Well I have decided that the interior needs a little pizzaz

I know Tuls has done this (and was hoping for some fresh pics from him and others) but was hoping other people can share in their experience!

I ahve decided as a first step to cover the arm rests and door panel insets in red leather. Not just any red leather mind you but the fantastic red leather from Red Line Goods, those fabulous makers of shift and brake boots! (yeah I know its a shameless plug, and yes I paid for my leather, but they do rock!)

I have just completed the removal of the panther black leatherette from the drivers door armrest. Did you know there are 95 staples holding the leatherette to the plastic?? I was bored and thought it would be a good statistic for the NAM folks....

Has anyone else tried this? If so did you staple or glue your material to the armrest? Just curious to your method and succes. I feel that stapling is necessary but there is the presence of existing staple holes and worry about it holding and wonder if I should back it up with some foam fast 77 (good ol' 3M baby!).

Also I thought for the inset panels I would just use the foam fast but since I haven't gotten the doors apart yet I thought some sage wisdom form an experienced member might help.

Anything you can offer would be great!

cheers and see you at the dragon!! 24 days and counting!

chris

 

You going to cover those dash panels and downtubes in red leather as well? They should be with you soon.
I looked at my JCW leather dash panels before I installed them and they are nothing more than the standard trim pieces with leather glued on.

 

Project - Red Leather


Well I have decided that the interior needs a little pizzaz.


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:impatient

 

In the custom car business they use glue that is sprayed from a paint gun. It is SUPER strong stuff. I do not know the name. This stuff it what you need to use for the panels because it is so thin that you will not see it under the leather. I had our interior guy cover my custom glove box shelf in vinyl and it is SMOOTH. Call a local auto interior shop and find out the name. If you apply it with anything other than a spray gun you will see it.
blake

 

you could probably use 3M Super 99 spray glue. Warning: this stuff is not for the faint of heart!

 

Sorry nothing yet as I am in process. Did you know there are 95 staples holding the leatherette on each armrest? A lot of work to remove them I tell you. Now I am trying to carefully cut the new piece of leather....


And no I will not be covering those beautiful CF tubes and such with leather!

I will post pics as soon as it is done. I hope to do the entire project this weekend. Including Dynamating the entire car!

 

OK- The project has gone well even after a few mishaps with mismatched leather. The first run of leather looked a little to bright but I did the armrests anyway. Well it was way o bright and I wanted it toned down. Yesterday I got an entire Hide shipped that looks fantastic.
I have included some pics.

I have not had the time to remove the door panels to do the inset of the panel yet but will once I go to the service department and have them put all the bolts back that they left out the last time they were in the door.

Anyway. I did both armrests and the downtubes to try it out and I think it rocks!

Let me know what you think. It is not a hard project, just time consuming....

sorry for the mess in the car but I haven't had time to clean it all out!

chris

 

and the other shot that looks good...

 

Did you cover the downtubes in leather? It looks good!

 

Thanks!

I did cover the downtubes in the same leather that I covered the arm rests...

It was some work but worth it I think!

The only problem is that i am going to replace the stereo as well and I do not look forward to pulling it all apart again to install that. It is a tight fit with the added leather.

 

How much was the leather, and where did you get it from?

Maybe I will do the downtubes in a nice black leather with some red stitching or something .

 

I thought about the stitching part but I don't know how to do that so I went the glue and no sewing route...

Leather is not cheap. I got lucky and called one of my vendors (a furniture company for theater seating) and they happened to have a 3/4 hide and sent it to me. I could try and find out how much some is but paid $100 for the half hide I got and I could probably do 20 mores sets of downtubes and still have enough for a few armrests and maybe even the seats. My goal is to do the insets of the seats when the warranty is up and I dissable the airbags. only 19,000 before its up!

In my search I found that leather runs upwards of $350 a hide for good stuff. Some bigger places offer half hiddes for around $50-100 and full hides over $150.

Since you are looking for black it would be easier to get. My first batch of leather (a 36"x36" piece) came from red line goods ( the guys who sell the shift and break boots, one of NAM's vendors). Check with them. You can expect to pay around $70 for that size piece which would give you plenty of material to do the downtubes and leave spare for error.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the info! I am assuming you had to use some sort of spray adhesive for the downtubes, correct?

 

Oh, I have one more question. What type of tool did you use to get the armrest off of the door panel? I know you are supposed to slide something between the door panel and the armrest and release the tab, but I have never been able to actually accomplish that.

 

I used 3m foamfast 90 spray adhesive. I am not actually sure if it is supposed to work on leather but I used the heavier stuff (have used it on carpets before) to make sure it coated thicker and hopefully held better. So far it has been on for 10 hours without a problem....



Yup- just find a tool to slide dead center between the rest and the tube itself. Ironically you can use anything you want. I have used both a t-handle torx and a t-handle hex as well as a long bladed but small flat and philips head screw drivers. It really doesn't matter what you use. Just find something small enough and long enough and then push it in there while trying to push the arm rest forward. Once you get it the first time it will make sense and be super easy.
Would you like me to remove it and take some pics so you see what it is you are actually trying to spring loose?

chris

 

A picture should would help if it is not too much of a hassle,then it certainly would help. If it's too much of a pain, then don't worry about it, but I would appreciate it . I can't seem to figure out where the tab is located and how far in I have the push the tool in there. Are you supposed to pull the arm rest down with a lot force too?

Thanks for your help!

 

that looks really nice mate where about did you join the leather on the downtubes round the back out of sight really inpressed im just trimming mine at the min in ice grey leather and alcantara. any more pics of the downtubes. top job

 

We are dying to get two tone (red and black) leather seats for my wifes new MCSc.... the dealer offered an option but the color was SO off we passed.... I wonder.... will redline offer a complete leather seat set?

 

No problem! I will go and get a shot later today for you. Just make sure you have a tool that is long enough, that was the problem I had at first. Once you get it in there (almost dead center) you will feel it gets resistance and then all you should be doing as you push the tool in there is be pushing the armrest towards the front of the car, basically sliding it along the tube it is on toward the hinges.



That is the reason I got extra leather so I could do the seats later. The problem with the seats is that they have airbags and only one ot two companies will invest the time to make airbag safe seat covers/options. It has something to do with the stiching being able to burst easily for the airbag. You have to find someone willing to actually work on it and not worry about the bag.

 

Be sure to put some thick masking tape on the tube before you attempt to slide anything under the armrest - that paint scratches very easily.