I'm thinking about changing the interior vinyl and panel colour from Off White to Black, the door panels will pose the biggest headache but I was wondering about the "basket weave" on the 77 seats, is it fabric or cross hatched vinyl? Could I use all vinyl seat covers from an earlier year or are the 77 seats so different they need a specific covers?

The car came with a fabric insert in the seat covers but I'm not sure if it is stock or aftermarket,

Thanks

 

The stock 77 seats are all vinyl.  Your seats appear to be aftermarket.  Any of the earlier covers should fit.

You can get new excellent repro door cards in black from Zcardepot.

Thanks, I had never seen a Z with that inset before so wasn't sure.

I'm not so sure it's an aftermarket recovering.

The 77 seats all had that sort of "woven textured" vinyl inset on them, but I think it's just an embossed pattern in a solid piece of vinyl. In other words... It mimics a weave, but I do not believe it is actually woven. I don't think there are any holes in it. I think it's just a pattern on the surface.

Now as for the different colors... I consider it completely conceivable that the embossed vinyl and the smoother (leather grained embossed) vinyl came from different vendors or at least could have different compositions, and hence, have weathered differently over the years.

So all of this is academic if you're just going to swap over to a black interior, but thought I would mention it.

I just happen to be replacing the seats in my 71 with seats from a 77 and going leather from Interior Innovations. While taking the 77 seats apart I did notice that I could see through the center insert panels where the backing foam had disintegrated so I don't think it's just an embossed pattern on a solid surface.

Could be. I was looking at mine installed on a seat, and I didn't go sticking anything through it to see if there were tiny holes. But do you think the holes are just molded in, or do you really really think it is a woven material made from thing strands interlaced?

I still think it's one molded sheet, and as (anecdotal) evidence, I've seen 280 seats with that portion split open, and it did not fray into strands like a weave would. Or maybe it is really interlaced, but they heat bonded the strands together after weaving?  I mean, this is a tiny, very unimportant piece of Z trivia though!    

I got the seat covers today,  the colour is pretty close to the original, the second pic has a sample of the SEM  Super White so I think that will be a good match for the plastic panels. Also, some pics of the basket weave pattern.  I'll have to search for a good thread on recovering seats.

 

Did you also get new foam?

No, the seats where comfortable before but I may replace some of that horse hair with dense foam.