Koenig928

Earlier today, UPS delivered the carpet and leather replacment interior for my 87 S4 from 928 Specialists (Thank you, Jeannie!!)

All I can say is WOW! I'm stunned at the leather colors. The front seat kit turned out better than what I thought it would. Wanted to do something different than the factory 928 colors. So GAHH did the seats in #0438, Light Silver Gray (BMW color) with piping in Space Gray (#975 - newer Porsche color).

The carpet is Marble Gray, and it looks like about ~40 pieces in the box... I've got alot of glueing to do.

And I have 2 1/2 very fat a$$ COW hides spread out on the floor. I mean these suckers are big...! The smell of leather has completely fumigated the second floor of the house! But it smells wonderful, I can't imagine what the car will smell like when its all in there.

The 2 dark hides are #975, Space Gray, which will go on the dash, door panels, rear qtr panels and headliner. The other half hide is Seville Gray (#4161) (Jaguar color), going to cover the door and center armrests.

In case you were wondering, I'm completely gutting the 17 yr old interior. Partly because it 'stinks' like an old interior (and I can't get rid of that smell..), I'm tired of the beige and want a new color, and the front seats are tearing apart. Plus been waiting ~9 years to do it too!

I'm using my wife's new sewing machine to do the leather sitching. I'm already pretty good at straight and slight curved seams, but I need more practice for the real tight curves that will go on the Pod and door armrests.

Does anyone have any experience or advice with stiching leather like this? (for very curved objects) It seems like it's kinda similar to tailoring a suit.... Any help would be appreciated.

sublimate

Just make the wife some leather lingerie with the leftovers (ok, grey may not be the best color for that) and all will be good.

Weissach

Wow! Well, now the easy part of your project is done(getting all the material). Now the fun begins, installing it all, so that it doesn't look aftermarket or recovered(a huge challenge). Take your time(don't rush), and remember it's all the little details that separate a great restoration from a bad one. How many restoration projects have you done??

Tony

Ok, so wheres the beef?
Burgers and Beer for the engine work

I gotta have a look at this, great choices in color Bill!

try these few links for tips...I think "champagne" is the guy you should email on here. Hes the one that did his interior in ostritch. He may have a few pointers.
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...=198016&page=1

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...=197825&page=1

James-man

Nice to know that no animals were harmed in the posting of this topic thread.

Tony

I dont think lettuce would make all the tight turns .It would probably dry out quick as well!

James-man

Hemp would make a fine material for...

... reupholstering.

James-man

JK

kary4th

Where are you, Bill? I sure would like to see this go together. At some point, I will be considering what you're doing for my car, too.

Koenig928

She'll probably ask me to make a leather whip or something so she can beat me with it for using her machine...LOL!

Uh, right down the street from Tony! Don't worry, I'll post plenty of pictures when its all done, as well as what I pick up on sewing leather.

FlyingDog

kary, please say the interior is staying green.

Bill, you're a lucky boostard. I wish I was up to the point of redoing my interior. I have such splendid plans for it.

kary4th

Yup, it's staying green. I want to try recovering the dash, pod, rear console and maybe the center console myself.

I just received some leather rejuvinator that I'm going to slather the seats with. My wife, who has just taken an upholstery class, feels that it may (stressing MAY) be possible for us to replace the damaged areas of the seats. Of course, that depends on whether the rejuvinator really can do magic on the areas that are still whole. We're pretty sure we'll wind up buying new covers, but we want to try repairing them. It would be nice to know we did it ourselves.

Champagne

Hey Bill,

here are some detail pictures of the handle I told you about:

The idea here is to first mold the leather around the piece


I first simply wet the leather and slowly stretch it around with my fingers.

It would be wise to try on an offcut first to make sure that this will not affect the color of your leather. It's a bit easier for me here since Ostrich can be made very thin and still remain incredibly resistant.

Once the leather as stretched to where it will comply with the shape, I hold it in place until it dries.

After it dries, you will see that the leather will keep the shape rather well, so basically you only have to cut the excess and sew the seam.
I glued the face on the handle first to make sure it wouldn't move or develop wrinkles.
Near the hinge, I used cyanoacrylate (Crazy Glue), to both hold and seal the edges.

If you were careful in molding the leather, you should end up with a piece that as no folds or wrinkles.

This is what it looks like in the car.


If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask

Paul

Tony

WOW!

Koenig928

Very cool, Thanks!