Mondo

Have you considered upgrading ALL the intake pipework to a larger diameter?

Well, thank you :) But honestly, this thread wasn't started to massage my ego or anything like that - I'm genuinely interested in peoples' opinions about, I suppose, what they would pay for and whether or not they're happy to pay "extra" for a bespoke service...

It was on the "Custom / Exotic 300ZX" group, Si.

I appreciated the tag as the work was beautiful! :thumbup1: I didn't appreciate that muppet outright stating that he could do all that work in 10 hours, only to reveal later on that he could only fit a pre-fabbed interior in 10 hours... ...which I still dispute as removing the dash would take a while, as would all the other parts and seats. Then all the prep work on everything, then all the fitting and so on. Guy was a weapons-grade fool, if you ask me....!!

^^^This! From what I've read, the dual intake will always offer better performance than a single as it removes the restriction that is the T-piece that your MAF is connected to. [/closethread]

Just to add into this, I'm not sure how many people actually remember my arrival on here, but the first Z32 trim I did (for Gonzo) I made a point of putting pretty much step-by-step photos on here, so everyone could see exactly what I was doing with any given part. The reason for this is as follows: Years ago, when I had a Calibra and was a member on one of their UK forums, one of the members posted up some pictures of a retrim he'd had done. Very nice it looked too and lots of people wanted to know who by and how much. Bear in mind this was 7 or 8 years ago... So he said it was done by a firm in York (who I'm not going to name, but they're very well known) and cost circa £2k. Fast-forward a couple of years and we find little ol' me looking for some advice, so I contacted this Calibra club member to pick his brains, and it was then that he clued me in about his retrim. Turns out he actually worked for this York-based company at the time and it would've cost him £2k to have done, but he fitted everything himself and thus only had to pay for the actual leather parts. Which came from a factory in China. And cost him less than £200! So this firm were quite happy to pay £200 for Chinese-made seat covers and then inflate the cost tenfold to the customers, all of whom were (presumably) blissfully unaware of how their cars were actually being retrimmed! Once I learned this, I had a choice: I could either do absolutely everything myself... not make an enormous profit... but be able to have a bit of pride in myself at the end of a job... or I could establish links with a Chinese factory, rip my customers off and retire to Malibu before I was 40! Surprisingly, I chose Option 1. Boring story, I know. But there you have it: the genesis of Hide'n'Seat. Am I going to be a millionaire? Not any day soon. Are my hands knackered and do I get precious little sleep? Yep and yep! Am I undeniably proud of the work I do? Damn right! Would I start using pre-fab to save time and/or money...? No, I wouldn't. [/rant]

Thanks to Ian Greenfield, I've been involved today in a Facebook "debate" about whether it's worthwhile paying an upholsterer (myself, for example) a large sum of money to make (from scratch) an interior... or whether people should just be using "pre-fab" firms like Interior Innovations, for example, and just having the new trims fitted once they've been delivered. As I stated on FB, a lot of the pre-fab suppliers simply place the customer's order in somewhere like China or Malaysia where a team of eager little folk make the order, then ship it out. In my experience, the fitment isn't always great and the materials aren't great and in somewhere like a car cabin, the materials need to be good for the items to last more than a handful of years. Bespoke upholsterers, on the other hand, do everything from scratch to ensure the very best fit possible. A lot of man hours, yes, but they can sit back at the end of it all and think "I made that", rather than thinking "I fitted that." Big difference. I'd like opinions please. I have mine and I'd like to hear yours :)

When Paul and I were talking yesterday, I mentioned it could be the new pump... very coincidental that the pump gets changed and shortly after there's a running issue. It's odd that the car ran with the MAF unplugged and even managed quite a few miles like that, although there was only minimal throttle travel and it was spitting flames in my direction from the exhausts! We tried one of my MAFs as they both work perfectly and there was no difference on Lee's car whatsoever.

That's insane, considering the time I left you and Paul! Glad you finally both got home in the end. Really hope you can get it sorted soon, mate - was a massive shame yesterday! :(

I always wanted a white Shortie......

I'll reply to your email at length when I take a proper break from working, Brett - currently trying to finish an Escort Cabriolet in record time! People have retrimmed their own panels with varying degrees of success. The problem areas are the rear corners of the doorcards and the rear quarter panels... because they're such awkward shapes, getting the material (leather, vinyl, Alcantara, etc) to sit right on these angles with wrinkling or creasing is very tricky. Vast amounts of heat are used in the factory, which isn't really an option in the aftermarket. The easiest way to get things to sit correctly is to have them sewn so the curves are made into part of the new cover. :) If you wanted to have a go at it yourself, please don't be tempted by the "Alcantara" on eBay which can start at around £7 per metre. It won't wear well and, as soon as the sun hits it, it will fade quickly! Genuine Alcantara starts at roughly £90 per metre and you'd need around a 2 metre length to trim all your panels, plus your hi-temperature adhesive. So you're going to be looking at around £200 in materials alone... Colour-wise, I'd avoid black as it really does (in my opinion) darken the cabin too much. Bright red can be quite jarring (yes, I'm well aware I have dark red Alcantara in my own car!!) and look a little brassy. A grey or even a cream would look nice in a silver Zed with dark seats. Throw a bit of dark stitching in to contrast and tie it into the seat colour and you've got a winner! :thumbup1:

I'll be selling my Zed soon at this rate then! :wack:

That's so bad, it's almost funny! I'm assuming they're basing their decision on facts such as "older" cars having nowhere near as much safety equipment or electronic aids as "modern" cars do... but what about all the "modern" cars that are driven the wrong way on motorways by people in their 70s?! Will insurance companies start refusing cover to that age bracket because, statistically, they're potential menaces...? Or will they simply continue to target older cars and their (on average) less than affluent owners...? Honestly, the world today... I despair sometimes....

I think FunkySi's seat covers came from there, but he had all the panels made up bespoke by a trimmer. By the time you factor shipping, import tax and professional fitting in to the cost, you'd pay about the same as you would having a UK trimmer make and fit everything for you.

Did I spot the Altia quarter-windows there...?

How the hell...??!

How the hell...??!

Perforated leather wears very nearly as well as a solid finish, Gaz - even though it's technically full of holes (which should weaken the hide), they're spaced at a sufficient distance so that there's no real weakening worth mentioning. :) One interesting (if you're into this sort of thing) side-effect of having perforated leather is found when someone like me comes to retrim your seats. To help both the leather and the foam structure underneath wear well and last longer, the leather is usually backed with a thin layer of foam - usually 3mm or 6mm thick. When I separate the leather from the foam when dismantling the existing seat covers, I always find that the top of the foam is covered in filthy little dots that correspond exactly with where the perforations were! So all the sweat and grime and muck off your clothes seeps through the perforations and stains the foam... ...gotta love the nice parts of my job, eh?! :lol:

Perforated leather wears very nearly as well as a solid finish, Gaz - even though it's technically full of holes (which should weaken the hide), they're spaced at a sufficient distance so that there's no real weakening worth mentioning. :) One interesting (if you're into this sort of thing) side-effect of having perforated leather is found when someone like me comes to retrim your seats. To help both the leather and the foam structure underneath wear well and last longer, the leather is usually backed with a thin layer of foam - usually 3mm or 6mm thick. When I separate the leather from the foam when dismantling the existing seat covers, I always find that the top of the foam is covered in filthy little dots that correspond exactly with where the perforations were! So all the sweat and grime and muck off your clothes seeps through the perforations and stains the foam... ...gotta love the nice parts of my job, eh?! :lol:

The only real difference to the factory trim are the white piping and the white sections on the bolsters. Everything else is pretty much as Nissan intended. For a pair trimmed in full leather throughout (unlike the factory seats) in a similar fashion to that, including the embroidery, I'd ask for around £650. :)

The only real difference to the factory trim are the white piping and the white sections on the bolsters. Everything else is pretty much as Nissan intended. For a pair trimmed in full leather throughout (unlike the factory seats) in a similar fashion to that, including the embroidery, I'd ask for around £650. :)

This is kind of my point, Pete: you have experience of track driving and a car that is primarily set up for that. Not all the drivers out there that day can say the same thing...

This is kind of my point, Pete: you have experience of track driving and a car that is primarily set up for that. Not all the drivers out there that day can say the same thing...

I didn't read it in depth, no. I did note the part about "participating at own risk" but didn't make the connection until just now. Cars might not "race" whilst on track, but that doesn't prevent accidents happening as we've seen. I simply wonder what would happen in the event of a serious or, god forbid, fatal accident...

I didn't read it in depth, no. I did note the part about "participating at own risk" but didn't make the connection until just now. Cars might not "race" whilst on track, but that doesn't prevent accidents happening as we've seen. I simply wonder what would happen in the event of a serious or, god forbid, fatal accident...