Mondo 300

Soooo, I'm busy working away on the doorcards when, lo and behold, the replacement zips are delivered! Time to hop back onto the original work, then!

And you end up with something that looks very much like this:

Anything other than red zips would've looked a bit weird, I think:

I've embellished the original design a little by adding more topstitching on the upper sections and round the humps either side of the headrest (and of course, around the hump on the seatbase). I think it gives it a little touch of class:

And finally, here's what it looks like back in it's rightful home:

Pretty snazzy!!

 

 

Can't wait to see the results.

Hopefully tomorrow, mate...

All that OEM stuff's in the bin now - just a nice virgin surface for me to play with...

My only real complaint is that the door pocket's plastic-welded to the rest of the card. As I don't have that facility, I'm having to work around the pocket. Which makes things that little bit more awkward...

Really interesting watching this progress.

It's mind-bending work making this progress, believe me!

But, trust me on this one... the doorcards are starting to look very different to how they left the factory...

Sooooo, while I'm waiting for zips to arrive... anyone ever wondered what a naked doorcard looks like...??

Really time to earn my keep now...!!

The part that's really hacked me off is that I've spent today putting the driver's upright cover together... and all the work I've done today hinges on the zips... which I now need to replace... which means I have to pull everything apart that I've made today... which means I've effectively ended up wasting an entire day!! :rant:

Sick. As. A. Chip!!!

Are they going to be full red or broken up with a little something else on the back support?

When the original spec had black topstitching, Rob wanted the zips black as well. But now the stitching's silver, anything other than red zips will look just plain odd (executive decision here).

And so we hit our first (and hopefully only) snag: the zips I ordered for the backs of the seats are crap and have separated when I've zipped everything up!! :rant:

So I've ordered some more heavy-duty ones, but it means I effectively have to pull apart the driver's upper cover to fit the new ones when they arrive!

There are so many expletives I want to type out right now, you wouldn't believe it.....

They turned out quite nicely in the end

Hmm havimng second thoughts about going to the Singapore GP now haha want to drive the car !! Superb - Superb - Superb!

Hahahaha!! As I said in my PM, your car's difficult to manouever without a driver's seat in!

Glad you're liking it so far, mate

Definitely earning your money there I would say.

There's a huge amount of work involved in retrimming seats, so definitely earning those pennies!

Looking forward to the seat pics!

What the man wants...

I mentioned some "little touches" earlier... how about some silver stitching to accentuate the eliptical raise on the seat base?

Or (and I realise this will pretty much never be seen, but what the hell) some nice topstitched edges on the panel that comes down and fastens under the seat? The original panel was simply a piece of black felt which was all rough edges, so I thought it's replacement should be a little more in keeping with the rest of the new seat design.

Just some small things to make Rob's seats stand out in a crowd.

Thoughts and comments, good or bad, always welcomed!

Cheers!

Thanks for the kind words, guys - much appreciated

The driver's seat base is now complete and refitted. I've been making both sides as I go along so the passenger seat won't take very long to strip and refit.

I've put a couple of (in my opinion) nice little touches on the base and I'll take some pictures in natural light tomorrow and post 'em up! But it's looking really nice!!!

Thanks guys!

Today sees me going a little bit bigger than yesterday... headrests. I genuinely can't thank Nissan enough for making this part of the interior so difficult and time-consuming!!

But hey, as the saying goes "the difficult I can do right now... the impossible will take a little longer!" So we have what is, in my opinion anyway, a nigh-on perfect 350Z headrest retrim in some lovely red leather with silver topstitching!

Secured tidily underneath with the invaluable aid of good ol' Velcro! But it's a neat and tidy finish and that's what it's all about.

I've got a blinding headache now though!!!

 

Any headrest cover replacement must go over the top, unless you have the know how to make one from scratch.

Luckily, I have just that know-how and am making a new pair as we speak

Mondo 1 Headrest 0

Now the real fun starts...!!

So Rob (Mudman) dropped me a line with an idea of what he fancied for the cabin of his Zed. We bounced some ideas around... samples were sent and agreed... and a date was set.

His car arrived on Saturday. I got started this afternoon. And I started small:

But things will be getting bigger very soon! Keep watching!

Seriously, what were Nissan thinking when they decided to make the 350Z headrests as what seems to be some sort of injection moulded, unremovable and unstrippable item??!

Did they just sit down and think "Let's make retrimming that little bit more challenging...!"

Do ALL 350Zs have these headrests, or are there any models where the headrest cover actually comes off...??

This is appalling! The guy SOLD the bike, not lent it to him for a few days. And don't most insurance policies now state that the policyholder must be the registered keeper of the vehicle? If he sold the bike and has a receipt to show that, there should be no liability whatsoever for the previous owner (I accept that DVLA records wouldn't have been updated in such a short time - the receipt should serve as sufficient proof though).

He was an uninsured rider. That should be the absolute end of the matter, surely...?

Even "driving any vehicle with owner's permission" cover shouldn't apply here as it explicitly states that it doesn't cover a vehicle you own yourself, which, if he'd bought the bike, makes that section obsolete.

Outrageous!!!

He says he can't find any unread messages on FB! So if you drop him an email at hoylesolutions@hotmail.com he'll be able to take it from there.

The owner's coming to collect it this evening so

One of my mates does flocking and he's in Huddersfield. Drop him a line via his Facebook page and he'll be able to tell you more himself.

I had a 350Z GT driver's seat dropped in to me yesterday needing a repair as the lower O/S bolster had a hole in it.

Once I got the base removed from the subframe, it turned out that the section next to it was also damaged. Obviously, I wasn't happy to use that, so I replaced the entire bolster section instead and finished it of with some nice orange topstitching to match the OEM finish. There is a small tear in the seat foam where the hole was. I've glued this as best I could so that should prevent it from getting any worse. I also touched in some scuffs on the seat and gave the whole thing a good thorough clean.

Et voila, one lovely driver's seat once again!

Si.