New Leather for interior

No affiliation, nor have I used them, but World Upholstery and Trim came recommended in another thread.

 

Hi there. Answer is yes for texture and my car is currently being completely retrimmed. I'm using Andrew Muirhead leather, specifically their Sateen leather. Fair few shades so you may find an exact match. Thing is not all Ferrari Tans are the same, same is true with the Creama like mine. One of them matched mine exactly so that's the one I'm using but as I'm doing the lot it wasn't as important. Here's their web site.

Good luck with it.

http://www.muirhead.co.uk/AndrewMuirhead/AMS_Products.aspx

 

While I think about it, if you do replace all the tan leather, just be aware that the black upper dash etc all has to come out to re-cover the lower dash.

Also, think Andrew Muirhead can colour match for you anyway "If you cannot find the colour you require, or the colour you want is not available in the specification of leather best suited to you, we can help meet your needs."

 

And lastly, to demonstrate what I meant about colours varying a tad, this happened to someone who bought replacement seats. Picture of one of his old and one replacement. Think the colour was a tad off......
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You can fix that with Leatherique dye. It's cheap and relatively easy.

You can match the seat to your old one or just redye both seats.

It's not perfect and you have to be careful not to scratch it off with anything sharp but it can be redone every time you do a major and the interior will always look new.

 

True, and it's probably easier with tan than with my Cream seats. My cream seats were recoloured with something very similar to Leatherique but they pick up marks if you just look at them. Like Dave, I'm going for a re-trim instead.

Dave, just seen you're over in the States, for some reason I thought you were in Norway. Anyway, sure Andrew Muirhead ship abroad and can let you know if I'm happy with it in 10 days or so.

 

+1

http://www.clubscuderia.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?45388-348-DIY-quot-Restoration-quot/page56&highlight=leather

My seats before and after refurb
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Jeff, certainly won't take anything away from your work, far from it in fact, but you saw pics of my seats before and after. Mine weren't just coloured, a microfiller was used prior to the colouring going on. Before were like yours before, after like yours look after. My seats were the first bit retrimmed though, already seen them completed, and there's a fairly big difference. Colourings are great to a point, but new leather is a whole leap forward. The one thing I truely think Dave is likely to find, is that when the seats are done, he'll want the rest of the tan done. The quality of the new leather will show up defects in the rest.

 

I didnt use any fillers on mine. Using a combination of chemical cleaner and wet and dry you remove the top of the coating which removes the cracks

You can see the difference here
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CAn we get more details on this?

 

Like I said, really good job. And mine was done pretty well too, was really chuffed with it compared to the starting point. I just don't think it's a complete substitute for a retrim, which is what Dave is looking at. Awful lot better than before? Yes. As good as new leather? I just don't think it's quite that good. The leather going in mine is a step up from what was used 20 odd years ago by Ferrari so it really shouldn't be. But you're talking a difference of several thousand pounds so it's not really meant to be a substitute, I guess.

 

I guess my point is this, mine were stripped, a plyable microfiller was applied, then they were coloured. To keep the colouring off the stitching every stitch had to be covered with vaseline using a tooth pick which was wiped off at the end. Here's the end result, but it's still not up to completely new leather. It can be done well, and mine was, but a good retrim in high quality leather will be better in the end. Like I said, much better than before but a retrim is better still.
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If you definitely want to have your seats done just have them recovered and then redye the other bits to match.

 

Sounds like a plan. Jeff didn't you clean your stitching up using something or other?

 

just leather cleaner

 

Not sure what the guy used on mine but it was grey before, pretty much white afterwards. I think it was just a cleaner and a nail brush but not certain.

One question I do have though Jeff. You dyed all of yours, right? How did you get into all the nooks and crannies? Did you use a sponge (I do to touch mine up) and if so how do you do bits like where the cream meets the black on the dash? If I did it, no way one would be cream and one black, think it would kind of blend from one to the other somewhere along the dividing line.

 

just use a sponge with only a small amout of dye and then dry with a hairdryer

its in my thread but briefly you just mask it off where there is a colour change.

 

Think I'll leave the fiddly bits to you, mate. I'd dye my hands, the masking tape and probably the carpet, everything but the bit I wanted to, then shrink the leather with the hairdryer. Took me 2 days to work out you can't touch up stone chips with 2k paint - spent bleeding hours with the wife's hairdryer trying to get it to set! Some of us just aren't meant to do the DIY stuff.

 

There is a guy here in Atlanta that did my seats. I just took them out and dropped them off there. A week later they were perfect and new. He also did the foam underneath.
His name is John Dutton aka the mad stitcher.
It's been three years and they still look perfect.