How to: Interior Makeover(PIC HEAVY)

Holy crap!

What have I signed up for???

Many thanks to Roadeater (and the poor guy that did the original guide).

 

Funny, thats exactly what I thought! I wonder just who around here is brave enough to give it a go? My sentiment is that I can handle the trims and whatnot, but as for the seats - off to the pro's they go.

Does anyone have an idea the cost of fitting for 2 seats?

 

Will be doing everything myself as I can't aford to pay anyone to do it. Will mention in my build thread how this turns out.

 

good on you man, some time do it your self it's like drink bear for enjoyment but when you stuck you like to trow it at the window?????

 

I have no idea what you just said.

 

Fitted two bucket seats into my mates escort yesterday, modified the rails and welded the new mounts to the floor, of course it helps not having any carpet.
Took about an hour and a half all up, dunno how much a pro would charge.

 

I may not have made myself entirely clear, I meant removal and replacement of original seat covers(with those possibly bought from the proposed Group Buy). Looks like a fairly nasty job, one that would take considerably more time than 1.5 hours.

So no-one else has had this done recently by a pro who can give a rough cost estimate?

 

Ooh, that's a different story. We had two factory WRX recaros sent off for a retrim, including materials it was $400 with the recaro logo restitched as well. I guess you'd really have to approach some upholstery people in your area and get some quotes though.

 

For those intending on doing htis themselves, just make sure you read the original thread. The guy notes later on that the foam he used was too thick on some items which meant that centre console lid would not open etc.

 

just done that and i know how many hours went into it.

as i was bit in the hurry (car driven daily, no car no work no money) i had to do it fairly quickly. still took from 6pm to 1am , 4 days in a row to do rear seat fronts and gear knob handbrake boots and clean the carpet and interior.

His sponges seem to be in better condition than mine were.My original leather seat covers were shrunk at least a size down which shrunk the cushions a bit.

today first day out on the sun so just about to check if anything shrunk. if not when i get bit time ill take them off and glue in more sponge on the original cushions to iron out some of the creases.

also having some sort of leather stretching tool sure helps the poor hands. realy hard work.

mine didn't come up too bad (not to URHYNS standards but than again my car and new seats cost about the same as his interior only )

also mine a workhorse and is always filled with tools and materials. not a show/weekend car.

though this post would have helped me more but i did it the hard way all alone

im waiting few days to see how it settles and ill update the pics.

 

For those of you in WA, my Mum and Dad used to re-upholster furniture, and we are going to give this a go. Once mine is done, we may be able to offer to do it for other WA members - at a cost of course.

I don't know how much yet. Let me see how we go with the first one (mine).

 

I have done a full interior myself, all the panel took approx a full day, seats about the same. There really is nothing to it, just be patient and it slowly comes together. No real tricks or secrets and you soon learn wihich way to pull the material to get the wrinkles out. The more time you spend, the better it looks. Use 3mm closed cell foam, anything else will be too thick.

Also the passenger side bolster will fit the driver side perfectly, you don't need to pay silly money for a new one. Just source a passenger seat from someone.

I have also fitted an entire tweed passenger cover to the driver seat. You need to trim the foam and fit the second tilt lever like the passenger side has, but all the bits are already inside the seat. You end up with a small hole where the passenger side seat recliner reel is but it ends up right down below the console on the driver side and you will never see it.

If you are recovering the interior in black, you can cheat and not have to recover the front door cards. The layer directly below the tweed is the same as the top of the door card, abviously the card is skinned in one piece then the tweeb put on the bottom. I peeled off the tweed, rubbed the glue of with wax and grease removing and the whole door card looks like brand new black vinyl.

The hardest part of the whole job is keeping the wrinkles out of the lower quarter trims in a 2+2.

 

I was in the group buy and am attempting to repair the Console lid and have a couple of questions
1) Where did u get the felt blanket
2) Did you just clean the old sponge on top then glue the new spong over this or remove the old sponge, clean and glue new sponge directly to the top of lid
3) If you added on did you have any trouble with the pre-cut leather cover.
Thanks for any help

 

These pics REALLY need to be saved on the server (pending permission from the author from 300zx.com) and put in the tech section. I've been searching for this article for a long time...

 

Thread dig. Agree with Mitch. I too did a search and found this thread, not very useful without the pictures
There is nothing in the tech section I could find on seat re-trim.

 

2nd this

 

Regarding the console lid: if you are putting in some new felt (available from the pillow stuffing section of your local haberdasherie, i.e. Spotlight or Textile Traders) or a soft rubber (Clark Rubber), then how well you pull out the old cushioning won't matter as you won't feel it once the leather is on. Just make sure you don't leave chunks in there.

As for photo's I was really glad that Roady did them, but the truth is that I didn't use them. Go ahead and pull everything apart one item at a time and you will remember how to put it back together. If that isn't possible, take phone photo's.

Don't underestimate the time required to cover a full interior.
Do use a good quality contact cement.
Do take the time to remove the old glue and clean up the plastic trim pieces.
If you are doing seats, do buy some hog nose pliers and rings.
When doing trims use a small roller to flatten out the leather pieces.
When doing the trims, you WILL have to stretch the leather in places. Be careful as the grain of the leather will be very visible once done, and if you over stretch in places in may look a little strange if viewed closely.

Rear seat took about 4 hours. Passenger took around 6, drivers took around 8. Hours people!

 

Oh I nearly forgot: when you are doing the seats, you have to REALLY stretch the leather down the length of the seat. At first you wonder if it will fit, but you'll work it out.

And if you don't have strong hands and fingers, get some help to do the seats.

 

I viewed this thread when pics were active.

I documented my retrim on my youtube channel, check out the playlist below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6S1eV_0uIw&list=PLABCAA4DA1BD02C78


I also had a thread which I documented here:
http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=311419

So there should be enough info below to get you all started over christmas.
I used hog ring pliers from Bunnings, in the garden section called 'netting pliers'. I re-used the metal bars from the original trim, which turned out all good.

The seat I was working on in the vids was an electric passenger's seat. non electric will have more room to work with, and have a different rail setup.

 

Thanks Mitch. The job I'm looking to do is actually very small. I just want to tighten the original fabric on the base of the seat. I'll check out your links when I get time