When I was originally noodling about a Cobra, I was planning to build one; but I knew it would be green (I was debating about vineyard green, versus BRG) and I also knew my car would have tan seats (more Arizona-friendly). So when this green Classic Roadsters car fell into my lap for less $$ than I could build one, and since it had the green/tan color combo I was looking for, I went ahead and bought it instead of ordering a kit.
Here's a before shot of the interior, as it came to me:
The tan seats I loved... The tan dash and door panels, not so much- There was actually too much tan going on with this car.
Recently, I was watching the Lynn Park interviews here on ClubCobra, and in one of the videos, they pulled one of his old 289 slabside cars out of the garage, and when I saw the interior, I paused the video, and took a screen shot - I thought this combination of black and tan looked amazing:
This interior shot of Mr. Park's car gave me all the incentive I needed...
So, this past weekend, I tore my dash panel down, masked everything that needed to be masked, and went to town with 2 cans of black SEM Classic Coat on my dash and door panels. I've used this SEM product on leather and vinyl for over 20 years, and I have been REALLY impressed with it - If you clean and prep the leather correctly (following SEM's instructions, and using their cleaner products) This stuff becomes a permanent color-change, and never flakes, peels or scuffs off the leather. I've used it on old Jeep seats that are fully exposed to Arizona sun, rain, dust, mud, etc, and it has withstood the test of time, so I had no qualms about using it on my Sunday-driver Cobra... It's an amazing product.
Visually, the final results were exactly what I was looking for, and I think it pays a nice tribute to the styling of the early street Cobras... it was a fun $50 weekend project. I'm glad I watched that video
