Source of original looking black leatherette material?

[deano]

Hi all,

Does anyone know of a source of original looking black leatherette - the type used on our seats and door caps and pockets?

I thought this would be easy to find but I'm not seeing anything on the Tinternet, or on this forum...

I think the same material was used for all LWB year cars, not sure, but I would describe it is as extremely smooth with a very faint vein-like texture on my 73 car.

Need to recover my cracked door caps and top edge of Targa bar under the rear Targa seal, and a few other bits.

Hope someone can help, all the best !

[RichOB]

Garry Hall at Classicfx does a lot of Porsche trimming - give him a call.

Best regards

[32FlatSix]

You could try this place in Germany, http://www.doepper-profile.de/. He has a very extensive stock of obsolete fabrics and rubber trims. I purchased correct vinyl for 914 door trim from him

Chris

[inaglasshouse]

Garry is a good place to start. He's sold me plenty of the stuff. Whatever the trimming job, I usually cock it up 3 or 4 times, but luckily the vinyl is not super expensive.

[deano]

Thanks guys - I didn't want to call an upholsterer just to ask for materials, but if you recommend him for that then I guess its OK.

How good a match is it - will it look odd if I mix old and new e.g. if I just cover the door caps and keep the original door panels and pockets?

[inaglasshouse]

I don't know whether Garry is OK with just supply (given that I have also paid him actual money to do stuff) but I'm sure he won't mind you asking.
It's a very decent match, in my opinion.
In your specific example, because the pockets are quite far from the top rail, and the panel may have a different texture anyway (basketweave) I think it will look completely fine.

[deano]

Thanks for your feedback...

I looked at my door panels today, and they are a smooth vinyl as would be expected for a 73 model, but it has a different texture to the rest of the interior. The door panels are not original to my car, but they are clearly completely original judging by the staples and hardboard. Oh well, perhaps that's normal !

I do have some nice basket weave panels, which I rather like, but the buggers have electric window switch openings - doh! I thought one day that I might like to retrofit leccy windows but I know I will never get around to it judging from past experience

Interestingly, the basketweave panels have plastic edging strips at the front and back, but the smooth vinyl ones do not.... more mysteries

[inaglasshouse]

I believe the smooth vinyl is slightly different for a '73 car. I only know about '65, '69 and '70, none of this modern stuff .
Garry can advise.
Door panels are _very_ easy to re-cover. You could re-do them in basketweave if that took your fancy.

[911GP]

Hi Dean,
The 73 vinyl on the dash top, door tops and knee roll is slightly smoother than that on the door cards and the anodised dash trim. Here is a photo from my 73:



The dash top, door top and knee roll are original vinyl. You can see it is smoother than the dash trim (again original vinyl) but not as smooth. The door card is new from Southbound but a good match to the dash trim vinyl. The A-pillar vinyl is also from Southbound and a good match to the dash top and door tops.

Kind regards
Gitesh

[inaglasshouse]

That makes sense, Gitesh. The door tops, dash top and knee roll look to be the same smooth vinyl as a '70 to me. And the bits that are basketweave on a '70 (door cards, dash trim) are the less smooth vinyl.
On mine, the door pockets are also smooth, matching the door tops etc.

[deano]

Wonderful, thanks guys! Hopefully I can find a good match material for my cracked (at the door button) door caps. Maybe I can peel the vinyl back, fix/fill/grind the moulding flat, and 'repair' the vinyl - worth a try, nothing to lose I suppose.

Can I please just ask one more thing while we are on this subject?

- do all model year seats use the same pattern smooth vinyl, and does it match the dash vinyl?

The seats I have are for an earlier car, with chrome brackets and basketweave centres. I am thinking, etch prime and paint over the chrome, and replace the basketw with smooth.... (and position foam within the useless springs)

[911GP]

73 seats had a slightly rougher vinyl than the dash top. Similar to the door cards.

[911GP]

Sorry I wasn’t clear. The sides and back of my seats had the rougher vinyl. The inserts are a wide corduroy. On my original 73 comfort seats I had the same but the corduroy went vertically instead of horizontally on the sports seats.

[visualfx]

Vinyl changed below the shoulder line in 72 through to 73 which is basically the front & rear door cards, seats, bottom section of the parcel shelf & lower B post.

Above the shoulder line will either be early vinyl used up to 71 with the exception of the dash, lower dash & front door tops which were vacuum formed vinyl at the factory (similar to early vinyl)

Also the two over bars on a Targa (above shoulder) in the 72/73 were trimmed in the earlier pre 71 vinyl.

Happy to supply either if needed

Garry

[deano]

My word, this is getting complicated, but interesting

Thanks for your input Garry, I will be in touch by phone

Especially interesting point was that lower part of parcel shelf is different to upper part - I noticed the same on my parcel shelf yesterday and thought it was very odd/wrong (lower part has noticeably deeper grain), but now I know its correct so brilliant, and thanks again !