Hello Everyone,

 

So after looking at prices for interior kits, full retirms and the like I decided to bite the bullet and go at it myself. I sewed a picture of a bird when I was 7, so how hard can a car interior be?... I have a tenancy to try and make things rather than buying them, for better or worse the experience is always great and learn a lot.

 

The plan is to retrim the arm rests, door cards, gear and handbrake gaitor, steering wheel and seats. First off, the Center arm rest which was trimmed in a crappy leather/vinyl.

 

So I ordered a bunch of Italian Leather, needles, thread, Calico Cotton, and went guns ablazing. I borrowed mums sewing machine but quickly found that it wasn't up for negotiating thick leather, and trying to do smooth stitches was impossible!! So ordered something new...

 

 

 

The old, but heavy weight Singer 211U566A Industrial Sewing Machine with a Walking foot and needle feed, both crucial for thick slippery material! And also a Servo motor, which allows very steady slow slowing!

 

So far the shopping list looks like this:

 

- Sewing machine £550

- Leather £85

- Alcantara Samples £ Free

- Original Steering wheel £25

- miscellaneous sewing bits £40

- Spray Glue £10

- Foam Lining £8

 

Here is the results of tonight's first try, using the original arm rest as a template.

 

Original Interior:

 

 

 

testing top stitches:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually really pleased with the first try. And I must say that the sewing machine makes ALL the difference!! Spent hours setting it up just right for my thread weight, but well worth it.

 

I will try and use this as a record of my lessons learned and see who far I get!

 

Thanks for reading, William.

Edited August 22, 201510 yr by wchestnutt

Thanks Mate! That will be the last bit I complete for a while seeing as the seats will take weeks haha.

 

AARGGG!!!!!! Spent all evening taking the cover off my passenger seat.. if making new seats is as hard as it was to remove the old one then I am in for a real treat...

 

So passenger cover is off with all its intricacies. Time to start pinning the pattern on to the seat to check the fit. The good thing is that the foam seems in really good condition :)

 

Si, How you do this on a regular basis I really do not know! My Hands are red raw.

Edited September 2, 201510 yr by wchestnutt

Update: So Today I test fit the steering wheel, only to find that the chassis for the airbag was different!! Screws in the wrong place, must have changed it during the later years :( So I went to take both wheel home thinking I will just retrim mine straight away, only to find that my Daily driver has died haha. Intercooler pipe popped off, and the clips seem to be worn away so it wont stay on anymore. I am hoping that it is just a bad pipe rather than an overboosting problem causing too much pressure/wear!

 

So back to the Zed, and have had to bodge the retrimmed wheel on to the car without the airbag connected just so I can get to work tomorrow. Oh and also there is only a driver seat in the car as I wasn't planning on driving it anywhere.

 

pffft cars!! Always fun !

 

Si, How you do this on a regular basis I really do not know! My Hands are red raw.

 

Nobody ever said it was easy...!

 

And putting the new cover on is far more time-consuming and stressful than removing the old one - I'm trimming a Z32 at the moment and I just lurve doing the front seats.... :2guns:

So, after a nice holiday and catchign up with work I am back on it. This week will be the front passenger seat.. Progress so far

 

Alcantara colour matched to the Zeds current blue tweed for the seat inserts.

 

Cutting up and labeling the panels

 

 

First Pattern in cotton

 

 

testing the fabrics together

 

 

starting to place the panels together

 

 

Adding some quilting (not sure of exact name) to the alcantara. Going to redo this bit with a thicker foam backing, probably 3 layers instead on one to make the design really POP

 

 

Added the Bolster with some horrific shapes!!

 

 

Unfortunately I will run out of leather this weekend before I finish the seat. More ordered to arrive early next week!

 

It has been VERY satisfying so far! excited to put the seat back in the car

I hope it's genuine Alcantara as it'll fade quickly in the sunlight if not...! You'll know if it's genuine as you'll have paid upwards of £90 per metre for it.

 

And there's a trick to making the pleats "pop" and it doesn't involve more foam. But I'll leave you to figure that one out for yourself... ;)

 

Those little add-ons at the sides of the very front of the centre? I find it much easier to sew them onto the centre section first, then sew the bolster covers on.

 

You're making good progress here. You should be very proud of yourself :thumbup1:

Thanks for the words Si! Hmm okay I have some investigating to do now haha!

 

Yeah genuine stuff (i Hope) from the UKHide.co.uk I did test a couple of samples of the fake stuff and the quality wasn't as good and heard lots of stories about it fading! Spot on at £90 a meter!

 

I can't remember if I did those little triangles on to the center first or not, fiddly though! sewing 4 layers of leather and foam at one point.

Yeah, UK Hide sell the genuine stuff. Seems like they've lowered their prices since I last had any off them too - think I paid £135 per metre about 3 years ago!

Its finished!! :)

 

Really bloody chuffed with this one. shaking from tiredness, but well worth it.

 

 

 

 

A few wobbly bits, but overall I think it looks better than some of the kits I have seen people fit so I am happy :)

 

Also I will sort out the image sizes on this thread at somepoint soon, sorry for all the huge images!!

Progress! Finished the passenger seat, but it made me realise how faded the rest of the car is!

 

So I now need to retrim every panel with leather and black alcantara! I am still in two minds about the blue alcantara (on the blue car).. What are opinions? I just wanted a bit of a focul point rather than going black on black!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And also, here is what I will aim for with the panel retrim, with alcantara inserts in the door panels...

 

Looks cracking fella!! Well done:bow:

Thats a great attempt :thumbup: well done mate.

Looks bang on that mate.

Hola! Settled in to the new house and have started back on this set! So my aim is to finish this leather set asap, but also I was inspired by the Type R seats and the textured fabric used, so went fabric shopping and going to experiment a little... this is quite a cool texured woven fabric which changes colour slightly at an engle due to the 3d texture. Also I have a woken charcoal to finish the bolsters with.

 

 

The leather seats are currently just having the rear seats trimmed up and fit, and then need to finish the front . Seat rear panel and they should be good to go :)

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

For some reason my camera gives everything a red tint.

Also, thanks for the comments guys! Looking forward to some photos of the finished product

Been following this thread from the start and waiting to comment. I have to say mate top marks for even trying your own retrim from scratch. As Mondo has said you should be very proud of yourself and im sure you are.

Can't wait to see it finished keep up the good work.

Thanks Ian it's appreciated! :)

 

Thanks to Ash for these seats - mocked up th new fabrics and the result is something very different to the leather... I think I like it but no completely sure yet.

 

What's people's opinions?!

 

 

And this was the WIP step creating the pattern for anyone interested

I have to be honest with you here, William: I'm not liking either of those materials personally. :(

 

The sackcloth you've chosen for the bolsters doesn't have a very nice look to it... to me, it literally looks like sackcloth that's been dyed. There are far nicer woven fabrics out there.

 

And I'm not feeling the centres either. It all reminds me of a Mk1 Fiesta or something of that era, rather than a 90s sports car.

 

I'm not knocking what you're doing here in any way, shape or form - believe me, I know all too well how much work is going into this! Myself though, I'd have finished the leather trim first before side-stepping onto another project.

 

But yeah, my overall feeling about your latest retrim project is that I just don't like the fabric choices at all... sorry! :(

Hi Simon,

 

Thanks for the reply, and I can see what you mean about the bolster fabric now. Once I put this together it had a very retro feel to it, the photos don't show the colour properly, but I completely get what you are saying and to be honest I think I will the same.

 

I wanted to have a shot at workign with some soft fabric as leather is such hard work, and also have a try at making my own pattern :) but yeah i probably won embark any further down this route, and certainly not before I have finished the driver seat in the leather set

So, finally managed to get the seats done!!!! Hands are red raw and a few bits left to tweak and change but glad to have it all back together! I am going to build the sound system before working on the interior again. Picking up the wood router and cables for speakers and amp next weekend

 

So, finally managed to get the seats done!!!! Hands are red raw and a few bits left to tweak and change but glad to have it all back together! I am going to build the sound system before working on the interior again. Picking up the wood router and cables for speakers and amp next weekend

 

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Looks really comfy, good job, the blue really suits the car.

Well done on getting it all finished, William! :thumbup1: There's definitely a certain amount of satisfaction in standing back and being able to say "I did that!" :yes:

 

Harder than it looks though, isn't it...... :surrender:

Thanks Si! Man such hard work!! Annoyingly i really want to start again as i think i could do such a better job second time around with the lessons learned - might end up swapping out for a set of the recaros at some point and will do It then!

Well done mate!! Really good, I'd try pretty much anything myself, mainly coz I'm tight. But I don't think think I'd have the balls to attempt this. You should be proud of yourself.

for a self taught exercise thats some impressive work!, i like to do a lot of my car things myself, but i think when it comes to this, the patience is something I lack so i'd hand it over to the professionals!, but must say well done! looks really good :thumbup1:

Superb, well done mate - a kindred spirit, willing to give anything a go! :D