Leather seat retrim MK1 - How much??

[patmahe]

Hi,

I'm considering getting a MK1 1.8. The plan is to get one thats a bit rough looking, with good mechanicals and retrim the interior and paint the exterior. I've seen on the MX5parts websites this can be done quite easily. But what I'm still wondering about is the seats, where can you get a good leather retrim done and how much is it? Also do the seats have to have been leather originally? or can cloth seats be retrimmed in leather?

Any help, advice, links, etc... greatly appreciated.

Edited by patmahe on Tuesday 16th September 11:41

[holloway_dave]

I just got a new hood from Jack Smiths in Swansea (who was excellent, but a bit far for you!), but was chatting to the bloke there about seats. He said re-trimming the seats in leather would be about £300 (mine are cloth). Lots of options - colours, perforated centre sections, embroidery etc.. He mentioned also that you could save a little bit of money by doing a bit of the work yourself by pulling the old covers off. He suggested just pulling off the passenger seat cover (held on with ring clips) and sending that off to the trimmers to be used as a template for both seats. They send both new leather covers back to you and you can use the still intact drivers seat to see how they should go back on.
I'm sure you should be able to find somebody locally to do the same sort of thing.

[patmahe]

Cheers for that,

Workmanship like that is thin on the ground over here (very small population, so very small market). I would probably buy the car in the UK and import it back here (cheaper in a lot of ways) then I'd get any work that can't be done here done while I'm over there and do the rest at home myself. I'm hoping to end up with a mint MK1 for the price of a used focus

So actually Swansea might suit me best Thanks

All suggestions are still welcome.

Edited by patmahe on Tuesday 16th September 12:57

[Legend83]

www.jimparts.co.uk

[MX-5 Lazza]

I'm not sure but I think the driver & passenger seats are slightly different in the shape of the side-bolsters on the back & base...