I Ripped The Interior Out Of My Porsche 996 Turbo And I'm Kind Of Freaking Out About It
When I kicked off this particular Porsche project, I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like when I was done. Way back before the painting process had even begun I met with Sean from Spotlight Customs to discuss options. I knew that if the exterior of the car was going to be bright and ostentatious, I would need an interior to match its freak. The biggest downside of the 996-generation 911 was its lackluster interior materials, and I can’t handle the original boring grey leather much longer, so why not start fresh?
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Thankfully I got on Spotlight’s wait list last fall, because their calendar for 2024 was full before the year even started. My turn on their dance card has finally come up, and on Friday we started digging in to the nitty gritty.
Image: Bradley Brownell
I arrived to Spotlight on Friday morning ready to see the fruits of what they’d already finished, and to drop off a few more items before the hard stuff happens in a few months. The sport seats that I’d dropped off last December, a wrecked driver’s side and a pristine passenger’s side, had been combined into one good seat. The backs and sides had been paint matched to the exterior, and the plush Italian leather and gorgeous faded wool inserts we picked out all those months ago had been whipped up in a bowl and alakazam’d into a fresh sport seat. The whole thing looked truly killer.
Image: Bradley Brownell
The matching center console is entirely too cool. It’s going to be hard to even install this in the car, because it looks so great as a piece of art on my living room bookshelf.
Image: Spotlight Customs
So with the driver’s seat and center console complete, I swung by to give them a few more things to wrap in gorgeous leather and cloth. We dug out the tools and got to ripping shit out.
Image: Bradley Brownell
Four bolts later and the passenger’s seat was removed. I had to apologize to Henry, my 16-year-old Bassett/Beagle mix, for removing the chair he was sitting in on the way down.
Image: Bradley Brownell
I can’t remember now who it was, but I remember listening to a racing driver on a podcast, possibly Jenson Button or Dario Franchitti, saying that they’d spec’d a car with a sport seat for the driver and a comfort seat for the passenger. I asked my passenger princess wife if she wanted the more aggressive bolsters of a sport seat or not at the beginning of this process, and she said she liked the original seats. So here we are, one fresh sport seat for me, and the old ready-to-be-renewed stock comfort seat for her. I think these will look great once they match and are back in the car.
Image: Bradley Brownell
Similarly, we yanked the door panels off and got them prepped for recovering. The uppers, like the seats, will be wrapped in plush green leather, and the original carpeted lowers will get the cloth treatment to continue the two-tone vibe.
Once these pieces are finished, I’ll swap in the green bits that are finished; carpet, seats, center console and door cards. Later this year, after a bit more mechanical work is completed on the car, it’ll get dropped off at Spotlight for them to tear out the dashboard, make the new now-sunroof-free headliner, and button up the trim work. Hopefully come next spring I’ll have a completed car ready to enjoy for long time to come. For now I’m driving around with a decidedly minimalist interior.
