Hello everyone! I have an interesting project here, one that I could use a little help with to get it right.
I’m building a ‘68 Shelby GT500KR, which has a factory Saddle interior. This is a vinyl interior, in which the front and rear seats use two distinct patterns of vinyl on them. The outer portion of the seat has a very smooth grain, but most important to me it has a mottled, or what I would call “distressed” look to it. Forgive me if that’s not the correct term to describe it, but that’s what I’ve always heard it called. The inset of the seat (with the pleats) uses a much heavier grain vinyl, but a solid color.
What I’m trying to do with this car is have the seats reupholstered in leather, but matching the factory appearance exactly. Unfortunately, all of the pre-made seat covers on the market are vinyl, so this will have to be a custom job. The issue I’m having is matching the color for the fine grain mottled leather. The upholstery shop I’ve chosen for the job is not sure he can source the material with this kind of custom dye job, as most of what his suppliers furnish him with is solid colors.
As this will be a very expensive job, it’s important that we get this right the first time. Once you custom order the hides dyed to your specifications, you own them, so I want to get this right the first time.
Again my end goal is to have the factory vinyl seat covers replicated as closely as humanly possible in leather, duplicating the appearance in terms of color and texture.
Long story short.. any ideas on how I can achieve this goal? Perhaps a known good supplier that you have experience with that can pull off a dye job like this?
I will try to include some images of what the seats look like, so you know what I’m talking about.
I very much appreciate any help you can provide!
