Grey/Gray interior, yay or nay? Shopping sight unseen.

Hey, sorry to make such ure a silly thread but I have found a 996 that checks almost all the boxes for me....except the interior. It's grey. From the picture it has the look of a 90s Taurus. For those of you that have the graphite grey interior, has it grown on you? Did you paint trim pieces to break it up? Due to where I live I will be buy a 996 sight unseen (norm for me) so I thought I would ask. I know ideally I would just hold out until I find the perfect one but what I want is not exactly the most comon place to begin with and condition for me usually trumps everything else. Thanks for the patience.

I�d say the Graphite Grey has grown on me over the last 3 years. Definitely would have preferred Black but everything else about the car was what I was looking for. A tan/Beige interior would have been a dealbreaker though. I use CocoMats to help break up the sea of grey Instagram

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Yea, both of my mk2 996 cars had graphite grey interior. It's weird how they went crazy with this color, like Porsche had a surplus on the stuff because everything was painted the same color from the factory with no complementary colors. Of course, the soft touch paint doesn't last either and when it wears off, the black plastic is revealed. Looks bad. Therefore, I decided to paint my center console and hand brake flat black to complement the AC, radio, etc. A simple change really transformed the interior.

Interesting phibert. Looks like you have almost 2 tone kind of grey in there looking at your centre console and side vents. Did it come like that or did you paint?

Floor mats/seats/trim. Lots of ways to easily clean/break/open up the interior. Mine was originally all graphite grey.

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It came that way on the early build 996s Mine is a 2/98 The center console, side vents and the back of the sport seats have the color thru granite trim. It definitely holds up better than the soft touch trim that it was replaced with.

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Interesting. This is what I am looking at.

These cars are like legos. It�s very easy to swap parts. For example, you could change every little piece of the center console to a different color if desired. I recently went on eBay and located black trim pieces to break up the sea of gray. I did the center horseshoe, ignition key surround, vents, hazard button surround, hand brake, shifter, and added a GT3 console delete. All in black. It was easy to do and cheap.

Mine is grey and I love it. However, it was all grey (do have a full leather package), then I updated it with black leather parts along with carbon fiber parts. I absolutely love the look. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...-upgrades.html

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If you don�t like that sea of grey (not that�s there�s anything wrong with it), you don�t have to live with it. As others have said and shown, there�s plenty of options to break it up. It wouldn�t (and didn�t) stop me if everything else about the 996 was what I was looking for.

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Your finished pictures have been removed from that old thread. Repost so we can see what you're talking about.

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They are buried in there, you just have to jump through some hoops. The future of archeology will be trying to find broken links. http://audipages.com/911/tn_DSC_7663.JPG http://audipages.com/911/tn_DSC_7660.JPG

I have graphite grey with carbon in my midnight blue 996 Turbo and I love it. Carbon horseshoe, batwing, instrument surround and that little trim strip across the dash really break up the grey. I have a carbon steering wheel, shift ****, and parking brake too which really help. Next step is a midnight blue center console. IMO blue and grey go well.

I have Graphite in my Turqoise car and love it as well. Cooler in the summer than black. Best way is to break up the sea of Gray with black accents (floormats, trim pieces, etc.). Overall, I'm happy with the colour. Some of the soft touch paint when it scratches looks like crap, but if you change those to black or paint them body colour, it's fine. Overall, I wasn't shopping for Gray interior, but I definitely would now consider it again in another car, no issue.

No need to worry about the grey. Have had it for 22 years and I love it. There is alot you can do with it to break up the "sea of gray". A long time ago I added black Rennline aluminum track mats. Grey GT3 seats with blue harnesses and a flat black roll bar. I just ordered extra interior parts on ebay and will paint the center console seal grey (same as exterior), replace grey center console trim with black leather, grey shifter boot with black, and add carbon fiber horseshoe and side vents. Still wrestling with blue vs black harnesses since I have to replace them due to expiration dates. Probably go with a black momo steering wheel as well.

GT3 Seats in Grey are like hen's teeth. I found a seat of Sports Seats in Gray, the first set I'd seen in several years, here on Rennlist....

Purchased them in 2008. They have worn very well. I do have some leather dye from the seat doctor that I plan on using to refresh the grey on the drivers seat left side and the bottom cushion from wear. But the leather has proven to be very durable. Helps to keep them clean and conditioned. Should look brand new after I'm done. i have actually experienced the most wear on the center console from my harness buckles. The just knick the hell out of the rubbery coating. I am going to experiment with a used center console I just bought to strip it and paint it the same as my exterior color. I am curious as to coats of clear lacquer needed to get a very durable exterior finish. I also plan on figuring out how to cover my harness buckles with something that will provide some protection against beating up the newly painted center console. No idea what/how as of yet.

Here's one I took recently when I was in the car.

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Paul did a nice job with his interior. It not only looks brand new but it works well together. Saw it a few weeks ago in person when Paul was getting rid of his extra interior bits. Thanks again Paul!

I couldn't do it. It's the thing you have to look at the most. Maybe in a cab.

OP - I really like Diddy’s Lego analogy. But these are expensive “bricks” to update. If the car is mechanically solid, etc, don’t let the gray interior stop you. About $4,000 and a bunch of sweat work was well worth the effort to me. Mine went from this: Sea of gray (Note: This is a .1, but represents what mine looked like back 6 years ago) To this: Black seats front and rear. Black mats. Aluminum accents, body-color interior trim pieces and upgraded steering wheel.

What happened to your old gray seats, @hatchetf15 ?

I also started with a sea of gray. I swapped the gray 4 spoke wheel with a 3 spoke black version, new black console, new shift **** with black gaiter, black lower horseshoe trim, black console delete and and black and gray Coco Mats. I saved all the gray parts so I can put it back to original.

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Sitting around looking for a new home. They�re good couches but need a better dye job than my first try. I�ll look tomorrow and see if I cannibalized any of the wires for the transplant of the 997 seats. I don�t remember.

I have a seal gray over graphite gray car. I did not want gray at all when I got it, but the price was right. I still didn�t like it for a while after the car was delivered, but it has since grown on me and I�ve really come to appreciate the color. It screams late 90s / early 2000s to me, which I think suits the car well. I love the way black interiors look, but they are ROUGH in the hot Utah summers. i have done nothing to modify the interior, but I�m considering repainting the center console in seal gray to match the exterior and possibly getting black mats. I�m personally not a fan of black seats in a graphite gray interior, but I would KILL for a set of gray sport seats

I have never given interiors much thought, on any car. When I was looking for my 996, like most, I had a lengthy list of boxes to check. The car basically checked all of them. I didn't give the fact that it had platinum interior a second thought. And still don't -- I actually like it. It wears incredibly well. My car has 51k miles and the interior is a strong 9.5 out of 10. It looks virtually new.

Just be glad it's not Metropol Blue. Much harder to play the mix&match game than the grays and blacks.

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Mine are early OEM buckets with embroidered logos. Also attached a picture before all the contrast changes/black parts. I may repaint the center console, or buy a black one.

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A guy was selling his car and it had Gray Sports seats in them - I offered to buy them separately from the car, as he had a set of aftermarket Bride? seats in his garage in the background, and he said yes. Thank Jesus he did. -Matt

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well played. You have to be ready to pounce when opportunities like that present themselves

Agreed. An option for you is to pick up a set of black ones when they come up, and then have them re-upholstered, then send the black leather off to be turned into luggage for the car. I had the Gray set reupholstered and that's what I did. Big fan.

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Yeah, a little black goes a long way in a 996 w/ a graphite gray interior. It breaks up the sea of gray nicely.

Plus, a 3-spoke steering wheel goes a long way, too....

I had a silver over gray 2002 cab. Similarly to your thinking, I bought it for everything but the colors, neither of which excited me. I sold it after two years, in part because of the interior color which, as someone said above, you look at every time you get into the car. I finally realized that I just really don't like a gray interior. The suggestions above for breaking up the sea of gray are good ones and really improve the look of the pictured cars, but don't address the largest, most visible piece: the dash pad. The light color also reflects into the windshield, which is annoying when driving into the sun. You have several choices, of which two are: settle for a color that you have reservations about and spend a lot of time and money trying to make it more palatable to you, or wait for a car that you will enjoy looking at inside and out. I am much happier in my Atlas Gray Metallic over Sea Blue cab with a Metropol Blue top. Oh, and I loved my silver over gray 92 Taurus SHO. Go figure.

This thread reminded me that I wanted to get a black center console. Did a little searching and found one out of a wrecked GT2. My bud actually knows the car and has some parts off it already. It should be a nice change. https://www.ebay.com/itm/29528930234...mis&media=COPY I will post some pics when I get it in.

Nice! I saw that one on ebay yesterday! I just picked up another center console this week as well. Moving forward with painting it seal gray. Picked up all of the black leather side pads as well. Last thing I need is a set of carbon fiber side vents and carbon horseshoe. If I don't like the seal gray console I'll strip it off and go a shade or two darker. You only know if you try it. Good luck with new console.

I have some new “sea of grey” changes. Before After After Meh,,but you get the idea Color crest Black 15 mm all around Going to have the wheels powder coated graphite soon

If my interior wasn't trashed by clogged drains I would have kept mine stock. But because it was filled with mold and stunk I got a black carpeting from a donor and dyed my door cards to match. I then replaced the really worn wheel for a black one. Finally, I painted the center stack and console silver to break things up. I think it makes it easier to tolerate the all-grey look. Check out my channel if you want to know more. Yogi's Garage

Definitely too much grey for me so....

RUF did it right.

I think it came out pretty well. Nice contrast and the black console is in way better shape overall than the grey one.

Diddy - Def improved with the black center stack and console. To me the gray center console was a total buzz kill�especially with scratched soft touch paint.

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Thank you. The center console was something that bothered me since the very first time I test drove the car, but other things were more important. Its just so easy to change parts. I was on Ebay for a few minutes and found the part. Swapped it in the car in maybe 30 minutes. 996s are just so easy to work on. The gray soft touch paint was terrible. The gray console was pretty beat up, and it looked like someone half assed touched it up with spray paint at some point. The part isn't broken, so I think my friend and I will refinish it to color match his 996TT build. It should look pretty nice when done.

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Hi @Yogibara , How did you paint the center console? What type of paint and method? I have seen several 996's with center consoles in the exterior color of the car, a beautiful metallic paint that looks like was professionally done. Have searched the web all around trying to find the possible supplier with no luck.... maybe those were painted like yours. Thanks!

Hey all, just jumping in here as I'm also on the fence about picking up a 996 that's all grey inside. Has anyone tried to replace the entire side door panel to black? Curious if that would break things up nicely Found this one on ebay and lots of others like it:

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@ hatchetf15 Nice interior -- I am now breaking up my Sea of Grey. May I ask where you found the steering wheel (cover)? I know this an older thread, but still so relevant! Thx!

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Thank you. Dallas Custom Steering Wheel. They do really fine work for what used to be a reasonable charge and a decent turnaround. http://www.dallassteeringwheel.com/

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Thanks for sharing!