Well, unfortunately I'm totally ditching the engine....finally the evidence was overwhelming that I needed to go with the smaller-block engine, finished in blue. So I purchased the engine parts from the AMT Duster. Starting over.
In the meantime, here's what happened with the interior.
Two modifications to be made: the steering wheel and the air vents. In one episode (Gold Fever S2E2) the instrument panel is visible, showing the dashboard to be the style with two air conditioning vents. I discovered this after I'd started painting, so, strip the paint, add the parts and start over.
Steering wheel should be a more standard type instead of the stock racing item in the kit. I started with the steering wheel from a Chevy pickup, carved down the central spokes, added a third spoke plus some other detailing. The wood paneling color is done by painting it Military Brown, then going back over it with Tamiya Smoke. This is basically a transparent black, and when applied unevenly over brown actually looks like wood paneling.
An all-black interior is a problem since if you just paint it black, then almost zero details will show. Here's how I bring it to life:
-Flooring/carpet flat black
-All the rest in semi-flat black
-With a wide brush, drybrush dark gray all over the semi-gloss black areas to highlight and bring out the details
-Mask carpet and then spray semi-gloss areas in a satin/flat clear mix
-Drybrush dirt onto some of the carpet, especially driver's area.
Again, wood paneling done by painting first with Military Brown, then going over that with Tamiya Smoke transparent black.
Scratchbuild a CD radio for under the instrument panel, and voila!