The complete interior restoration

I decided today was the day. I took all of the lower interior out of my Mondi I intend to pit in new carpet kit as well as strip rejuvenate and re dye all components. Original is red and I really just don't like the red. I ordered the leathertique kit and it will be here tomorrow. I am thinking black carpet kit and tan interior. I just like tan better the red just screams ugly to me. I have not totally decided to change the color so I am in limbo for now on that. The process begins I will start stripping tomorrow I will post pictures as I go. Wish me luck! I hope I remember how to put it all back together.
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Does anyone know how to get the headrest off? I see some pop rivets holding a little trim piece on and I think if I drill those out that will allow me to remove the headrest from the seat? Dare I drill those out of the headrest?

 

That looks like a very dark red. Is that factory?

 

I already removed the back plate from the back of the seat and there is nothing there to release the head rest

 

It is not factory as far as I can tell someone did a very bad color change and put it all back together wet it looks horrible up close. I have no idea what the original color was. So I might just make it tan except do it right.

 

Wishing you all the best with your restoration. My son and I are about 80% through with ours. We are doing the same thing, except no color change.

The Leatherique stuff is fantastic. Works every bit as good as they advertise. It's also a fairly easy and intuitive process.

The only advice I have for you is:

1. Take it slow and easy. You'll enjoy the process.
2. When striping the old finish, make sure you are in a well ventilated area. That leather stripper is nasty.
3. We used (are using) an airbrush to put on the new color. This is probably slower than brushing or wiping, as we only apply a light coat of dye, then wait for drying, then another light coat. With our color, it's taking 4 to 5 coats to provide a uniform color.
4. Not really advice, but just a word on results. The back seats were in good shape to begin with, no rips, tears, abrasions, etc. They now look and feel as good (or better) than new. The front seat had a couple of tears, holes and lots of abrasions. I used the Leatherique crack filler to fill the holes and abrasions. This works well, however, the repaired seats don't look quite as good as the back seats. I'd say the front seats look about 85 to 90% good as new - which is a HUGE, HUGE improvement over their previous condition. To put it another way - the back seats look good from inches away. The front seats look good from a couple of feet away - from 2 feet they look brand new, but up close you can see the repairs.


Anyway, it's hard to describe how great it feels to see leather returning to life!!! a very rewarding experience.

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy the process as much as we have.

Sid

 

I intend to take my time. I also intend to spray the dye.

 

Rodney, just refinished mine this past summer, it turned out fantastic, love the car now. I did the disassembly, stripping and reassembly. I let the professionals do the re-dye. Good luck and keep posting pictures of the progress.
Andy

 

Soooooooooooo I see why it is so dark. They just sprayed the dye on as thick as they could to cover up any type of cracks etc in the leather. Reminds me of what the body shop found and how much of pain that was to get straight. This is going to take weeks to strip off. I got started on it tonight and the results are already stunning. Just striping off the old dye is working wonders on the look and feel. Well day one down and will be working on it all day tomorrow I hope.

 

I want your interior!

I don't like my black interior and intend to change mine when I get home in the spring.

Keep up the good work. I look forward to the results

 

The car seems to be silver or grey from your pictures ?

Its just my opinion , but if it is the colour - stick with the red or go black .. those combinations are stunning . For me , tan does not work with silver or grey .

 

My Mondi is black. I'm thinking tan interior black carpet. I just don't care for the red and I don't care for black on black either. Still trying to decide

 

Nice work Rodney!
I would stay with red personally. It fits the black and grigio colors very well and they are very much wanted since there aren't many around espcially Mondial 8s (If you ever would sell). I think your black Mondi will have a more bad ass look with red then tan, just my opinion.

But go with any color you like as you need to sit inside and enjoy the inside view while driving .

When I was looking for a Mondial I saw, the one that I have now, for sale and only had pictures. Honestly.. I wouldn't to be found dead in it. The red was just jumping out the car so bright. Still decided to look and could always paint it black. Arrived at the scene and I my opinion changed 180 degrees. The pics where overlighted giving the Mondi interior a horrible look. The color is very refined. You are almost bathing in very good wine

 

The headrest are held in place by a hairpin style clip. You need to find thin tubing to slide it around the rod. Here are pics.

I hope this helps!
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Rodney, I know the feeling about layers of old stain, my front seats took me the better part of 3 full days to strip each of the seats (6 days total). The last layer was a water based product that was almost like wax. Part of the reason it took me so much time to do my stripping (6 weeks) is that I used a tooth brush as the final pass over all the leather. This got down into the grain of the leather and made it look like leather again.
Post pictures as you progress, we all love to see progress.
Andy

 

I will try to remove headrest as suggested. Thanks for the how to pictures.

 

before stripiing
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After just a little while striping. It's looking better already
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First round of striping. I worked on them till late last night and got started at 8 am this morning. Still a lot to do but it's coming along nicely.
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After striping old dye
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I left the dash in and the knee bolster of the dash. It was being a pita and I decided it won. I will tape and mask and restore it in place. I am also doing the steering wheel restoration

 

Nice work - pls keep posting your progress in pics -

 

This will give you an idea of the amount of newspaper and tape for the dash area. I also left the door panels and console in based upon the suggestion of the company doing the re-dye. Sure made life a lot easier on my part. The last pic is the finished product.

Andy
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Outstanding outcome. I hope for the same results

 

Love the mats. Where did you get those?