Classic car - interior retrim and paint work help!

[Speed.deman]

Hi All

I was hoping for some guidance.

I have a 50's Lancia and I am looking to completely replace the current interior and repaint the car.

My means are modest, so I can't afford the likes of the industry specialists! Are there any reasonable places/people that you guys could suggest?

I'd really like to limit the interior retrim to circa £3,000. This would involve two seats, door cards, roof lining and top of the dash. In leather.

From what I understand the body is in reasonable condition but will need a small amount of body. Then a respray in period colour! I hope I can keep well under £10,000?

Thank you all. I do hope you can help.

Edited by Speed.deman on Monday 29th July 17:45

[sunbeam alpine]

A friend had his Triumph Spifire retrimmed last year - he had it done by a small local sofa-making company - and it looks great.

I remember he said he paid €350 per seat, so I would imagine that if you could find something similar the cost should fall well within your budget.

[Mexman]

Aldridge trimming in West Midlands

[Strugs]

Whereabouts in the UK are you OP?

[alabbasi]

look at GAHH or World Upholstery (google them)
THey may have kits for your car.

[Speed.deman]

Strugs said:

Whereabouts in the UK are you OP?

Hi there, I'm in London! Thank you for your help.

[MitchT]

OP - you're in better shape than me. My beloved old E36 3 Series needs a shed load of rust sorting out and then a complete repaint. My budget is £4k max!

[Strugs]

Speed.deman said:

Strugs said:

Whereabouts in the UK are you OP?

Hi there, I'm in London! Thank you for your help.

Not personally used these guys, but have had a couple of quotes before and they seem to be pretty well thought of..

http://surreycarinteriors.co.uk/

[aeropilot]

Speed.deman said:

Strugs said:

Whereabouts in the UK are you OP?

Hi there, I'm in London!

That's not going to help with the tight budget.

Need to travel way beyond London and home counties to find cheaper hourly rates.

[Mellow Yellow]

You should easily be able to get re-trim done within budget, you don't say whether you're looking to have it trimmed in cloth, vinyl or leather, or whetehr you want carpets. I had my Gordon Keeble re-upholstered in leather - 2 front + rear-seats door cards and all new carpet for £4,500. That was a specialist car trimmer in Hampshire and I did none of the work myself. If you remove everything and drop it off you can usually save a bit. I've used furniture re-upholsterers in the past and had equally good results but that always meant doing removal/refit myself as they rarely have vehicle storage.

Headlining requires removal of all the glass, so best to have this done at the same time as respray otherwise you'll end up paying for glass removal/refit twice.

Budget for respray also sounds ample; it's a metal car so can be chemically stripped, far cheaper than stripping by hand. The risk with respray is that you won't really know how bad things are until the paint is off, by which time you're committed, and may have to fork out for extra repair work. Ensure you can get hold of replacement window seals, if they are old, they're likely t get damaged when removed.

[aeropilot]

Mellow Yellow said:

Budget for respray also sounds ample; it's a metal car so can be chemically stripped, far cheaper than stripping by hand. The risk with respray is that you won't really know how bad things are until the paint is off, by which time you're committed, and may have to fork out for extra repair work.

It's a 1950's Lancia............I'd be budgeting for double his budget estimate for the bodywork

[Lotobear]

Brian Cates, [e-mail],
tel. [phone]

He's a Lancia enthusiast and car trimmer (Southampton) - did the interior of my Elan +2 and it was 'okay' and cheap (£1650) but he may take more interest in a Lancia.

Well known in classic Lancia circles ISTR

...headlinings are not difficult if you take your time - I did my own and found it very satisfying

Edited by Lotobear on Monday 29th July 14:40

[Lesgrandepotato]

Get the body assessed first, you may eat the 10k budget sideways. For reference my mini has swallowed most of that sum...

[Jagmanv12]

You could try Moto-Build at Egham.
Whilst they are MG specialists they should be able to copy the seat covers and other upholstered items.

If the door trims are moulded then you may need to find somebody else for them.

[POORCARDEALER]

If the bodywork is as straight as you say, you may not have to spend £10K depending on what you are aiming to achieve and the size of the car.

What Lancia is it?


The trimming should be achievable easily within budget

[chappj]

I used these guys to retrim my MGB earlier this year. Based in Paddock Wood Kent.

I’m very happy with the results. Circa £2k for complete seat rebuilds, carpets and some vinyl work.

http://www.rjturnercartrimming.com/home