Anyone know a good, inexpensive trimmer in Sydney - north?

[brad]

There's a special stitch they do where the airbags are. Some trimmers have an airbag stitch certification. All you can do is ask them & see if they sound knowledgeable.

This is another reason to find out where the dealerships get it done as the trimmer will have experience in the model.

Warranty? Who knows...

[aussietanker]

There's a special stitch they do where the airbags are. Some trimmers have an airbag stitch certification. All you can do is ask them & see if they sound knowledgeable.

This is another reason to find out where the dealerships get it done as the trimmer will have experience in the model.

Warranty? Who knows...

Thank you for that info... i will follow that up with the dealer Monday am

cheers
A|T

[aussietanker]

and yet another question ... is it possible to take the seats out of a Golf mk 7 - say one with either the leather seats or the nicer cloth seats (comfort line or high line models) that is being wrecked and put them in my car .. will they fit .. is it just a matter of swapping them over or are they somehow connected to all that electronics stuff in the car ..

i would presume that as long as the airbags haven't deployed it would be ok to do ... or is it a bad idea?

cheers

[brad]

Yes, that's a great idea and has been done many times before.

There'll be an electrical connector for airbag & maybe heated seats. If it's the same model the connectors should be the same but even if they are different you can get an auto-elec to sort it out.

[aussietanker]

Yes, that's a great idea and has been done many times before.

There'll be an electrical connector for airbag & maybe heated seats. If it's the same model the connectors should be the same but even if they are different you can get an auto-elec to sort it out.

Thanks for that info ...

my car is the baseline model (2014 Golf 90TSI) ... i really like the seats that are in the next spec up... i think its called the comfortline... they are a really nice cloth style seat ... i would probably even prefer those over the leather ones in the GTI or R models

So i imagine that they should connect in OK ...

is there anything in particular that i should look out for when getting these seats from a wrecker ..

I did get quotes for getting the car re-trimmed in leather ... but the quotes varied from a minimum of $2500 for a custom built "Kit" (front and rear) from Blackmans to $4500 from my local trimmer (who doesn't have the kits and would have to do it from scratch) ... just getting the middle panels replaced in front and rear seats was $2500 from my local trimmer

my local dealer was less than helpful unfortunately

i think that i can get a full set of the cloth seats from my local wrecker for between $700 - $1,000 ... i have no idea what it would cost to get someone to take the old ones out and to install the new ones ... would i go to a panel beater to get that done?

thanks for the help and ideas

cheers

[brad]

I think you've got to the point where you just have to do the hard yards & make lots of phone calls.

Keep an eye on the forums (not just this one), ebay & gumtree for an interior. It's a DIY job and you don't need a mech to do it but you do need a triple square bit to get the seats out..

Ring a few more dealers. You'll need to speak to the sales people as they are the ones that organise aftermarket leather interiors for new cars.
Keep in mind that factory leather, which is only leather faces & pleather/vinyl sides is a ~$1800 (??) option so a bespoke solution is naturally going to be more expensive (and much better quality leather).

As often happens, sometimes it's cheaper to buy the better car in the first place rather than trying to upgrade a basic model.

[squareznboxez]

For anyone else interested, i recently got my E36's roof re-lined by Bob's Upholstery in Blacktown, did a great job, one-man band so no apprentices etc, restores all sorts of cars (muscle, euro, jap)

Just make sure you inquire about which type of lining you want as i didn't and got a sorta funny material which matched my carpet more than my original headliner

Bob's Auto Upholstery
Motor Body Trimmers - Blacktown, NSW
7/ 5 Steel St, Blacktown NSW 2148
Phone
(02) 9671 3608

[aussietanker]

I think you've got to the point where you just have to do the hard yards & make lots of phone calls.

Keep an eye on the forums (not just this one), ebay & gumtree for an interior. It's a DIY job and you don't need a mech to do it but you do need a triple square bit to get the seats out..

Ring a few more dealers. You'll need to speak to the sales people as they are the ones that organise aftermarket leather interiors for new cars.
Keep in mind that factory leather, which is only leather faces & pleather/vinyl sides is a ~$1800 (??) option so a bespoke solution is naturally going to be more expensive (and much better quality leather).

As often happens, sometimes it's cheaper to buy the better car in the first place rather than trying to upgrade a basic model.

Thanks Brad ... didn't even think of gumtree so that's a great tip .... sorry, three final questions (hopefully!)

1. does anyone know if the seats (both front and rear) are hard to get out or are they pretty straight forward? ... do the yards normally require you to remove stuff of a car being wrecked or will they usually do it for you for a fee?

2. can anyone advise what year seats i need to buy to fit into my 1 week old 2014 golf .. will only 2014 seats fit or can i go back a few years?

3. and finally, aside from a set of triple square bit thingies, are there any other tools that i would need to do the job (might take a mate that's a bit more "mechanically minded" than me

yes, would have liked to have got the better model with the seats that i wanted but it was about $6K more than this one ... and the only things that i really wanted were the seats and the satnav ... dealer told me that i could buy an after market satnav for this model for about $500 and get it fitted for about $100 ... foolishly i believed him, but didn't check it out for myself and now know better

i had decided to put a full leather interior into the car (which i did on my last car at a cost of $2K for a suzuki swift) but since buying my 90TSI and really enjoying it so much i have decided that my next car will be either a golf GTI or an R model at the end of my lease in 3 years ... so i am trying not to put excessive $$ into a car that i know that i am going to trade in 3 years ...my suzuki cost me about $18K from memory and had $13K of optional extras in it ... but it was a great car and i had great fun in it for about 7 years so i considered the $$ spent on it "worth it" .. i have decided that getting an interior from a Golf that is being wrecked is probably the best option for me as from my initial inquiries i THINK that i can get the cost of a new interior down to less that $1K

all the advise is appreciated ... at least i have a very clear idea of where to focus my energy and search now