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Re- Trim


PaulD23

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Hi All, 

I've tried looking around the forum but can't seem to find any concrete answers. I called up a local trimmers to discuss the interior of my car, I told him what I was looking for (seats, panels, dash and carpet etc). He said as a rough estimate it will be between £1-£2k, does this seem reasonable? I fully appreciate it's as vague as vague gets as estimates go....

Cheers, 

Paul

PS Reason for wanting to change is that I think black is a better option for A) having a 4 year old and B) winter use.

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Sounds a bit pricey to me.

I had front and rear seats done on a previous car in real leather inc the headlining trims and dash.

Cost me around £700.00.

 

 

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Oh gosh, that's a real how longs a piece of string question!

Standard or contour dash, stitched in gaiters, seat type, all can make quite a difference to how fiddly the job is. Will you be stripping out panels, seats, dash etc, or will they?

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I suppose that justifies the huge range... He didn't ask too much, just vinyl or leather and whether I wanted a specific type of stitching. That's a good point re stripping out, if I remove everything then it may at least save a couple of hours labour. He has a Locust in this week so said he had an idea of material requirements, perhaps I need to ask a few more questions. 

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The answer to a few of those questions would be obvious when looking at the car, though. :)

For instance, a contoured dash is trimmed with at least four pieces of vinyl and requires some intricate stitching to assemble them, it will then have to be fitted to the dash blank, thanks to the shapes, this is much trickier on the contour dash and it's crashpad, than on a standard dash.

Whereas, the standard dash, sill protectors, cockpit sides and rear seat finisher, require no stitching at all and are each made with one piece of vinyl (or, I suppose, leather). In fact all these items are ideal projects for first timers to have a go at as non are too complicated, specially if you already have the existing trimmed item to see how it's been done.

Seats on the other hand vary hugely; old style Westfield seats have the bare minimum stitching, in fact I think the very early ones, might not even have any, and are virtually just foam, wrapped with vinyl, secured on to plywood and assembled into a seat base and back design. Whereas Sport Turbos or Race Seats have quite elaborate stitching designs, and quite intricate assembly processes.

Again, some use Bentley style cross embroidered materials, logos embroidered into headrests and so on.

£2000 for some Westfield interiors I've seen would be a bargain, if all done directly by a trimmer and some would have you straight round to trading standards, there's so little work in it! Indeed, you could probably buy all new trim for considerably less than £2000 from the factory.

Its all the labour stripping, prepping, and re-assembling the cockpit, if done by a specialist that will really load up the labour charges. 

Its potentially also why you're being given such a vague figure; they've no idea how well put together the car will be, or what to expect until they start. If, for example, all the carpets pull straight out, removing them won't take long, and they'll probably come out intact. So the trimmer can use them as patterns to cut new carpet from.

On the other hand, the carpet could be old and coming apart, and have been increasingly thoroughly stuck in with adhesive. It might take a whole day to get out, yet more time to clean up the panels, and end up in so many pieces the trimmer has to make patterns from scratch...

Speak to your trimmer, ask how you can help get things ready for him, ask if it would be easier for you to remove parts from the car and even strip certain parts. Of course if they're a perfectionist, they may want to do as much as possible themselves, so they can ensure it's all how they want it done.

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Paul, I have an engineer who's dad does car interiors . I can ask if he would be interested. He is in Newbury. He prefers the retro odd stuff, so Westfields should fit in. I have seen his work and is spot on. He could do seats and the likes, I believe . Let me know and I will put the feelers out for you.

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I got quoted £600 each for my seats including materials 20160403_185015.thumb.jpg.db063e57284b7f993a2663d7449de356.jpg

But a friend of mine done the seats,carpets, center console ,rear and end panel for £150 and I supplied the materials 20150813_110640.thumb.jpg.f658c91f171f3959757266433970ba99.jpg

And £50 for the dash and crash pad but he supplied the leather for the crash pad

:getmecoat:

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Thanks Dave, being new to the world of Westfield I wasn't aware of different dash options etc. I now see why the quote was so vague, from what I can see the dash is just one piece of vinyl stuck on with glue and all else seems to be stitched in. I'll go and see the trimmers and have a chat and try and get some justification for the cost, and report back :d

 

Thrustyjust - Thank you, I'll send a PM. 

Martin, your interior is enviable. Looks luxurious whilst remaining sporty, definitely some inspiration there...

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