Hello everyone....sorry i havent been on here in a while....i have been busy working and doing college crap...i have stopped doing carbon fiber for right now and let the pros do that.....but here is what i did today on my day off... little write up on it. and how to do it yourself...suede is way EASY to work with.... not only that but you dont smell like resin when you get done. hope you like

BATES


here is the stock dash cover that sits on top....pretty much have to take apart most of the dash panels to get to it...which for me took about 10mins, so after you get that out, cut and measure up the right size piece of suede you need. and now fun time...


using spray on adhesive from any fabric store or schucks...EM stuff or something, make sure you dont use to much adhesive otherwise it will run though the fabric....now listen up, ONLY DO THE BIGGEST PIECES FIRST!!!! and IN SMALL SECTIONS!!! otherwise you will get it all mess up and you will be mad


once you get the top done then this is the critcal detailed part....you have to make sure you PULL THE FABRIC tight other wise it will bubble up, and you will be mad once again pretty much you want to start from the easiest part and work your way out , what i do is work around the thing clockwise and evening up the material so it doesnt bunch up on you. then once that is done spray the bottom half of the piece you are doing all over and put the extra fabric under so when you put it on the car it looks awesome this is what it should look like once done.....



suede isnt hard to use its just make sure what you put it on to make it look good, and to make sure you tuck away the extra material under.... hope this help you out and gave you some insight on how to suede stuff...

here are some other things i have done to my MCS.....


SUEDE HEADLINER!!!! YEA!!!!!! that is a easy one......


custom rear, removed the rear seats and trimmed down a piece of hard board from lowes that was 5 bucks and cover it in suede and as well as the stock trunk mat.... so it looks AWESOME!!!


and in 2 weeks or less i will have one of these.........

i had one built by the company is germany called wiechers sport....it will be 1 of 2 mini cooper roll bars built by them!!!! which is awesome....hope you guys liked

LATER

BATES

 

Looks good, similar to Tuls, but still nice.



Weren't you selling your MINI though?

 

yea i am, but i am bored so, i figure why not... the roll bar has been on order way before i was going to put it up for sale.... but the only way i am going to sell it is if i get the price i want for it...... thanks man


BATES

 

If you pad and suede the roll bars, same color as the dash, it would be crazy

 

How do you pull the headliner?

I just want to pull it out to clean it up.

TIA
James

 

Once again D6, I love your stuff. Nicely done.

 

Well done, truly original. Im not one for suede, but can you elaborate on what you did in replacement of the rear seats? What sort of "hard board" are you talking about? Does it rattle alot? I assume you custom cut it as well.

 

d6-mcs, could you do me a BIG favor and try an installation of the suede on the doors? I'm getting ready to pull my panels and take the oval bezel off in order to do an appearance upgrade, and I would dearly love to benefit from your experience. I'm not concerned about removing the plastic rivets that hold the bezel, but I AM concerned about getting the bezel to grip the door panel as good as stock once I put it back on.

 

I knew you were going to dig the rear seat area Jason, hook it up.

 

the rear piece isnt that hard accually. i went to lower got a 2ft by 3ft board that was half thick or so, then took cardboard and made a template, copyied that the hardboard, cut it, and installed it, i had to do some minor trimming on the hardboard but nothing big....as for rattles, it does rattle at all. i put a 1in by 1in piece the end toward the seats so it did move and raise it above the stock rear seat clips....


BATES

 

As for the headliner.....easiest thing taht i have done on this car...trust me, took 20mins to get it out, first thing you do is take off all the O-**** handles....then UN-clip the A,B,C pillar covers, take off the sunroof interior trim which you just pull down on it, take off the clock (cliped on) and then jsut pull down the headliner. personanlly if you wanted to just clean it, use a chammy (damp) and wipe it, im a detailer and that works awesome.....


BATES

 

THANKS YOU

BATES

 

i am was thinking about doing my door panels as well, i like to do things slowly on the MINI because it makes it feel like something is new on it.... i dont know how sooni will do them but i will post them up on the forum..... as for the revets, i would just glue it back into place or something, or just get new revets on it.....

LATER

BATES

 

D6MCS

Thanks for the how-to guide--especially the rejoinder about not using too much glue to prevent saturation. I had wondered about that. The photos are very useful. I assume you used natural suede, but maybe not.

Vast possibilities come to mind and I hope BMW/MINI catches your post.

Have you seen the range of Ultrasuede patterns? Instantly I envisioned a MINI USA advert featuring zebra striped Ultrasuede dash in a metallic flamingo MINI convertible roaring through Kirkland, WA. 1,000,001.

Congratulations.

 

Is that a Sega Saturn in one of your pictures?


Very nice job with the Suede!

 

WELCOME TO CLUB SUEDE...LOL Looks good mang!! good for you jumping in there and doing it!!

P.S. you know hve you own folder in my NAM photo folder on my computer!!!

and nice saturn!

OH yeah...and chicks digi it huh?....LOL...the best thing I have heard is "that's a total panty droper..."

I dunno I thought it was funny

 

yea the sega is awesome cannot beat that 32 bit graphics........ .......anyway....thanks the replies.. and taht is kind of wierd that you a advert about mini in wa.....i live in kirkland, was...... ..... true the mini does need suede in it....the BMW M-cars come with suede... so why dont the mini's.

as for the suede it called passion suede....pretty much a fake and bake stuff but feel and looks awesome just like real suede but for 14 dollars a yield....i have had that headliner in 3 months now....supposively suede, if you dont UV protect it. changes color..... wierd.... anyway thanks again for the replies....i am still work on more interior part such as the glove box and just got done with the driver side knee panel..... LATERS




BATES

 

and yes CHICKS DIG THE SEGA and the suede..... lol


BATES

 

heres some pics of the glove box i did early as well..i did the driver side knee panel as well but didnt get any pics....

BATES


before


after

 

Looks awsome man. I had already purchased the suede, but haven't had the time to put it in.


Danny

 

I like that Thanks for the great info

 

like i said this stuff isnt hard to work with...just getting it looking good is the hard part....just make sure that you only do small parts at a time but keeping the material tight so you dont get mess ups....good luck....

BATES

 

Hey d6, I wanted to ask you about the wiechers sport roll bar. Do you have their contact info cause I've been looking to get their strut bar for my Audi A4.

 

A friend of mine - buddy of yours, sent me an e-mail this weekend with pics of the fantastic job you did on sueding out your MINI. Nice to see here how you did it.
Small world...Bellevue to Kirkland!

 

how has this held up to sun bleaching??