Suede

[bzinn 1]

I have spent the last week installing suede to my wifes car.....Scion tC

I have to say it has been one of the most difficult things to do to a car I have ever tried,I know it is not a Yaris,but thought I would share it here.

I plan on doing the Yaris next year in it,should be alot easier as there area so many less complex curves.

If anyone is thinking about doing this I am happy to give pointers on what not to do.And what to do...........










Installed.....
OK here is the next update.........

[TEHxFALLEN V1.2]

Awesome man, clean work!

How long did it take you to complete all pieces? & how much money did you spend?

[bzinn 1]

It cost me $74 for the suede( 5 yards of material that was 58" wide off ebay)it is not ebony black,but more of an espresso black,but looks perfect for the Crimson colored car.

Spray glue was 6 cans at $13 a can.......

Clear coat for the plastic pieces was about $5
Touchup paint exterior color painted with airbrush about $6( the dome light and such,but I changed it to Black sand pearl today so add another $6

$8 for the airbag clips in the pillars


Job was started Saturday morning at 10am gutting car and took till 3 pm to get it all out......then I worked till about 1am
and have about 50 hours into the suede being installed into the pieces,I had one area I had to cut buy the front dome light,but it is covered by the sun visor.

I still have to paint the oh shit handles, the visor hangers,the coat hangers and two push in clips.

Also the visors them selves area going to be painted black with material dye,then replaced with 11" LCD visors at soem point this summer.

There is at least 3 6 packs of beer in this and one bottle of Vodka so add another $50.......

But upolstery shop wanted $1400 to do it and that did not include painting the plastic parts or material.......I am sure they could do better but really it came out really great......

there is a lot of cussing and oh crap why did i try to do this to my car as the parts if needing to be replaced from screw up are in the $1000 range........not for beginners....which i am at suede.

[bzinn 1]

total cost under $250.......if you like this work wait till I post up the amp reinstall.......you do not want to know how much as gone intothe stereo....must be over 100 hours and about $2500......

But my wife rode the bus to work and back for 3 years so I could use our only car to pursue my career as an electrician........so I bought her the tC and am about $9000 into making it into a show car....still on the mild side at shows but it is a beautiful car at this point.......still have seats and some CF work to go on it,the coilovers,and soem custom paint airbrushed......it should be pretty nice,all work done by me so saved a lot there.

[REM]

That is great. I want to see pictures of everything in the car!

[ChinoCharles]

Nice work! Subscribed.

[blacksandiegovitz]

Yeah very nice work man ! Thats what I'm planning on doing to the yaris in the next couple of months . How hard was the headliner to do ???

[KCALB SIRAY]

Nice job. Are we talking real suede or the fake ultrasuede?

[PETERPOOP]

nice guy

[bzinn 1]

Originally Posted by KCALB SIRAY

Nice job. Are we talking real suede or the fake ultrasuede?

It is upolstery grade micro suede that is used to in cars......it is a synthetic,not real suede,real suede would be impossible to work with as it is just too thick and has no give and is about $75 a yard and you cannot get it in wide enough sheets to do upolstery.

The material I used is pretty thick compared to many I looked at and has a good thick backing.the backing is important as the glue will seep through very easy if it is too thin....most of the ultra suedes I looked at had almost no backing thickness.They would of been a lot easier to work with though and looked and felt just as good on the face of the material though.

[KCALB SIRAY]

Originally Posted by bzinn 1

It is upolstery grade micro suede that is used to in cars......it is a synthetic,not real suede,real suede would be impossible to work with as it is just too thick and has no give and is about $75 a yard and you cannot get it in wide enough sheets to do upolstery.

The material I used is pretty thick compared to many I looked at and has a good thick backing.the backing is important as the glue will seep through very easy if it is too thin....most of the ultra suedes I looked at had almost no backing thickness.They would of been a lot easier to work with though and looked and felt just as good on the face of the material though.

Thanks, and how did you get the wife to allow you to do all of this in the living room, lol. You must have Jedi powers

[bzinn 1]

Originally Posted by blacksandiegovitz

Yeah very nice work man ! Thats what I'm planning on doing to the yaris in the next couple of months . How hard was the headliner to do ???

For the tC the headliner is a nightmare,where the front dome light is the headliner has a huge raised area with some complex side edges to try to get the material to bend and stick too and still lay flat.

Also right after the complex edges there are the indentions for the visors and oh shit handles,you kinda have to inside out the material almost inches at a time to lay it flat,which is hard as the glue sets in under 8 minutes and you have to wait till about 4 minutes after spraying to start to work with it.

Then the sunroof cutouts in the headliner are extremely hard to get the material to wrap.as you have to cut the openings and make sure not to cut too much in the corners and then inside out it to bend all the way around and not have grey showing.

I looked at the Yaris headliner and it is a breeze to do,hardest part of it is the visor indentions,the good part is if you get a wrinkle you will have it hidden by them.

The pillars in our cars are pretty straight forward as well,with no super complex curves.

[bzinn 1]

Originally Posted by KCALB SIRAY

Thanks, and how did you get the wife to allow you to do all of this in the living room, lol. You must have Jedi powers

LOL.......yeah she was not too happy.....there are pieces of it in every inch of the house,bathroom,hallway,kitchen including inside the fridge....must of been gettign a beer......lol......

But it is going in her car so she has kinda put up with it.I am happy it is about to go in the car on Saturday,I have a few plastic pieces to finish painting and then it is going in.I have to hold off on the visor painting as I am broke till Tuesday......

[KCALB SIRAY]

great, can't wait to see the finished product

[eTiMaGo]

It's a great project, I am sure it will be worth all the effort

I still think someone should leather-wrap the yaris dashboard... big wide expanse of soft cow skin, yum!

[KCALB SIRAY]

Originally Posted by eTiMaGo

It's a great project, I am sure it will be worth all the effort

I still think someone should leather-wrap the yaris dashboard... big wide expanse of soft cow skin, yum!

wonder how well it would hold under the UV rays

[eTiMaGo]

that's why they call it a "tanned hide"?

[KCALB SIRAY]

Originally Posted by eTiMaGo

that's why they call it a "tanned hide"?