Leather seats

[giles.holland]

Anyone know where I can get good cream leather from?

Gonna re cover my seats but don't wanna get ripped off, I've got someone who is a mate who can do the work just trying to find the leather for her.

Is a complete leather hide enough? Or is there special pre made leather for the job?

Cheers guys

[epipete]

Google Martrim, they have a extensive range and will send a sample!

[wayne]

Hi Everyone.

Looking for opinions of what you would do if you were going to have your seats recovered.

I would have preferred OEM. but they are not available. I have been offered a local re trim in leather that can do the perforated seat base, etc.
But not the OEM Stamped lotus logo. They can stitch it on but not stamp it.

Trying to work out what would look best. No Logo, OEM stitched Logo or Lotus losenger logo??

Any advice greatly appreciated.....

[theelanman]

have you tried Nick Fulcher Coachtrimmer, ex lotus employee and lots of old stock at his disposal.
www.coachtrimmer.co.uk
or 01603 (norwich) 811993.


there was also another ex employee...a lady...but I cant remember her name or find the details....
theyre on here somewhere....no doubt someone will have them.....

the factory have done them previously too......about £400 per seat

then theres kmckmc who has cover sets made up in what ever combos you like..

[inkitin]

there was also another ex employee...a lady...but I cant remember her name or find the details....
theyre on here somewhere....no doubt someone will have them.....

Yep....Here

Her name was Gwen Moore. I think this is her son's business

[wayne]

Thank you both for the links.

I'm sure that both would do alot better job than I will get done here.

Unfortunatly sending my seats and door panels / etc to the UK would be a tad expensive.

My seats were recovered by the last owner. I did quite like the look of them but they were done in fake leather which just looked cheap and nasty.
So I replaced them with the seats from my doner car. Unfortunatly the drivers seat stitching is falling apart.

new seat.jpg

old seat.jpg

I really do like Jim Hamshaws seats S2 style cream leather with the logo on the seat head. Unfortunatly cream is out of the question for me.... They wouldn't stay that colour for long. I was hoping that someone else had any pics of seat back logos that they had tried?

I can get the (almost) black leather and perforated leather here but Can't decide if I should keep the blue trimmings Or go with black seats and either a stitched lotus logo similar to the origional embossed logo. (embossed not available here).

I'm tempted to try to have the Lotus losenger design stitched on in Blue. Not good with photoshop so unsure what it would look like.

I'm very limited for choice of places to take my car. Only found 2 places on the island. Have been quoted about £430 for seats, door panels, handbrake, gearshift and door pockets.

Seemed a bit expensive to me.. but alot better than £400 / seat

[rip]

£430 sounds cheap to me if it includes the leather too.
Mine was £700 including the leather. Several have commented that they thought it was good value too.

[wayne]

Cheers Rip.

Price includes the leather. I just do not think that the quality of the work will be upto UK standards. Leather is German so at least cloth should be a similar quality.

I will try to contact the places mentioned by theelanman and inkitin to see if they have readymade covers that they can ship and have fitted here.

Will let you know what replys I recieve or post pics of the retrim I get here.

[Fredjohn]

I will try to contact the places mentioned by theelanman and inkitin to see if they have ready made covers that they can ship and have fitted here.

Wayne

Don't know if it is of any help but last year I had my old Elan S4 seats retrimmed by my local trimmer. I bought a set of Elan seat covers from Nick Fulcher which were posted to me and then fitted by aforesaid local fitter. Nick told me he had never simply provided covers before: he normally just trimmed the seats provided to him, but he was prepared to post out the covers (seat and back) anyway.

Sadly Nick died last year and the business is now run by his son. They have all the original paterns for the old Elan seats, and may well have them for the M100 too. So you may be able to get them made up by Fulchers and posted to you for local fit.

John

[lotuselanman]

Thank you both for the links.

I'm sure that both would do alot better job than I will get done here.

Unfortunatly sending my seats and door panels / etc to the UK would be a tad expensive.

My seats were recovered by the last owner. I did quite like the look of them but they were done in fake leather which just looked cheap and nasty.
So I replaced them with the seats from my doner car. Unfortunatly the drivers seat stitching is falling apart.

new seat.jpg

old seat.jpg

I really do like Jim Hamshaws seats S2 style cream leather with the logo on the seat head. Unfortunatly cream is out of the question for me.... They wouldn't stay that colour for long. I was hoping that someone else had any pics of seat back logos that they had tried?

I can get the (almost) black leather and perforated leather here but Can't decide if I should keep the blue trimmings Or go with black seats and either a stitched lotus logo similar to the origional embossed logo. (embossed not available here).

I'm tempted to try to have the Lotus losenger design stitched on in Blue. Not good with photoshop so unsure what it would look like.

I'm very limited for choice of places to take my car. Only found 2 places on the island. Have been quoted about £430 for seats, door panels, handbrake, gearshift and door pockets.

Seemed a bit expensive to me.. but alot better than £400 / seat

I wouldn't get a patch stitched or anything like that. The simple reason is that it might get annoying when it scratches against the back of your shirt and makes a noise or it might even be an uncomfortable feeling to have your back (or neck) against a cloth patch... I would prefer to get it "Branded" or "Stamped" myself. The other option would be to get it professionally painted on with a special leather paint or lacquer, but anything that "sticks out" too much from the leather would annoy me personally...

I need to get mine recovered as well. The previous owner of my car also decided it was a good idea to Retrim them in a cheap looking vinyl instead of leather. Unfortunately in the summer Vinyl is not breathable and is super sticky and feels nasty. To top it off there are no perforations for breathing so I end up getting out of the car with the back of my shirt soaked in sweat... Not sure how much it will cost to retrim here, but doubt I will get German leather. I think you're getting an amazing deal to retrim the whole interior, as long as the work done is good. I don't expect Hermes quality in terms of the accuracy of the stitching (but neither do I expect that in the US).

There is some guy on eBay selling gaiters and there are some other guys selling other trim peices that he says are made of 100% Italian Leather. http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOTUS-ELAN-M100 ... 3a588b102b Has anyone boughten these before? My Shift Gaiter has ripped apart and I was thinking about buying this one... How is the fit? Is it made in the UK?

Perhaps these guys can make seat covers as well, although I'm not sure. I work with leather myself, but unfortunately access to high quality European leathers is quite difficult here. I often have to pay $30-50 for a small peice of leather that's only a couple of square feet, plus all the work that goes into hand-stitching it. In the end it's easier and cheaper to buy something like this on eBay for me.

[wayne]

I decided to go with the local re trimmer. Due to costs of buying outside of Bahrain, shipping, import duty, fitting costs, etc.

Finally sent along the lotus logo and will have it stitched on in blue in a similar place to Jim's logo. (thanks for the concerns lotuselanman
Hopefully it should be high enough up not to be a problem). He is doing the logo FOC

Jim hamshaws seats.jpg

I'll be dropping the car off on Wednesday morning and have been quoted about 4 days.... So I'll expect it back in 1 -2 weeks

I'll post some pics when it's finished. At the end of the day it can't look any worse than it does at the moment.

Many thanks to everyone for the advice / options.

[wayne]

Picked up the car last night and am very happy with the results

He did a much better job than I was expecting and the leather quality is excelent, lovely & soft.

He had to replace the drivers seat side bolster and repair the base.
Did a fantastic job. It's like sitting a totally different car now

I'll be getting the door insert cards re done as I forgot to give him the origonal cards and he coppied
the old cards that didn't have the perforated panels.

drivers seat.jpg

Seat back.jpg

pax seat.jpg

zip.jpg

Ellie.jpg

Now looking at the pics I need to dig out the hoover and clean the carpets

[epipete]

Very nice indeed, and at less than half the UK price what's not to like! And an extra benefit you haven't had to pay the Govt 20%

[cliff]

They look really good Wayne.

[wayne]

Very nice indeed, and at less than half the UK price what's not to like! And an extra benefit you haven't had to pay the Govt 20%

I am very happy with the price. Before I saw them I was a bit concerned as to what they would turn out like. Some of the work I have had done on boat seats from other companies here has been a bit iffy.... I will definatly use this company again for any other parts I need making.

He made templates of all of the parts. seats, door cards, pockets and handbrake / gear shift gators. Unfortunatly I forgot to ask how much he would charge for just the covers excluding fitting. I'll be going back next week for the new door card covers. ( I need to repair the spare door cards as they are cracked).

I could probably fit a spare set in my suitcase the next time I'm heading back to the UK if anyone needs a set.

I have just removed the old parts from the boot and noticed that the Lotus origional sets only used leather on the top side of the seats. The material used for the rear and side panels is fake leather?? I can't believe that I never noticed this before!!

[paulsmithmk]

Mine goes in for retrim of all leather on Saturday week with Paul Moore in Aylsham. Norfolk. Am going for a black / Orange mix - will post pics when all done two weeks after...

[rip]

I'll look forward to seeing them when complete.
Are you having seat heaters fitted at the same time?

[theelanman]

Im in Aylsham weds.....lol
I'll see if I can spot the trimmers.....

[wayne]

Mine goes in for retrim of all leather on Saturday week with Paul Moore in Aylsham. Norfolk. Am going for a black / Orange mix - will post pics when all done two weeks after...

Quite an unusual colour combination.... Looking forward to seeing what it looks like once it's finished.

Hope they make a good job of it.

I guess 20 years use from the original leather is good. I hope that all the recent re trims will last another 20 years

[paulsmithmk]

I have thing about orange - no idea why - maybe I was Dutch in another life??! Not going for seat heaters as run out of time to order and fit and I like to think / dream my ass is hot enough already
will post photos - not sure when I am going to get it as struggling on how to get over there on date she will be ready - may be long train journey