RonKMiller

SUEEEEY! Why not? If it's good enough for Ferrari interiors...

I think the gun metal spray paint looks great, but...

A whole black hide is available for about $40.00, (enough to do everything) it's thin, tough, stretchy (a must for following the curves) and I think the suede side looks damn good! My thought is to spray the plastic and leather with a thin coat of 3M Super 99 spray glue, (expensive as hell but it's amazing for surfaces like this) let tack for a few minutes and then apply and let dry overnight. Hell, I might even break out the ol' commercial sewing machine and throw in some bright red accent stitching to match my VR paint!

Anyone try this? (with apolgies to Arnold from Green Acres....) I'll bet we can get a group buy on the whole hog and have bacon for breakfast!

dclin

iTrader: (4)

I was thinking of doing this, but one potential problem is that vinyl 'sweats' (especially in hot weather), and the covering material may come loose over time. The other biggest obstacle is that some of the sharp corners would need seams (for the material to make the sharp corners without bunching/wrinkling up and not look ghetto.)

DamonB

I thought of this recently too, but I saw one problem I couldn't solve. The a/c vent in the driver's side door has no bezel around it. I don't see how I could make any sort of seam there that wouldn't be fugly. Any idears?

RonKMiller

Well...um... I think that I would need to make some "darts" - basically V shaped cuts to accomodate some of the curves because some of them are pretty sharp, so it would take some fitting. The "flaps" from the cut would be on the back side, glued down and pressed with a roller to make them lie flat. Using black thread to close the darts would make them disappear, especially with the suede side showing. I don't think sweating is an issue, except when making this stuff fit in the first place! I'm not really planning on covering any vinyl, just the hard plastic trim. Damon: I think it could be carefully trimmed with a single edge razor after it is glued down. Looks like I've got a project to do, but I'll NEVER be able to photograph how good it's going to look when it's done! By the way, pigskin is easy to sew on a home machine, but the secret is to use 100% cotton thread and a new needle when working with leather, so if you have a gf or wife, involve them in the project too! Who needs Dr. Phil anyway? Probably the best thing about this approach is NO prep work except for a quick alcohol rub down of the plastic before glueing, with a pop or two for the tailor as well.

twinturboteddy

Actually it has been done.

My friend did this to his black FD right before he sold it.

Spent close to 4,000 paying someone to do it.

But it came out really nice.

EVERY THING was done from the seats to the dash to the rear consoles.

Color scheme was grey and blue I think.

RonKMiller

COOL! $4K? Yeah baby, I'll bet it looked great. Well, being the thrifty type I think I'll give it a whack myself. Now you've got me thinking that black with some minor red trim would be sick.....Yeah, maybe some red piping on the seats? You've created a monster - can't wait to get started!