Full re-trim advice sought

[ochdamh]

Hi all

Having decided that I'd like to hang onto my w124 coupe for a good few years yet, I need to ditch the filthy cloth interior. Having surprisingly little joy finding out about a re-trim in leather though.

Can anyone tell me if kits are available and where from?

Failing that, anyone recommend a good trimmer in central Scotland?

How does it work with bits like sun visors, etc? Will I have to match in with the original vinyl bits? Much rather go the whole hog in a new colour ( a la Sp!ke - who I tried and failed to message on this - you would appear to be an expert, sir). Either way I am in complete ignorance of such matters and would appreciate any pointers.

Cheers, ochdamh.

 

[teky]

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...er+car+seats&start=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N

 

[jaymanek]

Its going to be expensive to do a retrim.

Sometimes the whole conversion comes up on ebay with door cards etc, but this is rare. You might have some luck ringing around breakers..

Jay

 

[Spike]

Much rather go the whole hog in a new colour ( a la Sp!ke - who I tried and failed to message on this - you would appear to be an expert, sir). Either way I am in complete ignorance of such matters and would appreciate any pointers.

Cheers, ochdamh.

I managed to find a complete leather CE interior on Ebay for £50 ....but I got very lucky

Others do too now and again..... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....;item=2480201374&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

You should however be able to find one in a breakers but expect to pay about £600 upwards for a good example in creme leather - slightly less for black or red and much less for less for green or blue. For this money, you should expect seats, door cards (F +R), headrests, parcel shelf, all carpets (including boot) all interior plastic panels including headrests, lower dash and centre console (if you are doing a complete colour swap).

If you do a complete colour swap, you'll need to collect it in a van (little astra van or similar wil get it all in just) as there is a whole heap of stuff to swap over.

How hard is it to do? Not difficult really if you take your time and be methodical about things, take photo's as you go to help with getting it all back together. It took me the best part of eight hours to do, most of which was taken up with replacing the dash and centre console but I think it would now take me half that having now completed it in the past. The hardest part of the job by far is retentioning the lower sprung loaded seat belt anchors - when you get to that bit, I'll let you in on the secret to doing it.

There are a few MB breakers so get ringing around and good luck in your search. If you get stuck on something or cant get anything off, PM me and I'll do all I can to assist.

 

[ochdamh]

£50?! You are fortunate indeed. Thanks for that. I will let you know how I get on.

Ochdamh

 

[anglismutuel]

Be careful

I had a full retrim in Blue Connoly hide for my citroen 1970 DS23 Safari (similar size beast to a merc) from a reputable firm in Brighton - it cost £1,200 - the seats were done beautifully, I was having door cards done in brushed grey nylon (sounds yucky but is actually nice). While I was really happy with the workmanship on the seats themselves, which looked really gorgeous, I was very shocked to find things like sun visors, roof trim and the small peripheral bits were not included. My naivety for not checking in advance, but with old, tatty details still in place it really let down the look of the interior, and the really annoying bit is I've never got round to going back to have all those bits done, so it's never been as satisfying as £1,200 of expenditure should be. So - my advice is double check every last detail