belt, and I already said I had to make a whole in it for my front shoulder belt. I just forgot that was part of the rear quarter piece. But I'm glad you pointed that out now, so I can keep an eye out for an earlier one. How close does the black on 83's match the newer (90^) black interior?
CobraWannabe said:
honestly, it's hard to say. The 83 stuff is SUPER hard to find. We live in cali, land of the abundant parts, and it took months and months and months to find good panels. At that, it wasn't perfect either. These parts are going on 25 years, so fade may be an issue too.
I want to say it may not shine as much as the 90+ stuff, but I can't say that for sure, due to age.
If you could find a set, clean them up, surely they would look great. An other alternative is to dye your originals. I'm not a big fan of the rattle cans at all, however, it can work. Just do NOT use a gloss, or it will look like ass.
This swap was done in my brothers car, and he was particulary anal about having every little detail, so he would have nothing to do with the 90 panels due to the slots not being in the right place as mentioned. However, honestly, if it was my car, I wouldn't have cared, because they look 90% anyhow.
