Do-it-yourself salon tuning is an exciting experience for every car owner. It not only improves appearance, gives individuality to the vehicle, but also increases comfort. The procedure is quite affordable in terms of cost and complexity.
How to start updating the salon?
The first step is to pay attention to the seating. They can be reconstructed or replaced with a more comfortable option. Sitting can always be made for yourself by installing lateral support, lumbar support. The seats can be retrofitted with a new material with a unique cut, in any style and shade.
If you are satisfied with them, then you can always use model covers with side fixation. Such material will not only look beautiful, but also serve as a practical function of protecting the seats from abrasion.
Often there are universal covers that are not so expensive, serve a deadline and are fixed with elastic bands or hooks.
Individual models are presented for a specific car brand. Their material is the most diverse - eco-leather, alcantara. The first material is the most practical - it heats up faster in winter and prevents sweating in summer. Can be presented in a solid color model or with inserts. Taking care of such covers does not take much time - just spray the cleaner and wipe the material with a microfiber cloth.
The sports seats have a single body with no cushions or backrests. A durable fiberglass composite is used as a material. As a result, it is possible to achieve an optimal angle between the support of the back and hips. This option guarantees a reliable fixation of the driver during sharp turns at high speed. They are suitable for those who love speed.
Door cladding and the use of materials for soundproofing the body are the best solution to increase comfort. Before this procedure, you need to decide what result you need to achieve - improve the sound of the music or get rid of squeaks. This decision will allow you to decide on the material.
If it is necessary to soundproof the doors, hood, roof, floor, a certain seal is selected for each case. At the same time, rugs that are made of rubber or textiles are changing:
- Textile models are easy to pull out, they absorb liquid well and are not as expensive as polyurethane car mats. The latter repeat the shape of the floor, do not harden in the cold.
- Rubber models have higher bumpers, they are easier to clean and easier to replace. Similar materials are used for rugs. luggage compartment... High sides keep water and snow out.
But design connoisseurs should give preference to textile models. There are models that combine the advantages of rubber and textile models.
Steering wheel selection - trim and replacement
Braiding is considered the simplest and most standard interior tuning option. They are presented in various materials - leather, fur, with inserts. You can also trim the steering wheel to match the interior style, using a certain material. The cost of such a constriction is much higher than the previous tuning option. But you can purchase a set for self-constriction... It includes genuine leather, threads and a special needle.
To give the vehicle a sportier look, it is worth installing the appropriate seats and steering wheel. Manufacturers Sparco, Recaro and Nardi, Simoni Racing work in this style.
When it comes to selection, you should give preference to comfort, try the model in your hands. Due to its small size, such a rudder is often called a steering wheel.
In the interior design, such small elements as armrests, shelves, lining on the dashboard are also important. Do-it-yourself auto interior tuning allows you to add an individual style to the interior and make it comfortable at an optimal cost.
Shown additional parts for the cabin
Some models show not only the engine speed, but also have a limit mark that each driver can set independently. More expensive models are equipped with a cut-off for maximum revolutions and the ability to store values in memory. The cutoff allows you to switch the required gear on time. And the record is necessary for the connoisseur of high-speed traffic in order to analyze their mistakes.
When driving intensively, engine cooling performance is important. To optimize the process, it may be necessary to install an oil pump or other oil pan to ensure efficient heat dissipation. There are special devices that measure the temperature of the transmission oil, but if such elements are not needed, then you should not decorate the interior with them.
The magnitude of the pressure of gases or liquids will be determined by a special meter. There are two arrows on its screen - one shows the pressure after the supercharger, the second differs in a different color and demonstrates the operation in the intake manifold.
Interested in tuning SUVs? Read on. How to make tuning a VAZ 2114 salon? Helpful hints in this article .
The car can be equipped with various electronics, which allows the generator, battery and other components of the system to work effectively. For example, an on-board voltage meter will help determine the operation of the same battery. There are models of devices with several meters at once. Thus, it is possible to reduce unnecessary filling of the dashboard and provide itself with everything you need.
Tuning is a common concept among the owners of domestic vehicle models. Such cars are distinguished by a budget interior, which is not particularly comfortable and perfect. Budget panels and not-so-comfortable seats depress the driver while driving.
If you want to create additional comfort in the car or emphasize your status, then you can make a tuning of the salon
Of course, you can turn to professionals who can tune the salon. vehicle taking into account your wishes and modern design solutions, however, such a pleasure will not be very cheap. If you have the opportunity, free time and desire, then you can do the tuning yourself, without the help of specialists, and at the same time save money. Consider in this article how to make tuning.
Do-it-yourself car soundproofing
Modernization of the vehicle interior includes a huge number of changes. Before starting work, it is important to understand what kind of result you want to achieve, it will be determined with colors interior. This will help you figure it out for the job. If you are the owner domestic car and you want to make a complete tuning of the car's interior, then, according to the advice of specialists, you need to start working with noise isolation and vibration isolation of the cabin.
To do this, you need to purchase insulation materials in special stores. It is necessary to start work with a complete disassembly of the passenger compartment, cleaning it from dust and dirt. Remnants of old upholstery are completely removed from the interior. To obtain a high-quality result, it is necessary to initially glue vibration-insulating material in one or two layers, which will reduce the level of vibration in the car while driving. The next step there will be sizing of the soundproofing material also in one or two layers. This will reduce the level of noise and squeak in the car while driving. It is necessary to glue the material over the entire inner surface of the passenger compartment, pay special attention to hard-to-reach places. You can walk with a hair dryer to shrink the materials to improve the result.
Then you can start assembling the cabin. For a tighter fit of the cladding elements, seals are used. If you are going to tune the interior trim, then it will be easier for you to cope with this task disassembled and put the already tuned elements in place.
Tuning smooth surfaces of the car interior with your own hands
Most often, the interior smooth parts of the car are made of cheap plastic and have an unpresentable appearance. There are several ways to upgrade your torpedo, door cards and other plastic elements.
The easiest way to tune the interior of a car is pasting carbon or vinyl wrap under carbon. This is not a very time-consuming process, although it requires utmost care, careful measurement of details. The film is glued quite simply: you need to clean and degrease the surface to be treated, glue the film, straightening it from the center to the edges of the part using a spatula with a soft tip. For a tighter fit, heat treatment must be carried out in parallel with a hair dryer. It is more convenient to do this work together. Carbon film is sold in different colors, so you can combine colors for a more original look. For example, highlight the handles of a vehicle or a torpedo with a different shade and in an individual style. It all depends on the flight of your imagination.
A more expensive option for tuning the car's interior is trimming the interior elements with leather or Alcantara - artificial suede. Padding a vehicle interior with leather is very expensive. To do this, you need a special automotive leather that is resistant to fire, is durable and durable. Slightly more economical is the option of restraining parts with the help of faux suede, which gives the interior comfort and warmth. Working with such materials requires a lot of diligence and care and can take a week or more.
If you are tired of your ugly smooth plastic surfaces, then you can always replace them with leather or rare wood species.
The most economical and popular option for tuning smooth interior surfaces is flocking. This is a way of decorating a car interior with your own hands using flock - chemically treated textiles. Before flocking, it is necessary to degrease the surface of the product, work it over with a primer and fine sandpaper. The next step is to apply an even layer of glue and flock the surface. To do this, it is advisable to have a flokator - a machine for applying it, which in the shortest possible time will help you cope with the task in even hard-to-reach places. Excess material is blown away with the help of a hair dryer. Parts are left to dry for several hours. You get interior elements that have a pleasant-to-the-touch fabric effect, fade-resistant and wet-wipe-resistant, and add personality and comfort to your car.
Do-it-yourself car ceiling tuning
An important point in the full tuning of the salon is the modernization. Most often, manufacturers produce cars with white cladding on the ceiling. And no matter how the owner takes care of his car, over time the ceiling burns out and fades, acquires a reddish tint. Carpet is most often used to stretch the ceiling - an inexpensive and common material.
It is necessary to start the modernization by removing the headliner, it is advisable to do it carefully so that you can use it for cutting out of new material. Next, you should clean and degrease the ceiling and fix the prepared pattern on it with the help of standard clamps. For reliability, you can pre-work the ceiling with glue. This will ensure a more secure fit.
Flocking can also be used for the ceiling to give a more presentable look.
DIY car seat upgrade
Tuning car seats is an important part of modernizing a vehicle's interior. In order to improve the appearance of the seats, you can buy new car covers and thus transform them. And also to improve the look of your car, you can replace the old seats with seats from a good foreign car.
If you want to get a really unique result, then it is better to do the hauling of the car seats with your own hands.
Most often, eco-leather is used for constriction. This is not a very expensive material that has good elasticity and a presentable appearance. More expensive options include the manufacture of car leather and Alcantara covers. These materials have a longer service life.
Having decided on the material and its color, you can get to work. Always remove the seat from the vehicle before trimming the seat. It is very carefully necessary to remove the trim from the seats, since it will serve you as a pattern, then you need to make a markup with a marker and old car covers on new material and cut out all the elements of the pattern. From the inside, it is glued with foam rubber.
To give your car seats a more dignified look, try leather overlining and embroidering beautiful designs.
It remains only to sew the prepared elements using strong reinforced threads. In order for the car covers to have a presentable look, it is necessary to straighten the inner seams, cut off the foam rubber from them and glue them with ordinary glue. After drying, the covers are steamed with a hair dryer or iron and put on the seats.
And a few more important points
Almost all elements of the car's interior have undergone tuning upgrades. There are only a few details left that will make your car interior unique.
For more effective kind it is necessary to improve the steering wheel of the car. A more presentable look can be given by covering it with automotive leather. The tuned steering wheel will look more expensive, it will become more pleasant to the touch, and thanks to the car leather that breathes, your hands will not sweat and slip on the steering wheel.
And also the look of the tuned interior can be spoiled by the old factory floor mats, which look unpresentable and shabby. Car mats can either buy new ones that you like, or you can make them yourself from rubberized carpet. This will perfect option resolving the issue, you can choose the color and quality that will fully fit into the interior of your renovated salon. To do this, instead of a model, we use an old rug and cut out tuning mats for our car according to its size.
Alternatively, you can add personality to the cabin with additional lighting elements. LED strips on dashboards and dashboards can be a stylish accessory for your car.
Let's sum up
As you can see, tuning the salon with your own hands is a real task. You can decorate all the elements of the car interior without exception. Come up with your individual style and interior and go for it. This will give you a lot of positive emotions and envy of others.
Are you tired of the boring look of your car's interior? All in your hands! Do-it-yourself car interior tuning will not only save you money, but also help develop (or show developed) creative thinking. Yes, and there is nothing difficult in this, because it is not the gods who burn the pots. Let's take a look at the most affordable and popular solutions.
Let's start with the seats. The most simple option are covers - you can buy them at any car dealership. Covers not only protect the seat upholstery - they can be chosen in body color or any other.
On a note
There are leatherette and Alcantara covers on sale, which will give the cabin a more expensive look. You can change the entire seats and install others - more suitable for your requirements. If you are a fan of active and fast driving, then sports "buckets" are suitable for you. If the driving style is sedate and imposing, use comfortable seats from a good foreign car.
Such cars as, say, Zhiguli "classics" have a serious drawback - poor lighting of devices. This issue is solved with the help led strip, neatly glued inside the device, and connected instead of the standard backlight. Another advantage of this solution is that the diodes can be supplied in any color. This will be especially appreciated by those who do not like the native light of a yellowish lamp through a pale blue filter.
You can also install additional devices, such as a voltmeter or an econometer, to keep abreast of the operation of all vehicle systems. Electromechanical watch - sore spot of all VAZs - can be replaced with electronic counterparts, which perfectly fit into a regular place and last much longer.
What can you do in the salon with your own hands?
It is somewhat similar to a binge: if you start, it is already very difficult to stop. And is it really necessary? All the more so if you have hands and a thirst for action. Let's move on to the most creative process - making custom interior elements on our own.
The main material for this type of work is fiberglass. With a few skills, you can make anything out of it. Consider the process of making a so-called "beard" - a lining for a tunnel.
First you need to make a blank - the basis for the future product. The easiest way to make a blank is from a piece of Styrofoam - it is easy to process. We put the styrofoam in place of the future "beard", mark it along the length and width, and then make it about the same size. Once again we put it in place, adjust the dimensions exactly and cut out the necessary holes and grooves for the gearshift lever, handbrake, cup holder, mobile phone etc.
Give the disc the desired shape (smooth transition from dashboard into the armrest, for example) and begin gradually, layer by layer, to apply glass cloth greased with epoxy resin to it. Three to four layers will be enough to provide strength no worse than purchased counterparts.
After the last layer has hardened, we start sanding the resulting part, if necessary, adjusting the shape with a putty. When the surface is smooth and the shape is desired, it remains to paint or cover the "beard" with leatherette or fabric. Acoustic podiums on the doors and under the rear window are made in the same way.
On a note
For good sound in the cabin, there are few powerful speakers - noise and vibration isolation is needed. The choice of materials is great, you just need to choose those that will suit you in terms of price and quality. After purchasing the insulation, let's start installing it. To do this, we COMPLETELY disassemble the interior to the metal: remove all upholstery, seats, door cards.
Next, we glue the body with vibration-proof mats and assemble the interior. Doors need to be given special attention - not only to glue them from the inside, but also to ensure that the door card fits as tightly as possible to create a closed volume. Therefore, the perimeter of the card must also be pasted over with a sealant, and the technological holes under it must be plugged.
Where to get ideas when creating a new design for a salon?
Since the Internet became ubiquitous, it has become possible to communicate with tuners around the world. A huge number of photo and video reports, hundreds of thousands of photos of interiors - consider, determine and choose!
However, it should be noted that, after looking at the photos, not everyone can get the image of the future salon. Sculpting everything is also not an option. So what should be the guideline when choosing a design?
First of all, you should determine the tuning budget. On how much you are willing to spend on new salon, depends on the scale of work, materials and accessories. When the budget is determined, you can start creating a working sketch.
If you plan to do the tuning of the salon with your own hands, then it is very desirable to have drawing skills. Some tuners work without a sketch project, but only a few are capable of this. And, most likely, even they would have done better with the project.
The sketch helps to choose color combinations and determine the shapes of all objects of the interior composition. The selection of color combinations must be approached with all seriousness. The showiness of the future salon will half depend on this.
Another component is ergonomics. Think about what is missing in the old salon and what you would like to see in the new one. Interior tuning is a great opportunity to customize all the controls of the car and its systems. You will have to spend more than one hour in a chair with a tape measure until all the necessary dimensions appear in the project.
The third component is comfort. It is strongly associated with ergonomics, which was mentioned above. But comfort also means a comfortable fit. If in this sense there are claims to the car, then you should definitely pay the maximum amount of attention to eliminating all causes of discomfort.
Steering wheel adjustment is not available on all vehicles. Even the most modern cars may be deprived of sufficiently complete adjustment. Some have height adjustment, but there is no in-flight adjustment. This means that tall drivers can face a problem.
If the steering wheel is not adjustable for reach, then a tall driver, having moved the seat back, may not reach the steering wheel. If he moves closer to the steering wheel, then his knees will rest on the lower part of the dashboard. With a strong desire, you can install a full-fledged adjustable steering wheel, but this may require qualified welding.
An important aspect of the driver's comfort while driving is the lateral support of the seats. The lack of this makes the torso tense when cornering. But lateral support will not be superfluous even if the driver is not a fan of fast driving. When the chair hugs a little, there is a feeling of comfort.
Having dealt with the comfort for the torso, let's move on to the comfort of the hands. It is difficult to overestimate the presence of an armrest. If the car is equipped with mechanical transmission, then the armrest is simply necessary, since it is tiring to hold the right hand for a long time. The armrest should not be flimsy and it is very important that it does not look artisanal.
Everyone has an individual taste, and the desire to customize everything to suit him is quite natural. Our personal transport is no exception, so tuning the car's interior is very popular with many owners.
Tuning inside the car: where to start?
Of course, the appearance of the car is of great importance, but both the driver and passengers spend most of their time in the cabin. Thus, there is a need to ensure more comfort by improving and completing the entire car. In addition, the combination of the appearance of the vehicle with its technical equipment... This is what is called tuning.
At the same time, reincarnation can be very different character, and no one can accurately calculate the item of expenditure on it. Indeed, for some motorists, it will be enough to install some kind of sports accessory in the cabin, for example, a steering wheel. And for others it is important to completely replay the style and design of their " iron horse". In the latter case, of course, only on their own it is unlikely that you will be able to limit yourself and you will have to turn to professionals. So the material costs will be an order of magnitude higher.
Car interior tuning - choose a method
Today, there are several main types of tuning, and the most popular among them is flocking, which implies the creation of a velvet surface. The first cars with a similar design were created in the United States, but over time, Switzerland took the reins of power from the Americans, and now it is she who is leading in this area.
It is also worth paying attention to the carbon fiber trim. This fabric is crafted from carbon fibers and has an epoxy resin top. Its main advantages include an impeccable appearance, excellent strength characteristics, despite its rather low weight, and the ability to create a unique interior, since with its help you can easily recreate any pattern.
In addition, you can add zest to your personal vehicle, while emphasizing all its significance and solidity, by means of veneering. Such a finish will also speak of the owner's impeccable taste, because natural wood has always been, is and will be in the price. True, it is almost impossible to carry out such work on your own, unless, of course, you are a furniture master. You can also impress passengers with an original one, but even then you have to work hard.
We make a unique tuning of the dashboard ourselves
In principle, you can make a good high-quality tuning of the dashboard and car interior in specialized firms. But if there is a desire to personally take part in the creation of the design of your transport, then there are no problems in carrying out this procedure on your own. At the same time, you will be able to significantly save your money, because the services of professionals are not a cheap pleasure.
In order for the velvet layer to be even as a result, the surface should be thoroughly polished before applying all of the above.
After completing all preparatory work you can freely proceed directly to the flocking itself, for this you need to carefully read the instructions supplied with the device. Usually, before this, a layer of glue is also applied to the surface, and then it is already processed with a machine. Those particles that have not adhered are blown away by a hairdryer, but only with cold air. And the layers need to be dried naturally in a well-heated room.
As for the carbon trim, everything is as simple as shelling pears in this matter. The main thing is to thoroughly clean the surface of the workpiece and apply a base layer to it. Remember that it must dry for at least two and a half hours. During this time, the resin should go into such a state that when touched, it sticks, but no traces remain. Next, gently apply the carbon fabric. Its edges need to be cut a little with a margin and, bending them, attach with masking tape. Then let the parts dry for six hours.
Next are the layers of clear epoxy. They must be applied carefully so that the surface is as flat as possible. After an eight-hour break, the first layer must be cleaned with 120 grit sandpaper. Then the second layer is applied, and after 3 hours - the third one. After another 8 hours, the whole procedure is repeated anew. In the end, the part is varnished and polished.
