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'98 contour SE interior mod

L

L00fah

CEG'er
Joined
Mar 7, 2010
Messages
107
Location
Alexandria, VA
I don't quite have the fancy-shmancy SVT interior... But I would definitely like to. I only just got my SE in July last year and only recently became interested in modding it.

I presently have a tan, 100% stock interior. Automatic.
I have a few questions after doing some searching on this site:
1. I want to get white face cluster and HVAC, should I buy blue/purple LEDs or will they glow blue?
2. Would it be ugly if I changed all the plastic to black/gray and left cloth tan? Or should I do a full black/gray conversion? I'm considering high end seat covers, black. But the carpet and such is a bit much for me right now
3. And should I salvage a black contour steering wheel from a local junker or go for Cougar? I think the cougar would look best with leather seats... And I don't really like leather seats.
4. My cigarette lighter doesn't work anymore... It seems like this isn't uncommon. Any idea how to fix this??
5. I hate my current cup holders. The passenger side is significantly shallower than the driver side. Is there any way I can fix this without heavy modding?? I couldn't find much on cup holders here... but I'm sick of making my girlfriend hold her drinks when we go out for food.

Any help is appreciated, I'll be checking this daily or as often as I can. Thanks community. :)
 
1. you can install a SVT guage cluster for white faced guages. also you can get a hvac panel in white off ebay. changing the lighting will only change how the numbers/letter light up, not the whole face.

2. I don't think it would look right. you could just pick up some stock leather seats to swap if you wanted.

3. no contours had a black steering wheel.

4. check fuse and wiring as a starting point.

5. don't let anyone eat or drink in the car, problem solved, lol. actually check the classifieds for the updated cup holders that drop in.
 
1. No, I know that much. haha! I was wondering if I needed LEDs if I got a new face to make the letters blue or if they would already be blue. The green is too dim on the highest level and it just doesn't look good. Dated. I shoulda been more clear. :p

2. Pleh! Leather. No thank you. Haha

3. Alrighty-o! Black contour wheel it is! That should (hopefully) be cheaper anyhow.

4. fuse is fine, checked that one already, and would the wiring just be under the middle console? I'll open it today if it's easy to get.

5. Haha! Unfortunately, I'd be a hypocrite if I did that. But I damn well make sure my friends clean up the messes they make! The updated ones are deeper? Thank god. I'll do that, then. Hopefully I can grab one by the end of this week.
 
1 - You likely have a few burnt out lights if it is too dim, they are plenty bright in mine and yes it is green. The actual lettering is blue but the yellow bulbs = green. You can solve this with wide angle super white LEDs to go blue but they can have hot spots and not light everything up right etc... White face HVAC is a personal preference, yes you can get them on ebay. I personally think a white hvac looks out of place but its your car and if you like it then def. go for it.

2- Some people don't like leather. If seat covers are your thing then black looks fine. Lots of cars come stock with tan interiors and black trim. I'd change the instrument bezel and the radio/hvac bezel out for black if they aren't already. Realize that there was no black interior for the Contour though, Midnight Blue was the darkest and those pieces would look like complete ass mixed with tan. Like I said the bezels/switches and such came in black but that's it.

3- There is NO black Contour wheel. They did not exist. However this problem is easily remedied by using a black Cougar wheel/airbag/column trim which is identical to the Contour for model years 99 and 00 (99-00 Cougar I mean, it'll fit your 98 just fine). I just swapped from MNB to black myself and just posted in this very forum.

4- Eh, wiring, bad ground, something loose etc... Pull the center console and chase it down.

5- The newer cars came with deep cup holders up front. I routinely drive around with open soda cans and glorious 24oz Wawa coffees and no spillage/tippage ever.
 
ScottyDsntKnow said:
1 - You likely have a few burnt out lights if it is too dim, they are plenty bright in mine and yes it is green. The actual lettering is blue but the yellow bulbs = green. You can solve this with wide angle super white LEDs to go blue but they can have hot spots and not light everything up right etc... White face HVAC is a personal preference, yes you can get them on ebay. I personally think a white hvac looks out of place but its your car and if you like it then def. go for it.
Click to expand...

the actual lettering is green on 98+ cars due to the film on the back. on pre98s the film is more of a teal and using blue LEDs will allow the blue light through, white LEDs will not make it blue. I have gone through enough HVAC faces trying to make mine light up blue without hot spots, its virtually impossible to do. it can be done to where it looks good, but there are still some hot spots (the gauges are even worse to do). If you really want to know how to convert everything to blue search for my posts on the subject. if you cant find them, make a new post or PM me and i can get you all the info you need.

edit: here is a picture proving my point about the colors. pre98 on the top, 98+ on the bottom. if you actually shine a light through them, the letters all turn out looking the same green, even though the film color and material is clearly very different.
100_0845.jpg


and here is my current HVAC panel along with a picture of how i did it.
100_0858.jpg

100_0855.jpg
 
Dear god that is way too complicated. I guess I got some bad info on the lighting. Oh well, that's how it is on my Cobra anyway lol. That still looks pretty decent though... I'm still debating on pulling my instrument cluster out and installing LEDs like I did with the Cobra but I digress.

As for Loofah's interior stuff. He COULD always get a quality interior dye (not paint omfg not paint!) and dye some trim pieces black. The door release/switch bezels would be one as would the inside cover of the actual interior door handles (pops right out with a butter knife). I'm thinking of doing that sort of thing to my MNB interior.
 
ScottyDsntKnow said:
I'm still debating on pulling my instrument cluster out and installing LEDs like I did with the Cobra but I digress.
Click to expand...

its not that simple for the gauges either due to, once again, the film. you have to scrape it off, but if you scrape off too much around the hashes/numbers it will shine through because of the white face (the non-SVT gauges are much easier since they are black faced). also, with only 5 bulbs lighting the gauge cluster, even wide angle LEDs leave hot spots. btw, the gauge cluster bulbs use a #24 LED bulb which can be found at autolumination.com under the #74 section. I also just did this to the SVT (was putting it off due to having to figure out a way to keep the light from shining through where i dont want it) so i can get you some pics of how it currently looks.
 
1. Yeah I already have the LEDs in my favorites and all, I saw a few threads about the gauges. I was trying to decide what to all to do with the faces and lights. So I think I'll just get LEDs AND the faces, it seems that's the easiest. And most of the hot spot problems seem to be with the HVAC, however I intend on getting wide-angle for all of them.

2. Ah, I didn't know it never came in full black. So nevermind, I'll leave it as is. Screw it. :)

3. Yeah I asked if I should grab a cougar one in my first post, but someone just said no to grab the darker contour one... sooo I'm back where I started I guess. Haha, cougar it is! I think it was your thread that gave me the idea for the cougar, actually.

4. Alrighty, I'll rip out the console tomorrow when I'm doing an oil change... Provided weather is acceptable. Been crappy lately. I'll just have to hunt it down. I'm going to grab myself a multimeter.

5. I can safely say this is resolved. I'm hoping to have one sent to me by the end of this weekend. Haha, I'm asking around now. I can't post in classified, haven't been a member long enough. :)
 
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