Do not restore your interior!

That sucks to hear. I have a new set of seat covers from Vic in the box and you got me rethinking this. I plan on moving forward on mine as the piping is toast as well as some of the decorative stitching. Dye wise I am good.

 

I bought the hide off eBay
Got the dye from leatherique
Dyed it myself
Took the seat bottoms to the upholstery shop
They sewed them up and fitted them on
Been there ten years
I'm still happy
Cost was a little over $500 for both seat bottoms

 

I restored my entire interior in 2001/2002. Took a while as well but my seat covers were stuck in customs for a while because of 9/11.

The only complaint I had/have still is my seats don't hug up around me like a non-restored car's does. Hard to describe but you would never know it unless you drove my car all the time (like I obviously do) then sit in a non restored 308.

I chose to stay with Connolly and interestingly, it still looks better now than the original did when I pulled it all out. The original was about 17 years old when it was replaced and what is in there now is about 17 years old this year. The restoration has lasted far better than the factory.

 

Rob - I would think that stuff could be sorted. Sounds like whoever did the work just didn't take the time or pay attention to detail.

 

I bought my leather thru Re-Originals. 2001 and as mentioned before, Connolly was still available. The seat covers came from Italy completed, that is to say, the things just needed to be hog ringed on. It looked gorgeous even just lying in the box. The horse imprint on the headrest was too faint. It was barely noticeable back in 01 and now it has all but disappeared. That part I was a bit unhappy about but overall I was so please that I just didn't worry too much about it. The rest of the leather on the console and doors had to be hand stitched here because that leather just came on a roll.

Like Rob's, there are places that could be better and knowing what I do now I would not do it again on the scale I did then. I would simply replace the carpet and redye.

 

I feel your paint - see this thread:

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/looking-for-an-expert-leather-trimmer-with-ferrari-experience.559744/

 

Shouldn’t the shop guarantee their work? When I had mine done, there were a little imperfection on the center console so I had them redone the center console again for free, good thing they had some extra hyde left.

 

Understood Rob! I know it’s hard to stress the problem to specially someone who bends their back for you in so many ways. Unfortunately, although we know Norwood was and still a good shop, like you said, things has changed a lot over the years and there’s really not much we can do, but for me, spending $10-15k means a lot and is way over my budget, I don’t know, I would probably stress it a little bit but that just me.

 

Wow I had this tin lizzy place bookmarked, going to remove it now.

 

I have a 328, it looks tired with faded carpet of 3 different colors, seats redied with 2 different colors, steering wheel all scratched up... It was always bothering me since I got the car. So this last year, I sewed a set of carpets and installed it, re-dyed the entire interior a few years before that so all would match, and popped a new Momo in.

is it perfect? no. but I like it much more. It's no longer original but when I die, and pass it on to my grand son or son in law, I don't think they care. I know I will not care.

 

I've read this thread and many others of long project or repair times for our exotic cars. It starches my undies.

As much as we can be apologists for these long project times, it still comes down to poor project planning on the part of the service company. If hides have a long backorder, that can be determined and the customer can be advised to keep the car out of the shop during the waiting period. Our 3x8s are not one-off racers, like say a 1957 250 Testa Rossa, where the time to identify and source (or fabricate) a unique part cannot be estimated. Sure, any project can go into the ditch, but decent places immediately sound alarm bells with the customer.

Six years ago, I had my interior re-dyed. Turnaround time was two weeks. This included several days impregnating the leather with Leatherique conditioner. It included carving new foam for the driver’s seat bolsters. It included replacing the leather for seat bolsters. The leather cover was fully removed from the driver’s seat so that the new pieces of leather could be sewn in. It was the same effort as replacing the cover with a new one. Two weeks!

I once had the canvas convertible top replaced on my E30 BMW. Not an easy job. I think that was also 2 weeks.

Sorry if this is a bit of a rant but right now I feel indignant.

As a by-the-way, I now have a scratch on my leather and it needs repair. Today, I pulled the 6-year-old bottle of leftover dye I received after the dye job. The dye now smells like rancid fat. Quite putrid. I have wondered what dye was made of and it is clearly includes animal fats.

 

Before ...

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after ...

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No regrets

 

Some of us are lucky enough to have interiors with nice Patina that looks good. I’m also a “leave it alone” kind of guy.
But for a car that has been driven a lot, or stored in sunlight or whatever... it’s no longer patina and needs to be replaced. I can understand that.

The part about taking two years brought bad memories of my Porsche 911 paint job (ok more than just paint) that took around two years.
There’s just no plausible reason a shop can give for that. It’s all just excuses for bad management. In the end the customer is the one who feels inept. I had quit telling anyone about my 911, because I was embarrassed that I let it take two years. Although I harassed the shop regularly with little success.


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This is what my re-dyed Seats look like. I am very happy with them, in fact I ended up doing the whole interior (door trims, center console, arm rests) as well.

 

Sorry, don't seem to be able to upload the images.

 

My dash was all wrinkled up and had a small tear. The driver's seat had a similarly bad spot on the bottom.

If it were not for that, I would have redyed mine. It had faded a great deal and as I mentioned earlier, the new material is as old today as the original was when it was replaced and it looks 100% better today. Surprising.

 

I Had mine done several years ago while the engine was being rebuilt. Things tend to be a bit more affordable here and IIRC I spent about 7K on leather (re originals), carpets and all fabric. Probably took a couple of months, but the car was tied up for a year, or so, for the engine work anyway.

Funny how nice the steering wheel and dash looked prior to the other work, and how tired they look in contrast to all of the new stuff.

 

I disagree. My interior could not have been rejuvenated with dye alone. The leather was rock hard. I still have a few things to fix (vinyl pulls on the doors, ashtray), but overall the experience is so much better. Soft leather, nice smell, horse on the headrest.

I did replace my wheel a while back with a Momo Prototipo in silver, that was a good change. The Momo MonteCarlo is probably the closest easily-found version of the stock wheel.

Pics here: Tillman (1987 328 GTS)

 

Sorry to hear that. I don't know anything a bout the restorer you used, but I do think it matter who does the work, regarding the question of whether or not it's worth it to do. I recently sat in two C/4's. One had original interior. Not well preserved. Rock hard leather. Felt like sitting on a piece of plywood. The other was done to a standard that probably way exceeded what the factory did. Everything looked and felt perfect. I was told it cost about 15k to do the whole interior, leather, dash, carpets, etc. The headliner looked older so maybe that wasn't done.

Your mileage may vary, as they say.

2 years seems nuts but I've had this issue as well with repair work. I think our smaller jobs (ie- humble 1980's v8's) get continually bumped for the more expensive restorations.