Any recommendations for purchasing proper leather skin for a 512 BBI interior in the USA?
Good day Armen, Sadly, Connolly in England shut down and so your options are a bit limited with regards to finding OEM leather. That being said, I heard that Connolly started by some family members in Australia. I did e-mail them and they told me they use the same process as Connolly UK and so the quality and texture would be the same. Unfortunately I had already bought all of the leather for my car and so I did not go forward. Their web address is: http://www.connollyleather.com.au/ The other company that does outstanding work and has a lot of the specialty materials for specialty cars is HVL in the Netherlands (http://www.carinteriors.nl/). The owner, Henk, is a pleasure to deal with and his prices are reasonable. There are other firms that offer Connolly equivalent... well... in terms of the grain, but the leather is not the same original quality, then there are other firms as well. A few years ago I ordered some hides from World Upholstery (http://www.worlduph.com) and I was pleased with the grain and color match. Secondly, all of the hide I ordered had virtually no blemishes and pretty much all of the hides could be used. As I said earlier the leather quality was reasonable (for a daily driver), but not as good as the original leather. Regardless of who you go with I would suggest you get samples/swatches to confirm the color and leather quality. Secondly, order an extra hide at the same time so that you have extra material that matches the other hides. Remember that the hides are processed in batches and so ordering more hides at a later date may have some slight color differences. Lastly, you can also send your interior pieces to Luppi in Italy (https://www.tappezzerialuppi.com), as they will redo your interior as well. I have never used them, but I believe a number of fchat members have. You may wish to reach out to those members and/or do a search on here as to their experiences, etc. Cheers, Sam
We've sourced two cars from Douglas leather, who imports Bridge of Weir, from Scotland. Gorgeous stuff, good feel and texture from their Sateen line. Get a swatch book from them. https://douglassinteriorproducts.com/product-category/automotive/automotive-douglass-leather/
I bought connolly leather from uk hide for my Dino. Nice quality and excellent service. Best regards Peter
I don´t care about the brand important is that the leather itself is colored completly thrugh and not only the outside
Great choices. I will get together with my interior guy and see if had done business with any of them. Thank you
Best choice for correct leather, vinyl or anything you need to do a proper re-trim is HVL in the Netherlands. Bought material for several cars there - excellent service, quick turnaround, nice & friendly. There’s hardly anybody more knowledgeable than Henk. https://www.hvlclassleathers.com/
Not sure if Bill still sources OEM stuff, but we had a black and a tan interior set of hides for a 330 from his shop and they were fantastic (NOS Connolly etc.) https://www.hirschauto.com/Leather/departments/31/|
We went ahead with the original Blk. Back in 1985 I had the car redone with red inserts and red piping. So I redid it that way.