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Interior Guide:
A guide to recognizing factory original seat patterns and materials, as well as a guide to some of the popular aftermarket options over the decades.
Two main interior styles, two main seat patterns.
Two main interior styles, two main seat patterns.
From 1993 to 2002, the Camaro saw two different interior styles and with them came two different seat designs with different seat upholstery: '93-'96 and '97-'02.
Cloth upholstery was standard for all years, but leather was an option*.
*=I will go on about that in further detail in the future, but please keep in mind that certain special editions (like the 2002 35th Anniversary Edition SS) only came with leather. Again... I will add text about all these little details someday, just not today.
The seats in '93-'96 have bigger side bolsters, firmer foam, and the leather used was a more durable leather. The dashboard design has a jet cockpit feel to it, but the fit and finish of the components is not as good as the '97-'02. There is only 1 relatively useless cupholder in the car.
The '97-'02 seats have softer more spongy foam with slightly smaller side bolsters and the leather used was less durable and softer. The dashboard design is higher quality, is based on the Firebird/Trans Am dashboard, and has a more generic Chevrolet look to it. There are 4 cupholders, however only 1 is particularly trustworthy.
Some of the exported cars that went to various other countries featured the seats used in Firebirds/Formulas/Trans Ams. These cars have adjustable headrests. These exported cars will not be the main focus of this page, but I will talk about them at some point.
An overview of the seating situation
An overview of the seating situation
The outer side bolster on all '93-'02 Camaros tends to have wear from people getting in and out of the car, but the tougher, more durable materials used from '93-'96 tend to survive better. Due to how low 4th gens are, you might notice the plastic (where the electric seat controls are) might be deformed from decades of jumping into the car. The foam has a tendency to get very worn out after decades of use and abuse. You'll find that the '97-'02 seats, particularly leather seats, tend to have an enormous amount of wear on them. The perforated leather seat centers did not wear well, even on very low mileage cars, and owners who have not been especially careful with their seats will have large rips and tears from the rivets/buttons on their jeans and/or dogs being in the car. Replacement OEM cloth fabric does not particularly exist, and aftermarket upholstery stores online do not tend to offer cloth seat upholstery at all. Replacement leather seat upholstery is extremely plentiful on the aftermarket, so you'll have no trouble finding (particularly) '97-'02 replacement seat covers in a pattern similar or identical to OEM.
The leather seats for all leather years ('94-'02) were only leather on the parts that actually touched your body. The industry term for this is "leather trimmed" upholstery. The sides, bottoms, and backs of the seats and the door panels were all matching vinyl. These were all areas that would rarely be in contact with your skin.
Note: Cars with cloth seats had cloth on the door panels, not vinyl.
Replacing with OEM GM seat upholstery
Replacing with OEM GM seat upholstery
My opinion on OEM NOS materials
My opinion on OEM NOS materials
It's September 2021 when I'm writing this, and as of a few days ago, every single 4th gen is at least 19 years old at minimum. If your interior is in good shape, you're one of the few and lucky. If your interior is not in good shape, but your car is incredibly low mileage and perfect, and you're looking for replacement upholstery... you're probably wondering what you should do. Should you look for New Old Stock replacement seat covers or should you get aftermarket ones?
All I want to say is: if you found NOS seat covers that someone kept in a box, folded, in their attic or garage for 20+ years... you may be receiving seat covers with an awful amount of age to them. Leather wrinkles and vinyl warps. You might get lucky, but you might not. Be wary of seat upholstery that old.
I would look into having brand new aftermarket seat covers custom ordered. Yes, they will not be 100% accurate, but to me, leather seats are like tires--you don't put 20 year old ones onto a car if you want any life out of them at all.
Replacing with aftermarket seat upholstery
Replacing with aftermarket seat upholstery
My opinion on aftermarket upholstery materials
My opinion on aftermarket upholstery materials
Entirely-leather upholstery is a bit of a waste of money unless you are looking to massively upgrade your car to a luxury car status. You'll see entirely vinyl seat upholstery on the aftermarket, however... I find (most) vinyl materials to be a pitiful material for coming in contact with skin. It's usually sticky to skin, it doesn't breathe at all (which will irritate your skin with acne), it gets hot in the sun, and it's freezing cold in winter. It's worth spending a little more and getting leather seating surfaces (typically called "leather trimmed") unless you're going to always wear pants, long sleeves, and exclusively take very short drives in your car. Vinyl will wear out slower than leather, but it is basically plastic and cheap. Note: there actually are high quality, expensive vinyl materials available, but you're not going to see those vinyls in use on seat covers that are hundreds of dollars cheaper than leather ones. If the vinyl seat cover is glossy, it's going to be sticky.
'93 cloth
'94 cloth
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