interior trim tweaks....

[britlude]

for my annual xmas project, this year i decided to retrim some of the interior of my nsx, mainly the bits of leather that get touched, and as such were now bright and shiny after near on 20 years of use... in the firing line was the steering wheel, gear knob (it's an auto) and the arm rest! it's been bugging me for ages that the interior plastics have a grain finish, whereas the leather was smooth and polished... my quest started with leather from that purveyor of all things, ebay..... i bought 2 bits as i had no idea on the grain/pattern descriptions, fortunately one was right!

first off was the gearknob.... scratched/battered/polished


carefully stripped... curious as the knob moulding is textured... what lower model did it feature on???


patterns cut and perforated


a quick brush up on the intricacies of the baseball stitch, and away I went, ending up with this...


turned our well! the knob now has the same finish as the dash!!!

[britlude]

the steering wheel was more complicated, but much the same, this time I sourced a steering wheel from NSXPrime (cheers Shawn) and set to work
the wheel i got was slightly better than mine but had the usual sun/heat damage..


this was carefully cut off and patterns made


the patterns were sewn together and the new trim stretched over the wheel (the patterns work out to be about 1 1/2 inches short on the circumference....


then once it had stretched/settled a little I set about sewing it up by hand, starting with this

[britlude]

then after punching some holes started twin needle sewing, lacing it up first, then tightening after






until the whole rim is done....

[britlude]

all that was left was to trim and glue the spokes and open up the horn button holes....

[britlude]

the end result being I now have a steering wheel rim that matches the airbag texture and isn't quite so slippy/shiny!!!
before and after


also have english cruise control buttons...


and the rim matches the airbag....


smiley faces all round!!!!

[britlude]

the centre armrest was next on the list (actually it was before the steering wheel as that was hijacked on delivery and made into a christmas present!!!) with gentle persuasion, the leather was fitted without any need for stitching and seams....

went so well didn't take pics!!! here's the before and after

[britlude]

next on the list is the handbrake... just deciding how i want to do it!

well, they might as well all match!



ok it's a pic of the handbrake, not very exciting.... but another angle on the gears stick!!!

[Dragonlady]

Fantastic work! Would not be able to tell the difference if they were new items.
Now where do I place my order for a new leather jacket?

Ian

[Nick Graves]

Blimey! Do you buy your brave pills online, or have you had experience of this sort of thing before?

Results are very tidy, nonetheless!

[Sudesh]

Great work Jonathan! Very impressive, especially the steering wheel as those are hard to do.

On a side note, did you know that you can buy ready made arm rest, handbrake cover and if you have a manual car, gear gaiter, from the guys I worked with on ebay?

Also the door entry pads are available, all good prices and fantastic real nappa leather. I can still smell the leather in my car with just those small pieces and the quality is way above the OEM.