Erling G-P

May be a very stupid question, but after seeing the photos at '928 Leather Shop' of their very nice looking vinyl-clad dashboards, with stitching and all, I'm starting to be in doubt.

Bought my car as 'vollleder' or 'full leather', but am wondering if I've been had and it's in fact vinyl instead. Being 16 years old, it doesn't smell like fresh leather inside anymore, so probably can't use the snout as judge. Is there a way to tell the two apart with certainty ?

Pics of my car's interior can be found here, if anyone can tell anything from a photo:

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/358647-newbie-got-his-shark.html

Cheers,
Erling

Mrmerlin

try putting a drop of water on the surface if it beads up stayes beaded then its plastic/vinyl if it soaks in and leaves a wet spot then its from a cow

Charley B

Stan, if it is leather, about how long will a drop of water sit there as a bead before it breaks the surface tension?

Nicole

The stitching on your dash does not look original. Someone might have replaced the original leather there with vinyl. But I doubt they went through the whole car redoing everything in vinyl. I'd say, whatever is original and shows stitching is leather.

On the sun visors it's very easy to tell, BTW: If they have zippers at the top, they are leather.

Erling G-P

Thanks all for the replies. Must try the water droplet trick when I can get to it.

Nicole, are you saying that the car would not originally have stitched vinyl, so that if it does now, it's been put there at a later date ?

Cheers,
Erling

Nicole

Yep. The following pieces in the interior came without stitches, unless they were leather:

Dash
Console
Door Arm Rests
Rear inside panels
Sunroof surround trim piece
A-pillars (unless different on earlier cars anybody seen leather A-pillars without stitching?)
Instrument Pod

Vinyl sunvisors had no zipper.

Anything can be done aftermarket, though...

GRTWHT

Didnt Porsche call the interior Leatherette?

Glenn
'81 9-2-8

Vilhuer

Leatherette in PET = vinyl.

heinrich

It is really very simple. BUT I have stood right in front of one of the most knowledgeable 928 authorities in the WORLD, while he was telling me a dash we were looking at was definitely leather (because it was sewn), and I knew it was vinyl-covered.. How did I know this?

1) The fabric has woven cloth on its back side
2) Pushing my finger at a 45deg angle into the part, I could feel it give. This is called vilyl. Leather does not give.

linderpat

I once represented a Mercedes dealer that sold a Benz with leather interior, which the customer specifically requested prior to the purchase. She got the car and later found out that it wasn't leather but instead, the Mercedes version of a leather substitute - essentially vinyl. It was nearly impossible to tell. Once we confirmed it, the case quickley settled....Some of that "pleather" is very convincing! Frankly, if it holds up better than leather over the long term, then I'm not sure it isn't such a bad thing!

Mrmerlin

Charlie, the water will eventually soak into the leather depending on what kind of cleaner/protectants have been used, with vinyl, the water will never soak in. It will just stay as a bubble droplet. You can always remove one of the side dash vent tubes and try to pull the edge of the covering back and see if it has cloth backing if so then its vinyl

daveo90s4

Erling, I once asked the same question about piano keys - how to tell if they were ivory or plastic. The piano tuner answered very simply. "Hold a lit match to one of the white keys. If it melts its plastic. If it turns black it's ivory" :-)

Erling G-P

Thanks everyone for the replies; glad to hear that it wasn't a completely nutty question after all..

Asked my mechanic for his opinion today and he believed it to be leather - he thought the material looked too thick around the stitches to be vinyl .

Have yet to do the water or any of the other tests, and forgot to look for Nicole's zipper on the sun visors with the car parked. Did spot something on the rear edge that might be a zipper while I was driving, but for obvious reasons couldn't look closer.

Cheers,
Erling

GRTWHT

Hi there Vilhuer, how would you describe my interior.
It is stated from Porsche:

Exterior Colour R4R4 Grand Prix White
Interior Colour DX Brown L'ette

Glenn
'81 9-2-8

ew928

Porsche Naugahyde.

I thought I had vinyl till the damn rear quarter panels started warping when the naugahyde started to shrink. Now why didn't I know about rennlist when I bought the car and immediately started a leather treatment on the rear quarters.

Now I just smear leather conditioner on the panels. If the conditioner gets soaked in, it's cowskin.