Reproduction “Feature car” headrest and door panels from TMI
I meant to pass along this tidbit from Carlisle about some reproduction interior items. TMI Classic Automotive Interiors was there showing their white pony headrests and white “feature car” door panels. I checked their website and found no mention of these items (there availability was mentioned on this site in the forums). So, I thought I should share my pics. Here is the door panel –
And the head rest:
It’s pretty good looking stuff. Although, there was one observation that I thought was right on. Tim H. said that when he and his wife looked at the headrest he noticed something didn’t look quite right. She, who is into sewing and embroidery, noted that the thread of the pony stitching was too silver.
I fully agree. It’s a good thing to keep in mind if you are going to order some. I can email more pictures if anyone is interested.
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Any idea on pricing and if they are going to do the black ones? Thanks.
@Chet, good questions but I don’t know the answer to either. I would suspect that given they have the pattern they could do the black ones.
If I remember correctly, they advertised that the door panels were for “Feature Cars”. Kind of nice to get a little recognition.
I spoke with them last year at the show and they said they were thinking of putting together some feature door panels. At the time I told them their would be interest from at least our group. They also said that they put together quite a few 92 feature seat covers so I guess that helped them see a market for the panels.
Is it my imagination or is the pony off center and low on the headrest? My other question has to do with what looks like pleats on the door panels and whether the horizontal seam at the top is correct. I don’t remember if it was TMI or Late Model Restoration that told me last year the panels were only available as pairs as they didn’t match the factory panels.
@ron e, the centering difference might be due to my photo taking position being slightly off center. Maybe not, because as I stood in front of it I thought the same thing. Although, it was close enough that I would have had to measure it to make sure. Maybe my angled position exaggerated it.
I thought the vertical “impressions” on the door panel were possibly left from when this thing was in the box. Some sort of packaging support. But, they should have gone away after it sat on the display for a few days.
I don’t know about the seam. It’s one of the things I wish I would have looked closer at. I thinking buying them as a set is good advice regardless.
Good observations and what to watch out for if you are considering these.
@Ken, you are correct, the sign did say “Feature car” door panel.
Is the door panel that you took a picture of the same as a 1992 Feature car? I cannot remember if the door panels were darker in the ’92’s.
@Ryan, 92 and 93 were both oxford white so they should be the same.
In regards to the headrest the best person to contact about that is Matt at Foxbody restoration. He is TMI’s largest distributor and was one of the guys at the TMI booth in Carlisle. The 86 LX 5.0 that was part of the TMI display showcasing the 85-86 upholstery is one of his cars. He plays a large part of their product development for 79-93 and is responsible for giving TMI NOS fabric for the 85-86 cloth seats that they used as templates for their repros. He may be the one who could get to the people at TMI to make a more accurate headrest. I do know that TMI went through a lot of work to get that headrest as close to orig. as possible. They used a high resolution photo scan and I believe used the same thread counts as OEM. Maybe the photo scan they used showed some age/dirt in the threads and that what led to the off color. Matt could probably answer the questions about the door panel as well. I thought they looked great, minus the vertical lines. I compared them closely to mine and the only difference I could tell was in the speaker grill uper screw there was an indentation “nipple” impression that factory doesn’t have.
After seeing these at Carlisle I ordered a set through Matt at TMI. I ordered a full interior also including seat foam. The door panels cost $369.99 for the set and the full leather seat set cost $599.99. Seat foams were $118.99 each. Shipping was free after a bit of negotiation. Next step in the process was for TMI to send out leather and vinyl samples. There was a bit of mystery with this as I asked for “whatever was factory stock” and they said that it is up to the individual to pick. L965 (White Classic) leather and V965 (White Classic) vinyl are what matched my car. The leather was very ‘full-bodied’ and looked to be of superior quality. Each set is said to be custom – I placed my order on June 10th and am still waiting for shipment notice. I’ll post more when I get the goods!!!
Cool….can you reuse you oem headrest? TMI was on a big back order last time I ordered from them. I replaced just the seat foam bottom in my driver’s seat to bring the shape back to like new. It took about 2 1/2 months to get the foam. You won’t believe the quality of the new foam compared with oem. Also, any time you order from Matt at foxresto mention the foureyedpride discount. It is 5-10 percent off depending on what you order.
Yes i am re-using my headrests – they are in excellent condition. Do you mean the quality is better – more dense??? Wish I would have know about the foureyedpride discount before! But I guess saving the $85 shipping charge is about a 7% discount. Didn’t need to hear that shipping may take that long, but, oh well. 🙂 My seats are getting bad. Just this year I have started to get small cracks everywhere!
OK, so I received the seat upholstery and new foams last week and spent a few nights and both days this weekend sweating my ‘arse’ off in the garage re-upholstering my car. I decided to try to do the job myself since the local shop wanted an ‘estimated’ $600 to do the work. Turns out it was not that bad of a job. Just time consuming since I had never done it before and wanted to make sure everything was absolutely perfect. The quality and fit is great and the car looks (and smells) brand new inside!!! It was a race against the clock because I have a cruise to go to tonight (8/18) and the theme is Pure Stock – next week is Convertible theme night. I will take some pictures once I have the door panels in. They are still in production and I am supposed to receive them within the next two weeks. As I mentioned, I am reusing my headrests and they were in serious need of attention. No matter what I tried they would not ‘brighten up’. Throwing caution to the wind I took a small amount of Goo Gone Extreme and tried it on the underside of the headrest. It worked great and with no ill effects to the vinyl (I did use it sparingly though on a paper towel and finished with a spray and wipe of Simple Green). It worked so well I used it on the rear speaker/convertible mechanism housing vinyl. They came up great too!!! The car is dazzling on the inside and the new seat foams make the car feel like a high-end European ride. More to come when I get the door panels installed!
tim,how did you make out.tried calling tmi,they will only sell to there dealers?seat covers nice?door panels look good?thanks
hi,received new seat covers.look great.covers went on easy,but how do you install headrest covers?anyone done this.any tricks.thank you