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You are in... Forums > General > Design > Colour & trim versus mechanical spec
Joined:
Feb 07
Posts: 4536
bertandnairobi says:
There was a vogue for complicated swirly effects in the late 90s. Citroen and Peugeot and Rover all succumbed to this. Rover in particular liked jacquard effects. And VW have experimented with random geometrical effects. I find patterns are the most likely to date whereas flat colours are more resistant to the effects of changing tastes. I suppose simplicity is a plus. There is no intrinsic reason for a car fabric to be patterned but everything has to have a colour. This is why I find the fabric designs of 90s cars to be rather demoralising. Make it bold but make it simple.
Aug 09
Posts: 1671
SnarkKiller says:
The chequered flag fabric used in early Porsche 924s and 928s still makes me smile whenever I comes across it. The design was lifted from artist Bridget Riley, her studies of optical illusions.
Interiors ought to be steam cleaned every two to three years, completely retrimmed every five years. After all, isn't that why we buy sofas with slip covers that we can wash or change? Why sit in a car surrounded with skin flakes, human and dog hair, ash, biscuit crumbs, nose picking, lint, loose change, the kind of stuff we hoover from the deep sides of well padded chairs?
Snark Killer
Apr 07
Posts: 2942
ga41 says:
Can you steam clean leather?
- http://www.freerice.com/ For each answer you get right, they will donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program -
GA41 I was following on from all the previous posts by referring to seats made from fabric. Leather, as you know, needs buffed and reinvigorated to keep it supple and its colour solid.
It was more of a general question not really in relation to your discussions. I think my seats need some care basically and i should get them taken care of.
Snark is right about the dust that builds up. I´ve moved to a home with smooth wooden floors. I realised how much dust falls very quickly and the bulk of it is skin (the greyish-bluish stuff) and small hairs. It´s quite repellant really. A car must be chock full of such debris after quite a short time. It also makes me realise how terribly unsanitary carpetted homes are.
Coach trimmers must be getting far and few between, which is a shame because folk are keeping their cars longer and refreshing them with after market gizmos.
I have one decent coach trimmer nearby but he doesn't compare to the wee Mexican company not far from my west coast USA pad. For $500 USD, (two years ago that was about £300) they entirely recovered all four seats in leather, did the doughnut shaped head rests, a complicated affair, the gear gater, plus door inserts... and renewed the carpet.
When my UK trimmer renewed the carpets he left them loose intead of Velcro-ing them together, with the obvious result they move apart. And the complicated head restraints proved too much for him. He has been known to use a remaining section of new leather with a blemish on it rather than buy a new piece. The Mexicans have greater pride in their work, as well as being better skilled tooling leather.
Dec 06
Posts: 1806
car4mh says:
I was browsing the used car web for Jaguar XJ Coupes when I came across this '74 Series II 4.2 saloon for sale. Unremarkable white paint on the outside, but with a bright blue leather interior. Perhaps the original buyer was inspired by traditional American racing colours? Or a favourite sports team? It reminds me of a PVC-lined above-ground swimming pool. Yet I can't look away... it's so unashamedly LOUD. That particular shade of blue (if the digital pictures are accurate) is probably beyond redemption in a Jaguar interior but it's such a bold contrast to typical interior colours that it has captured my attention.
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