Has anyone recovered the door panels in leather?

[Bmachine]

As in, getting a hide and doing it yourself from scratch.

It seems like a daunting task when you look at all the intricate patterns in the stock vinyl ones. But is there a way to forgo the complex stuff and focus on a few classy folds and get the beauty out of the lush material instead of the complex plastic patterns?

This seems like a project that would be fun to undertake since it is strictly cosmetic and doesn't keep you from using the car even it takes longer than foreseen...

Thanks

Bo

 

[rsporsche]

i actually thought about this today when meeting with a leather rep. i picked out a perfect black leather - color and texture. as i have to get door panels to go from tan to black ... and new black door panels list for around 600 bucks. so if you think about the cost of an entire hide (50 to 55 sf), list price per hide would be less around 450 bucks. i think i could do all of the door / side panels from one hide. i would have to get somebody to sew the folds. of course i would also make new backing panels.

with some of the scrap pieces, will have to experiment with covering the petri.

 

[HB Chris]

On my doors the upper basket weave was dyed to match leather on the lower half.

 

[rsporsche]

how about a detail pic Chris

 

[Markos]

Take a look at all of the E9's for sale on mobile.de. I see custom door panels on there all the time.

 

[Markos]

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=214425383

I could only find one this go around...

 

[Cornishman]

Leather everything

I recently had my door cards, rear shelf and seats done in leather. Those keen on orginality best look away!
The entire car interior took 5 hides, but is worth it and has transformed the overall look of the car.
These were just snaps which lost some colour and certainly don't do it justice. I wil post real images when I get some good light to take the shots.

C

 

[Bmachine]

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=214425383

I could only find one this go around...

Very interesting. Thanks Markos.

 

[Bmachine]

I recently had my door cards, rear shelf and seats done in leather. Those keen on orginality best look away!
The entire car interior took 5 hides, but is worth it and has transformed the overall look of the car.
These were just snaps which lost some colour and certainly don't do it justice. I wil post real images when I get some good light to take the shots.

C

Wow. That looks amazing! Way better than the original in my book!

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Completely un-original

Ok, so the purists will not be happy but I'll save the originality for the Polaris coupe. When I found the old gal in 2011, she had the original door wood covered in something like wood-grain shelf-paper so I went to HD and got some thin strips of ash and made my own. I had to use a belt sander and a router and experiment with mixing allot of stain then spray with 10 coats of poly but I don't have to worry about them de-laminating since they are solid pieces. When I had the door cards made my guy used vinyl on the bottom half and leather on the top where ones' sweaty arm might rest. As you'll be able to see there is very little left of the original interior but it's still fun to drive and relatively comfortable.

 

[Markos]

Man I wish I saved the image. One car on Mobile.de had matching wood all the way down to the armrest. It fit surprisingly well.