Maybe I'm the only one that feels this way about my first gen CL, but I do not like the grey and tan interior from the factory.

I'm in the process of turning the whole interior black, and the more work I put into it, the more I love it.

If you have the base 2.2l CL, have fun with the whole center console and trim ordeal.
So many hidden screws. If anyone has done anything similar or has any advice/ideas, throw them at me.

 

there was a guy named acurahb that did the swap a long time ago. just search his name.

 

are you just painting your parts or are you actually buying the black versions of the trim. if yer painting it what are you painting them with.

i originally thought that black with the tan carpet was gonna be weird but it looks like you got the tan carpet too. what are you gonna do about the seats and what not. i have a leather dying kit that ive been talking about using for the past several years but have never grown the balls to do it lol....you got any more pics?

 

I'm using black duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint. I painted my center console and door panels black about 3 months ago with that specific paint and they still look like they did the day I painted them. Same goes for the center console (which was done back in March.

 

ahhh.. i was thinking plastidip. been doin a lot of research on plastidip lately and it looks like you can use it on anything.

was just at autozone today and i saw that duplicolor stuff. how many cans did it take you to do the door panel. and are you roughing up the surface (like sanding it down a bit) prior to you painting.

sorry for all the questions. im seriously thinking about doing the same thing

 

I did a door panel and a half with just one can of the black duplicolor.

With prepping it I didn't do any sanding or anything. I just got a damp rag and wiped all of the dust off and used an air compressor to blow out the pockets on the door panels.
I also took my door panels off to make sure that I got complete coverage, and to just make the painting part of it 10 times easier.

I'm thinking about making the wood grain on the dash and doors a gunmetal grey color. But I'm not sure yet.

 

I did about half my interior and made a 2 tone with the gray and satin black. I did my door sills, woodgrain, vents, and a few other random interior pieces like 6-7 years ago.

Here's a few pics from back at a meet in 08 (God was it that long ago?), you can see the door sills, vents, shifter plate, speaker grills and woodgrain are all satin black.





Later in life I wrapped my woodgrain with carbon fiber and molded it, I also did a steering wheel swap to an 01 CL-S black leather steering wheel and painted (Cocoa's) airbag satin black to match the rest.


My engine bay trim is also all painted satin black as well

 

For the wood grain trim on the dash, did you pull the dash to paint it?

 

i believe he pulled the wood grain off. i asked about pulling the dash a few years ago. i dont think i ever got a good answer. id love to pull the dash to paint it.

 

I was always under the impression that the wood grain was held on by an adhesive. So I was afraid to pull it to paint it, because I didnt know if it'd clip back on, or if I'd have to rig it.

 

For a second, I considered closing off everything and taping off everything so I could paint my dash while it was in my car. But it'd be close to impossible to not miss any spots with my dash on.

For the seats, carpet and headliner; I know a guy that can reupholster my rear seat in black pvc vinyl/leather with red stitching for about 300.

For headliner, I just need to measure out the dimensions and I might be able to order one that comes on an rsx, integra, newer accord, etc. (Maybe even paint it, it's not like anyone's gonna put their feet on it)

Carpet should be pretty easy, just need to find a carpet kit. And my front seats will probably be some black cipher auto seats with red stitching.

 

@97blackackcl how'd you do the black on your gauge face, and was it difficult?

 

wow. yo it looks good man. honesty it doesnt even bother me that the seats are tan. what i would probably do is just keep the darker tan and then paint everything else. the only thing id worry about is the carpet and the roof lining.

 

Thanks dude. Lol and I do like the tan seats, but at the same time I love how bucket seats feel. I had all black interior in my 240, with bucket seats, and it felt really good to have it blacked out on the inside, and have seats I could sink into.

(My 240 wasn't nice, it was just blacked out on the inside with some reupholstered junkyard bucket seats. It was a beater to the max)

My acura drives circles around the 240 I had. I actually traded the 240 for my CL, and man did I fall in love with it.

 

Decided to test something out. I may change it to red.

 

 

It's a carbon fiber piece as well, and I added the chrome rings around it

 

D'oh!!!...you wood trim is broken in the same place as mine. man i seriously needa get some new wood trim. but its so hard to find the pieces on ebay.

yo chris were you the one that did the DIY on how to remove the wood trim from the dash?

 

Unfortunately :/ it cracked when I put the door panel back on after painting them. I'm hoping there's a cl at a junk yard or something around here. That's the cheapest wood grain trim right there lol

I'm actually looking into taking the wood grain trim off, putting a few coats of primer on, and attempting a water dip/water print. There's kits online for about $100. It seems pretty easy to do, and everything is in the kit.

http://www.hydraphics.com/Hydraphics...t-hdklarge.htm

It's worth a shot.

 

man i love the wood though. and if you happen to find a first gen at a junk yard where you live i will hate you forever..HAHA..honestly ive never seen a first gen at a pick and pull or junk yard out here. i always grab random stuff from our respective accords.

anyway. i crazy glued mine back together. i thought i was good but then i found other cracks in the other pieces. i was thinking of doing, not a water dip, but just a wrap like 97black did. im actually thinking of doing black bandana print. I KNOW I KNOW IT SOUNDS REALLY GHETTO. but i kind of put the fabric over the wood and it really isnt that bad. haha. maybe i should just take pics and see what you guys think....originally i was going to do louis vuitton material but the real leather stuff is bank

 

I don't think that sounds ghetto at all. It's okay, I thought about making my shift boot a Crown Royal bag. I'm still debating.

I may water dip the wood grain in a carbon fiber print just so it has a smoother finish and I don't have to deal with air bubbles.

I'd definitely like to see the bandana print. I thought about making a bandana shift boot.

 

well the thought originally came from my idea of wrapping the vip tables that im making in bandana print with the chrome side trim.

i went out and grabbed some of that dupli color vinyl paint to start on my interior. im gonna go with the black as well but im probably gonna keep the seats carpet and roof tan though. the more i look at the pictures of your car with the tan seats and carpet the more i start to like the contrast. im gonna start on the interior during the winter time though cause i plan on garaging my car. that way i can take out the doors and ATTEMPT to remove the dash as well to paint them.

a bunch of folks have the crown bag as a shift boot. it looked dope in the beginning but so many people have it now. i wish hennessy came in a bag..haha that way i could use that. but then i realize that my car isnt stick.

 

I just bought paint and went at it. With taking the door panels off of my car, I had to put them back on the same night. It kills me to not finish something.

I get so excited about what the finished product will look like that I keep at it until it's done. The dash will be tricky but I'll get it done somehow. The whole center console with the the radio was time consuming, and somewhat difficult, but well worth it

 

oh yeah dude trust me. i took the center console apart so many times while building my system. i had to. its the east way to run true 0 gauge wires from the front to back hahah. like even now, my head unit is shoved into the console rather than placed nicely cause i got all this wire in the back.

what i wanted to do was build a custom center console. been watching diys and stuff. but im not good with fiber glass so mdf would probably be my next choice. its just that our cars are so small inside that its hard to do any real customization....i have full body sedan ideas but have a 2 door car haha

hows the paint sticking to the panels by the way? my cousin did the same thing but with a dye for his bmw. he figured the dye would stick better. but it didnt. it didnt exactly come off real easy but he would notice that there were dye marks on his arm when he would hang his arm out the window while driving. im just afraid that in the hot weather it would come off on skin or clothing..

 

The paint is sticking very well actually. I drive about 40 miles to work and back every day, and I always have my arm on some part of the door. I've never once had the color come off on my arm.

Even after its been sitting in the sun all day and it's nice and hot, it doesn't even try to come off. Of course after time it'll get dusty but I've never noticed any spots actually fading or showing the old grey. On the highway my arm is always hanging out the window, and no problems. I highly suggest the duplicolor vinyl and fabric paint. It works really well and covers in just a couple coats.

For the custom center console, that'd be amazing. Especially a nice and glossy fiberglass for the dash, pillars, center console, glove box, panels, etc.

If you ever find a good video showing how to construct fiberglass center consoles and what not, please let me know lol

 

And I'd like to see that system and the bandana on the wood grain you mentioned.

 

well. i think my main goal would be to learn how to work well with fiber glass. i want to try something small first. maybe some custom kick pods for subs on the doors or something. from what i hear its not to hard to work with.

my system isnt all crazy like your probably thinking.

-pioneer z110bt with the 150 firmware
-dual pioneer tsw3004d2 12 inch subs (these things are able to hit bass notes so low it rattles your brain haha) in a ported box tuned to about 30hz
-2000 watt hifonics zeus amp pushing the subs
-image dynamics 6x9s for the rear deck and 6.5s for the front
-2000 watt hifonics zeus amp pushing the inside speakers
-tview 7 inch head rest monitors (which i never use cause no one sits in the back)
-alternator upgraded to 160amps
-big 3 upgrade with rockford fosgate 0 gauge
-dual optima yellow tops to support everything including my air suspension (i know...i probably made a bad choice with the yellow tops...i probably shouldve gone xs or something but i got them at a steal)

i know the list looks all crazy but its really not. THE WIRING HOWEVER was very VERY frustrating. i have a carputer that ive been building for the past 2 years but realized that i need to swap out my head unit for a head unit with a liliput screen. its really why i havent cared to work on it hahaha...

ill post some pics up of my car and all the goodies this weekend. its far from being done simply cause i have so many parts and projects laying around that need to be done...ill probably end up doing the wrap after i paint the doors and the back panels.

how long did you wait for the paint to dry out after you painted the parts.

 

That's one thing I can give you props for, I have no idea how to do all the electrical wiring and figuring out speakers and whatnot.

For the paint, it dried SUPER quick. I'm talking within a couple minutes. I went pretty thin with each coat so I knew it wouldn't glob up or run. Just make sure you don't put masking tape on the painted parts in the future, if you decide to paint something a different color, because it'll pull a little of the vinyl paint off.

 

honestly bro wiring is easy. well...basic wiring i guess. everything is color coded and as long as you have the diagram its no sweat. its when you try to do fancy stuff outside of the diagram is what gets tricky. BELIEVE me yo this forum was a big help with all of my electrical stuff. the greatest thing about doin it yourself is that if something goes wrong you know where to find the error and how to fix it.

have you done anything to the your car besides the painted interior? any other mods?

 

I've upgraded the suspension just a little above OEM. Sway bar links, tie rods, upper Control arms, upper and lower ball joints. I have a high flow cat, and a 2.5" catback with a 4.5" tip. Next week I'm going to be ordering a stage 1 clutch and a short shifter. Nothing crazy but it's a start. What all have you done to yours?

 

honestly ive got some very basic mods

short ram intake
megan headers
2.5 catback
magnaflow exhaust with my stock tips (sleeper status lol)
custom lip kit from klepto (one of the former members of the forum)
18 inch velocity rims


what i have yet to install but is either unfinished or dont have the rest of the parts for

projector conversion for headlights with spare pair of headlight housing
carputer with i5 cpu, 120 gb ssd, 3gig mem (dont have a case, auto shutdown psu, liliput screen)
2 10" sundown audio subs (these are going in the back seat. im removing the seats and then laying down some mdf to even everything out. doing some extensive research on fiber glassing so that i cna make custom pods that theyll go into)
hifonics brutus amp 1000 watt for the sundowns
a shit load of LED strips and cathod tubes for interior lighting, trunk lighting, and engine lighting (i used to work at a computer warehouse so i basically got these for free lol)


as you can see im more of a audio video show car kinda guy. but as far as performance, you should check out some of the builds on here. folks like cocoa and ethenol (sp?) have some INSANE first gen builds.

 

My goal at this point is to install the Weapon R dragon intake, get some headers and a high flow cat to go with the rest of my exhaust.
Get some Tein Street basis coilovers
Attempt to fit some Rota Grid V2's. (My worry with them is the offset) if they don't fit I'm going to buy some extended studs and wheel spacers, and then try again. Lol

I also want to learn how to lay fiberglass and get a nice and glossy dash, and have my center console go all the way to the back.

Gauge cluster and instrument cluster LEDs
Finish the black interior swap (may go for some aftermarket buckets, or stock s2k seats. And have the rear bench reupholstered.
Get my windows tinted, and I'll probably find other stuff I wanna do from there on.

I'd like to rebuild my engine, but that's not exactly something I can do in a day, on the only car I have. Lol