$7 custom leather interior?!?!

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Thrift store + a $10 bill =
Childs black leather jacket ($3.99)
White leather purse ($2.99)

After some hacking and mocking up...

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side panels...

I added extra batting after this to help smooth out seam and material overlap lines that can be seen in these photos

[Porsche9]

Nice work! Post some pictures when you got it installed.

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Shifter and leather stretching/molding. The emblem may be too much (I haven't decided yet). I may still make the cutout for the shift map and lose the emblem...I'll try it on for a bit

[eicheldp]

Originally Posted by particlewave

shifter...and leather stretching/molding. The emblem may be too much (I haven't decided yet).

Keep the emblem... It adds a touch of class. Love the look. Did you do the sewing?

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by eicheldp

Keep the emblem... It adds a touch of class. Love the look. Did you do the sewing?

Thanks!

Yep, did all the sewing myself with this old beauty that I bought on craigslist for a whopping $20 last year. It's old and lacking a lot of functions that you find on modern machines, but it is built like a darn tank! It must weigh 40 pounds
Very reliable and punches through leather like butter

[Porsche Chick]

HOLY MOLY!

That is seriously impressive, excellent work. As someone who has tangled with a sewing machine before, that's amazing.

Wow . . . :dance:

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by Porsche Chick

HOLY MOLY!

That is seriously impressive, excellent work. As someone who has tangled with a sewing machine before, that's amazing.

Wow . . . :dance:

Originally Posted by mikehkang

Wow!

A Renaissance man!

IF I ever sell my Boxster, I will is all the member here. And some more than the other...

Originally Posted by BruceH

Very nice! Keep the emblem, I think it adds. Not too sure about the e-brake.

Thanks guys and gal!
This was just going to be a trial run, but the shifter and side panels turned out pretty nice, I think. I have about 3 hours wrapped up in what I've done so far, but some of that was spent figuring out how to do seams with leather that looked good but weren't to difficult to do. Now that I've got it figured out, it will go faster.

Bruce: I agree. That e-brake just isn't sitting well with me. I need to roll it back to add some batting anyway, so I'm going to make a new handle piece (I made the e-brake cover in two pieces) that has just a single white stripe on top that is 1cm wide on the handle piece only, not the entire e-brake. I think that will look 10 times better

Left to do; storage compartment lid and side panels, door pocket covers, and somewhere down the line, steering wheel and gauge pod

[jdlmodelt]

Originally Posted by Porsche Chick

HOLY MOLY!

That is seriously impressive, excellent work. As someone who has tangled with a sewing machine before, that's amazing.

Wow . . . :dance:

I'm with Porsche Chick. I've done a lot of sewing too. Outstanding work!

[Uncle Brad]

Originally Posted by particlewave

Shifter and leather stretching/molding.

Nice work!

I think you may have just save me a lot of pain with an issue i have with a used replacement shifter i bought.

Can you elaborate on the leather molding/stretching and just how you got the white portion applied to the shifter?



I'm also curious as to how hard the silver portion of the shifter was to remove.

Cheers!

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by Uncle Brad

Nice work!

I think you may have just save me a lot of pain with an issue i have with a used replacement shifter i bought.

Can you elaborate on the leather molding/stretching and just how you got the white portion applied to the shifter?

I'm also curious as to how hard the silver portion of the shifter was to remove.

Cheers!

The silver piece is a bit snug at first, but it's just a press fit, so comes off easy enough. You want to pull it out on a 45 degree angle, not straight up or back.

To mold leather around curved pieces, I first get a dish sponge and run it under hot water, then ring it out and hold it against the raw side of the leather for about 1 minute. The heat and moisture softes the leather slightly. Then I just gently pull and stretch the leather with my thumbs to stretch it out where needed to achieve the proper curve. You can also pull and stretch it over the piece, though I find stretching it by hand is quicker and more effective.

Edit: a little more detail...
Once the piece of leather was stretched over the silver piece, I traced a line around the perimeter of the silver piece onto the back raw face of the leather to mark where the leather would wrap around the edge. I then used a Dremel with drum sander to thin or "skive" that perimeter line until the leather was only about half of it original thickness there. This makes it much easier to wrap around the edge of the silver insert. The leather was then trimmed to size (1 cm overlap) and the overlap was feathered and tacked to the backside with contact cement, similar to this:

[Uncle Brad]

Great reply, i appreciate the detail.

You're a talented lad!...and thanks for the metric measurement for this Canuck

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by Uncle Brad

Great reply, i appreciate the detail.

You're a talented lad!...and thanks for the metric measurement for this Canuck

No problem and thanks for the compliment
I always use metric and only occasionally convert to imperial for the sake of others.

It was all pretty simple except for the e-brake, but the e-brake is also what got me started on this whole thing. The top plastic insert was cracked and looked horrible.

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Mocking up e-brake.

Side note: I'm not super happy with the oval patch on the handle, but after much mocking up with paper templates, it's the best that I could come up with

Side side note: making e-brake covers out of leather sucks a big floppy donkey ear!

[particlewave]

E-brake, side panels and shifter done.
I'll work on the rear storage lid, rear side panels and door pocket covers next time

[scottvd]

LOL, awesome!

[Perfectlap]

You are a man of many talents.

Although I don't think white shag would look good as carpeting.

p.s.
I would do a black glossy vinyl wrap on middle part of the center console. Or maybe 3M Di-Noc carbon wrap.
It will bring out the white more.

[mikehkang]

Wow!

A Renaissance man!

IF I ever sell my Boxster, I will miss all the member here. And some more than the other...

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

I would do a black glossy vinyl wrap on middle part of the center console. Or maybe 3M Di-Noc carbon wrap.
It will bring out the white more.

Great minds think alike
I'd like to do either the cf or gloss black wrap at some point. It seems cheap and easy enough.

Progress may be slow because I have several pots on the fire right now, but I'll update with pics as I go

[newob]

LOVE IT~!!! good job! seriously... I love a good leather interior