I started in on my interior surface recovering project, last weekend.
My prior owner scratched the hell out of the A-pillar covers. To be fair, any touch with a fingernail will peel the Stone Grey finish off. I used an
alcantara
-like 1/8" (2mm) foam headliner material that looks great. It really works with the
alcantara
GT3
shifter boot.
But, Now I have to continue it to the C-pillars, which feed into the trunk area. That's getting complex. I wonder if I should terminate the fabric covering, or try to cover it all?
Has anyone else tried to recover the rear speaker enclosures and trim? I saw someone did the center console, which is very ambitious.
I'm going to start with my ignition surround and some scrap leather I got and attach it using contact cement. If that goes well I'll try some other panels and trim. I found an article by a
Boxster
fellow who replaced his carpeted door panels and Pedrosgarage did his center console.
Which
alcantara
material did you get? I kind of like the idea of some of the perforated stuff I see in bulk on eBay.
The A pillar is a good idea. I hadn't thought of that yet.
Yeah, round things are particularly hard. Getting the material to not bunch up seems to be an art form.
What I got isn't
alcantara
per se, but a synthetic headliner material with a directional nap. Looks like
alcantara
and feels like it.
I am very pleased with my A-pillars. the scratched grey soft touch was terrible. Now it looks like I am getting into an Aston or
GT3
.
I have a little trepidation about doing the C-pillars which become the rear storage boxes. That's a complex shape. I will also do the rear liftgate headliner, soon. I meant to this past weekend, but had a summer flu.
I might do the upper (non silver) shift boot trim, when I do my console and cable swap.
I am contemplating doing the same for my sand beige a-pillars and a few other small trim pieces using 1/8" foam backed honey suedeliner. Sounds like it might be the same stuff you used. Did you have to scrape all the soft touch paint off the pieces, or just glued ontop?
Yes, sounds similar. I scraped the soft touch on console parts for painting. But, for the fabric, I just wiped with
Windex
and sprayed adhesive on cloth and pillar.
Once I do C-pillars and lift gate liner, I may proactively do the headliner. Looks really nice in suede.
My pillars look awesome. Can't wait until the rest of the car looks as good.
When my headliner dropped I also did the a-pillars in the generic
alcantara
. When it didn't match anything else, I took the material around the window and back to the hatch trim. The underside of the hatch got the perforated version. The soft touch rear center console, dash trim, door trim and compound curved pieces like the speaker surrounds got painted which was a lot easier than wrapping them.
Wow, that looks great! Excellent ideas. The painted parts really pop and the upholstery breaks it up. Nicely done!
Looks great! Where do you guys get your fabric?
The "recycled" leather I got on
Amazon
is a rubberized substance infused with a cloth substrate. It's pretty fake feeling and isn't very stretchy so I wouldn't recommend it for a complex shape. I think it might be fine for parts with large radius curves, or maybe big flat pieces like a door panel. I'm going to try to use it for my Subaru Forester's door panels.
I got my material from
Automotive-Marine Vinyl and Upholstery Supplies
.
They were very helpful and responsive.
I ordered:Gray Synergy II Headliner 1/8"
It is five feet wide, and I got two linear yards. So, nearly four square yards for $40.
Feels really good and looks far more expensive.
My material is available at
Jacobs Upholstery Online Store - STREET SUEDE
My upholsterer had this sample board from them.
