How many hides to retrim in leather??

[Andy Brookes 0]

Have been looking for leather for ages, but most cost to much for worn out interiors, so started looking around to get mine retrimmed. While searching on the net I found a few suppliers of hides and was surprised at how inexpensive a hide is. My estimate would be a couple of hides for a retrim including door panel trim areas (not full door panels). Have also found a supplier for Alcantara so may look at using that instead of leather or as centre panels etc.

 

A few years back I bought an audi quattro leather interior from Kim Collins that needed a few panels replaced, This was very easy. So think I would be capable of machining up a new interior using the old seats as patterns.

 

I guess those that have had a retrim done maybe able to answer the how many hides question.

[Supercharged 2]

Hmmm - I had heard it was one hide per seat so bassally you need 4 hides plus another one or two for the door cards...

[BigTartanJudge 0]

Hi,

 

I have been in touch with several (at least 4) car retrimmers this past week, and all have said that 3 hides are required for a full interior retrim (not including headlining or the outer surrounds of door cards). Also, I have found that pricers are pretty similar, with £900 plus VAT being the cheapest so far for a retrim (as described above).

 

TBH, in my opinion, I think this is quite expensive, and I know finding a full set of leathers on Ebay, this forum or wherever else is pretty rare (not impossible tho!), but £1060 is quite a lot I think for a retrim, especially as I sold my last two factory leather interiors (one was Porsche half-leather) for around half of this cost, one of them included leather doorcards !!

 

I am currently in the process of contacting around 15 specialist vehicle retrimmers around the UK and I will post details of the cheapest quote I get when I have all info back,

 

Cheers,

 

BigEastSideVWG60

[GIXXERUK 0]

so this is what "field of dreams" means :wink:

[BigTartanJudge 0]

Eh ?

 

You've lost me mate,

 

BigEastSideVWG60

[GIXXERUK 0]

cows - field - mmmm new fresh retrim ...field of dreams :-)

[BigTartanJudge 0]

Ah, nice one, it's Sunday, so brain not on top form 'fraid :D

 

Cheers 'tho,

 

BigEastSideVWG60

[GIXXERUK 0]

i know the feeling , oh too well :-)

brain not on top form

[dinkus 10]

I think you'll probably find that the main cost in a re-trim is the labour involved rather than the material itself. Most of the extra cost for leather is also likely to be labour because it's harder to work with than cloth.

[BigTartanJudge 0]

Yeah,

I know that but have heard of people getting high quality retrims in leather for a lot less than £1100 tho :shock:

 

Cheers.

 

BigEastSideVWG60

[dinkus 10]

All the quotes I've heard of seem to be around the £1k mark, so it sounds about right.

 

There are probably some people that know people and can get it for less tho...

[Andy Brookes 0]

1k sounds about right to me for a professional retrim.

 

The leather costs about £100 a hide, so the material cost is £300 to £500 before you pay a man or lady to sew.

[kerrinmay 0]

Anyone considered having a go themselves? I'd love to get my car retrimmed in leather but I first need to swap my rear bench for one with the centre armrest. So was thinking that would be a good place to start if I had a go myself as I wouldn't need to rush with the back seat as would still have my original in the car.

 

On second thoughts it's probably not a good idea to try this myself. I'd actually be quite happy for now to just replace my rear bench with another cloth one but one with the armrest, but I believe they didn't do one in the same cloth as the rest of my car as it's a 2.0 16v, so I won't be able to get one to match the rest of my interior.

[saysomestuff 0]

but not having an armrest makes your car unique - you can't be that bothered abbout passenger comfort, you bought a corrado after all! :wink:

[coolrado 0]

i re-trimmed the seats on my mr2 in leather and i found it quite easy really, but i did use my mums industrial sewing machine which doesnt use a variable speed motor but a clutch instead, its quite scary to use sometimes

[kerrinmay 0]

i re-trimmed the seats on my mr2 in leather and i found it quite easy really, but i did use my mums industrial sewing machine which doesnt use a variable speed motor but a clutch instead, its quite scary to use sometimes

 

So are you taking orders for knocking up a load of leather interiors for us guys on here? :D

[kerrinmay 0]

but not having an armrest makes your car unique - you can't be that bothered abbout passenger comfort, you bought a corrado after all! :wink:

 

Definately not bothered about passenger comfort, don't actually let anyone sit in the back, always use the excuse that the C is only a 2+2 and you can only sit in the back if you have no legs!

 

I do like the look of the centre armrest though, so it's more for cosmetic and storage reasons that I'd like it. Am I right in thinking that you can store both your warning triangle and first aid kit in it? One in the arm rest and the other in the seat back behind it?

 

Mind you if I got a rear seat with the armrest it would make it more awkward for the dog! He's only a small terrier but he's always fidgetting about, and it will make it less easy to protect the rear seat with his tartan doggie blanket thing as it will have to be arranged to go over the hump of the armrest....but I still want one.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

It's easy making up leather 'panels' using the old cloth as templates but sewing it altogether (with neat stitching) and making it stay in shape for more than a month is the difficult bit!

 

Hide varies too. The stuff they use in Bentley/RR is certainly not £100 a hide.....but it depends on your expectations and wants.

 

I think the best trimmer I've seen is Snappy Gaitors, and then MJ Interiors...both around the £1300-£1400 mark to do a Corrado.....

[Neil VR6 0]

Did you try here?:

 

http://www.schaffinoleather.co.uk/html/body_home.html

[coolrado 0]

i re-trimmed the seats on my mr2 in leather and i found it quite easy really, but i did use my mums industrial sewing machine which doesnt use a variable speed motor but a clutch instead, its quite scary to use sometimes

 

So are you taking orders for knocking up a load of leather interiors for us guys on here? :D

]

the only thing stopping me re-trimming the rado is finding the right leather at the right price.

the only problem with the mr2 seats was they where shockingly hot in the summer and i would prefer perforated leather.

Ideally i would also get air con but it seems a lot of work

[randal 0]

A few years back I bought an audi quattro leather interior from Kim Collins

 

Is that Quattro Sport Kim Collins?

 

ta

[Andy Brookes 0]

Sure was, must have back in 93 or 94. He was only just starting up then. I think he is doing well as I keep seeing ads in various mags.

[randal 0]

Small world, guy at work has a glorious yellow short wheel base quattro with an S2 transplant - absolutely spanking car. OZ SuperT's, perfect height, interior spot on - everything. I believe it used to belong to Kim once upon a time...