dasams

I've searched but cannot find a leather covered sun visor for 997. Have a link?

bmwtye

Heres some work I had done by Dallas Customs. They received my parts on Monday, and are sending me these back today. I have yet to hear back from Exclusive options on my inquiry for a bunch of parts.

rubber_ducky

Yeah, I know that the AM guys wrap OEM parts, but they're typically parts that are supplied by the buyer that weren't intended to be wrapped in leather when they left the factory. Porsche might have a different part that they lay their leather on. Meaning a standard (non-leather) center console is different from the plastic or support piece of an OE leather console.

The NatGeo piece clearly showed that a panamera dash had a groove for the bulk of the stitching to sink into. I'd bet anything that an AM leather guy couldn't get the same end result if they wrapped a dash without a groove in it.

I've never seen a center console look as good as OE and I wonder if it's because the leather is applied to different parts. Only way to tell would be to peel the leather off of an OE leather piece.

Domer911

I certainly don't know either, but I'd bet a lot of money that Porsche only has one dash for all the 997s, regardless of how it's covered. I wonder to what extent the AM guys are able to take a core part back to it's true core before covering it to order. Next time I contact Frank at EO, I hope I remember to ask. You've made me curious.

bmwtye

I doubt porsche uses different parts for leather covering, as that would not be cost friendly from a manufacturing standpoint. Its probably more in the care and craftsmanship that goes into the leather work. Porsche probably has a higher standard of how it is done than most AM. As well as Porsche has a standard thread length for the deviated stitching, while most AM probably dont have this info so they try to just get it as close as possible. I have seen OEM leather consoles where the leather is stretched or coming up in that area under the handbrake leading to the shifter. On other parts like an armrest cover, there isnt much to take down to get to the core once the material is removed.

Domer911

rubber_ducky

Well that didn't take long to get confirmation on... The screenshot below is from a NatGeo piece on the 911 (not panamera) where leather is being applied to a core where there is a groove for the seam. The video mentions the groove at ~2:40.

This might not be true for every single part that is available as finished in leather, but it wouldn't surprise me if that were indeed the case. I'd be willing to bet that the center console on the 997 has a similar groove in the core piece. Which would explain why I haven't seen a since AM job that looks nearly as good as OE.

Video is here:

Domer911

So do you believe that the AM guys are applying leather to some plastic core they picked up on ebay? They are using the same base part as OEM.

rubber_ducky

Sometimes yes. If you send them your core like they ask you to, they have no need to go to ebay (or some dismantler) to pick up a core.

I certainly don't believe that Porsche supplies the AM guys with unfinished core parts, either in exchange for the non-leather core part that is sent to them or at some deep discount because of some partnership that they have with the AM guys.

One easy way to tell would be to check the part number of a console from an AM vendor where a core wasn't sent in.