by Jeemy » Wed 21.08.2013, 21:25
I'm actually already prepped up with most of those pieces which are all also getting leather covered.
So roughly, I am covering the dash, centre console & compartment cover, back rail, B and A-pillar covers, sill covers, and top rail together with the door cards in dark brown leather.
Then seats, steering wheel, door card inserts and pockets, and gear/handbrake gaiter will be done in cognac leather.
So as far as I know, and I want the car back in front of me to do a final check, the entire interior will be all leather. The gear knob I have already has a small piece of light tan leather - and the handbrake I have has black vinyl - both of these will be sent to him and if he can, he will change the leather over on them. If he can't, well, the gear knob will look fine, and the handbrake can be replaced with something that the leather can be replaced on, or something already in a dark brown.
Basically I've got a price which covers me for so many hides - the offcuts from the dash should cover the long thin pieces and if worst comes to worst I either buy one more hide, or go for vinyl as you say on the back / low / less visible parts. I'd just have him recover in a matching vinyl if such a thing exists. He is picking the colour to match the cognac, by eye for me once the seats are done.
The problem with these vinyl dyes is getting them to stick. Ingrained dirt is hard to clean off without damaging the surface, and there are scuffs to think about.
I posted up a link to the VHT stuff before on a few forums and nobody came forward with first-hand experience, which is when I decided having been given the price on the leather dash as an example, to see if I could negotiate a fee that worked for every single piece.
I'm not saying there will not be flaws and problems with both methods - anything that isn't honed on a factory line with the option to discard seconds, is not going to be perfect. I've got some Autoglym (I think) Magic Sponges to have a go at removing some light scratches from a mini - and it was so bad on the seat backs, I ended up using 1800 > 2400 grit on the plastic which worked quite well. I think the magic sponges are either going to put a silicon coat over and/or have a very mild abrasive effect - a plastic/cellulose polishing compound of 00000 grade might also work to get the vinyl ready to take the VHT without showing up the old scuffs, marks and dirt.
I've also seen guys using dual orbital polishers with fine buffing pads direct onto vinyl and plastic trim.
My van is also in pieces right now at an electrical specialists being reloomed, all the old RAC gremlins need to come out and some new alarm, central locking, fuel sensors and rails are going in. The guy next door to him is a refinisher and although he wasn't about when I went up, the spark was telling me about an interior he was working on. The first thing he did was coat everything in a yellowish substance. I am guessing something between an etching primer and a PVA. This before painting the vinyl. I hope to find out what products these were on my next visit, as the dash and door cards are out on the van, I'm going to attempt to refinish them myself.
At the price I've worked out, I am sold on the leather for the Elan - bear in mind its the only material (as I am advised) that will do the dash, and so everything has to then match to it. While I'd originally planned to dye the remainder, I want to go for a dark brown and I'm not convinced a brown dye over the dark blue-grey that the Elan and LOTS (why?) of other cars have instead of black would end up looking anything but patchy or mismatched. Certainly if done by me.
So I'm going to have a pop at the van using this method, and leave the Elan to a professional! I'll certainly report back. It all depends just how this VHT works in terms of coverage. The claims on the site sound brilliant - can you build up coats? I'm going to go for dark grey and black.
Once its done, you are right, the leather needs to be fitted correctly (of which Simon seems confident) - and then it needs to be kept clean and not lift.
The former I am happy with - I will use Gtechniq C6 Matte Dash on all the leather and vinyl. This provides a degree of abrasion resistance together with dirt- and dust- repellent properties. I'm normally sceptic of such claims as a chemist, but their products have been nothing but astounding in their performance.
The lifting is going to be under UV. I plan to use a dash cover when its left out in the sunlight. Not something we are cursed with here in Scotland anyway, haha.
The final concern I have is what to do with the fascia panel. I've repaired it using fibreglass and that repair has held for 3 months, so I am happy to go forward.
I plan to take the attitude that its grunged up anyway - anything I do will be an improvement. So I plan to rub it down with about 800-1200 grit, and then 'paint' it with fibreglass. I'll hand-sand it until its pretty smooth, then coat it in a spray etch primer, then a 2-pack paint, probably a dark grey.
I hope it to end up like the plastic on an Audi dash - that kind of gloss veneer that can be dark grey, or fake wood, or what have you. If worst comes to the worst it will go back to black, or be plasti-dipped.
The plastidip tends to, and is designed to peel, as Henk-Jan has pointed out. This yellow compound prevents that and keys the plastidip to the substrate. So its a good candidate for a rubberised finish which would be moderately hard-wearing.
What colour are you actually doing the dashboard? If its black, I think 'other blacks' will work fine; and to a degree you can use matte/gloss polishing/treatment to line them up in terms of surface reflection.
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