Lotus Elan Central

by **E18N SE** » Sat 07.04.2007, 19:05

Hi Guys,

The seats on my car are quite old and cracked and I was looking at trying the restoration liquids. I have heard mixed reports about how well this works. The other alternative is to recover the seats. My uncle is an upholsterer for leather suits and he can be a bit of a stubborn git

He said the most time wasting part is unstitching the seats and making templates of them. He asked me to put this on the site to see if anyone else would be interested in a new set of covers?? I don’t know how much they would cost but he said he would make them very classy, even embroidering the lotus logo into the seats.

Has anyone enquired about doing this and what cost have you been quoted?? I believe the greater the interest the better the price will be.

Chris

by **johnny** » Sat 07.04.2007, 21:03

Chris.

Ive got a guy looking at my seats next week. Thursday 12th.

Dark gray & black leather, red piping with M100 also in red.
Ill let you know what he comes back with.

John.

Website · by **theelanman** » Sun 08.04.2007, 13:38

John
Im guessing that Chris was aiming this as a group buy thing.....
think Chris' guy would want to do say 5 or 10 sets or something rather than a one off.....
although if your guy can do one offs (or in this case 2 off) cheaper, then you might be the man to talk to
cheers
G

by **dapinky** » Sun 08.04.2007, 13:48

As long as the quality is good, and the price reasonable, I'd be interested in a pair.

by **Paul.P** » Sun 08.04.2007, 14:19

Chris, i totally agree with your uncle, you have to have the proper moulds to do a proper job, thats why although ive seen quite a few retrims, the lotus ones are far & away the better ones, so does your uncle think he's gonna be able to beat the £325 / seat that lotus charge ?

by **Rogerf** » Sun 08.04.2007, 16:18

I agree Paul.
I shopped around and found i could save a little but in the end went to Lotus and i'm glad i did.
Excellent job!!

Roger

by **E18N SE** » Mon 09.04.2007, 11:20

Hi Guys,

Is £325 per seat for new total new leather seats??? If thats right I may have to go that route myself. How can new leather seats cost the same as some rubber seals???

My uncle was angling at doing at least 5 sets for it to be worth his while. (some bloody uncle he is!!!) He says the price of the seats will also bepend on the quality of leather used. If I was willing to pay extrahe could make something very special. He could beat the price that lotus charge if he uses the run of the mill leather, but he is thinking real quality and closer to £600 per seat!!! I am trying to get him to do my seats as a tester so I can show you pictures, I think he's on to my plan and is resisting slightly. If the seats turn out as good as he says, would anybody be intersted in them.

Chris

Website · by **theelanman** » Mon 09.04.2007, 11:35

chris
I suggest you look at the lotus seats......you aint seen anything like the quality and finish........
maybe paulp could post up some pics of whitey and jps.....
IIRC the price paulp paid was w complete refit, refurb etc etc...replacing the seat foam and other stuff.....cheers
g

Website · by **theelanman** » Mon 09.04.2007, 11:36

chris
I suggest you look at the lotus seats......you aint seen anything like the quality and finish........
maybe paulp could post up some pics of whitey and jps.....
IIRC the price paulp paid was w complete refit, refurb etc etc...replacing the seat foam and other stuff.....cheers
g

by **Oliver** » Mon 09.04.2007, 21:37

Just spent today skinning my knuckles. As you can see i need my seats re-upholstered! How much ?

Oliver

Website · by **theelanman** » Mon 09.04.2007, 22:00

chris
this was paulp's interior on his jps.....
what you cant see is the leather door inserts and leather trim to replace the door carpet.......
Ive found one of whitey too.......
paulp has always been bob on when it comes to quality interiors.....
cheers
g

ps hope paulp doesnt mind me posting pic of his car......but they are the bizz

by **Rogerf** » Mon 09.04.2007, 22:06

I think mine came to nearer £800 but there was an issue with VAT.But i'm still glad i went to Lotus.
They were totally refurbed including replcement foam,perfurated leather,embroidering and piping.
Only down side was it tuck them two months to do,but it was the winter!

Roger

by **Paul.P** » Tue 10.04.2007, 07:13

theelanman wrote:paulp has always been bob on when it comes to quality interiors.....
cheers
g

No problem G, the thing is with lotus doing the seats, they get all the panelling in the right place, & they actually put me some extra foam in the base so the side bits didn't cut, cause i got a big arse. Think it took them about a month with whitey & 3 wks with JPS, depends how busy they are, & you can take your seats down to factory & discuss your requirements with the ladies in person !

by **E18N SE** » Tue 10.04.2007, 19:05

Thanks for your advice guys. I'd love to see what PaulP's seats look like but I couldn't find a link on the page. I'm quite new to the site so is there something or someplace I need to click on to find them??

Chris

by **E18N SE** » Tue 10.04.2007, 19:15

Sorry guys I dont know what I did but I can now see pics of the seats and they look fantastic. That is the sort of quality I was looking at. Was £800 for the full interior, ie seats, door trimings??

£800 seams a bargain if that is the end product. I'll have to print off the pics and show them to my uncle and see what his reaction is. He deals with canadian leather for his sofas and he says one skin can cost over £1000. I think he maybe guilty of thinking just because we own a lotus that we are made of money. The last car he did was an old aston martin and he charged them £10000 for a full interior refit. I'll try and get some photos to see what that looked like.

Thanks Again guys
Chris

by **kmckmc** » Thu 12.04.2007, 10:38

Hi,

I am about to retrim my S2's seats as well.

S2 and non-S2 seats are different. My local Retrimmer guessestimated that 2 S2 seat's covers (above-average leather hides used, with piping, and all S2 seat detail; I am not so sure about perforated leather part...) could be had for less than 250GBP. Installation is extra. How much is installation labor charge in UK for 2 seat covers?

Is this a good price for 2 S2 seat's covers?

Please advise.

Cheers,

by **johnny** » Thu 12.04.2007, 14:42

Ive been quoted 470 for both seats any colour any style with piping.

He can also do the steering wheel & gear knob.

Handbrake gaiter 25
Gear lever gaiter 20

John.

by **Paul.P** » Thu 12.04.2007, 17:52

Chris, both seats ( new foam as well ), which is worth the extra !, handbrake & gearlever gaitors, & the bottom section on the doorcard ( normally carpet ), cost £1k from lotus.

by **surfboardfiller** » Fri 13.04.2007, 14:21

Mel Brome did my door panels, door carpet in leather and seats, cost over £1K.
I wasn't that impressed with the stiching of the door carpet replacement, it was quite dodgy. The door cards don't fit properly (they would not re cover the SE originals) and the passenger seat leather is not high quality. I expected the finish to be fault and blemish free.
From a distance it all looks quite nice but that's down to the design not the build.
To be honest when I got it all back I was a bit gutted but then Lotus are not good finishers. I finish a lot better than that!

So maybe if you have high standards, you'd be better with Chris.

by **Rogerf** » Fri 13.04.2007, 22:28

Phil,
i'm surprised :roll:

Mel and his crew did an excellent job of mine.
The leather,stitching,piping and embroidering are faultless,the only problem i encountered was the runners arrived back the wrong way around!

Roger

Lotus Elan Central

re-upholster of seat covers, anyone interested???

re-upholster of seat covers, anyone interested???

Seat covers.

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