Wanted: ZT Blue Alcantara Seats

[SH4RKY]

I'm after a set of Blue Alcantara Seats. The covers or entire seats, either or.

Ideas welcome, or if anyone knows of or sees a set, a heads up would be much appreciated!


Thanks :D

[Phil]

Try EMS. That's where I got mine.

[mikpeirce]

Try EMS. That's where I got mine.

Who's EMS? :confused:

Want to recover mine with grey alcantara.

Mik

[stevemiller]

Sorry but 'rocking horse s**t comes to mind. If you find some be prepared to meet the asking price and move fast.I have seen others on other MG sites looking for the same (blue alcantara) and never seen any positive results.
I had my seats re-covered at EMS-Excecutive Motoring Services Upchurch in Kent(first class). This was done on Phil recommedation.


I'm after a set of Blue Alcantara Seats. The covers or entire seats, either or.

Ideas welcome, or if anyone knows of or sees a set, a heads up would be much appreciated!


Thanks :D

[colintf]

Blue Alcantara does look nice though!

:cool:

[pessling]

Here you go mate, which i think would be a better approach to what you need, buy some leather seats or alcantara ones from ebay and take them to somewhere to put in some of this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BLUE-S-ALCANTARA-CLOTH-TO-TRIM-REAR-SEATS-2m-x-1m_W0QQitemZ360112032591QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Cars Parts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item360112032591&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1683|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

think it would work out cheaper, as brand new seat covers are lots of money.

[stevemiller]

I think Pete has the best solution. I paid £750 for the green alcantara covers plus another £300 to have them fitted. I am very happy, but would not have considered spending that much if I were not planning to keep the car long term.
I will however keep a eye out for you on my internet travels. Good luck

Steve.

[SH4RKY]

Holy Sh.... :eek: Yeah, I wasnt thinking of close to a grand for seats... :p


Good idea Peter. Im really not interested in the electric aspect you get with the leather and alcantara seats so I can avoid entire new seats to reduce the cost. All I really need is covers.

If I couldn't find any 'proper' ones I was thinking about getting custom covers made up, but just replacing the cloth parts of mine (or similar bought from ebay) with the right coloured material makes much more sense!


Tried EMS, Only had Black in stock. May call back and see how they wanted for them though, Would be better to mod them rather than my exisiting seats.

[Blue Flash]

Just keep an eye out on Ebay,particulary the breakers section try partswallsend they were selling what you were after a few months before Xmas,if you search hard enough Iam almost sure you will drop lucky,interiors tend to keep cleaner and in better nick than the body parts that Ive been offered and viewed, as an aside I think that once the cars been scrapped most of the damage/scratches tends to occur whilst in the breakers yard which is annoying.

[SH4RKY]

The covers I have are different to alcantara versions. My bolsters and side supports are all leather where as the alcantara types have cutouts into these parts. Im sure its a non issue for a proper reupholstering place, but something worth noting.

I'll keep looking. Need to test a dash mod out before fully commiting to blue seats anyway. :)

[pessling]

from what i hear the seats with alcantara aren't leather, but vinyl, so would be better of with a normal leather side pair and getting them done

[SH4RKY]

Ahhh.... Vinyl! That's probably what mine are then. The 'leather' bits are textured and not particularly soft.

In fact they look the same type of material as these:
http://www.jma-cars.co.uk/jma/Cars/ZT%20260%20TWILIGHT/drivers%20seat%203911.JPG



The leather seats in ZTs have a smooth untextured finish, right?

[Blue Flash]

Hmmmmm...could just sidle in to that...looks well lush! :D

[SH4RKY]

Maybe not. Found the ZT price PDF. Various differing options, none explained very well:

Seat material - Axis
Leather ilo Summit
Alcantara® ilo Summit
Alcantara® ilo Leather
Full Leather, Sports Style (ilo Cloth)
Full Leather, Sports Style (ilo Leather)

but looks like alcantara could be specified with Summit (vinyl?) or leather. what the hell is ilo?


http://xpower-mg.com/v8/Acrobat/MG%20ZT%20Price%20List.pdf

[colintf]

ilo means in leiu of - ie instead of (I believe)

:cool:

[Ajay]

from what i hear the seats with alcantara aren't leather, but vinyl, so would be better of with a normal leather side pair and getting them done

According to the Brochure for the Mk2 (Circa 2004), the Alcantara seats had black leather bolsters with alcantara inserts.

[stevemiller]

The replacement covers I bought were leather on the panels next to the alcantara with the summit on the sides and rear panels. They also have the rear pockets.

Just a point worth noting, when the covers were being fitted by EMS they found a small tear in the passenger side summit panel. They used a local saddler to remove the torn piece and replaced the panel with side panel from the original covers.
It may be worth asking if they could get this chap to remove the existing centres and replace them with alcantara of your choice. As far as I am aware they(EMS) have a large stock of basic covers at a much lower cost which might allow for the change at a reasonable cost.
The cost for the additional work was very reasonable in my case.

Steve.

[pessling]

Here you go Ian dash done in alacantara

http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/imagehosting/35047ffaec646f90.jpg

[Jules]

Ahhh.... Vinyl! That's probably what mine are then. The 'leather' bits are textured and not particularly soft.

In fact they look the same type of material as these:
http://www.jma-cars.co.uk/jma/Cars/ZT%20260%20TWILIGHT/drivers%20seat%203911.JPG



The leather seats in ZTs have a smooth untextured finish, right?

Thought I recognised that Pic with walnut Kit .....That's my interior!!!
The top black bits are leather but I think the side bits are non-leather
And no you can't buy them:rolleyes:

[SH4RKY]

:)

Ok, so 'summit' is the rough vinyl material fitted to parts of the alcantara seats. Also what I suspect my side bolsters are made from in their entirety. But the alcantaras are part leather where the most wear occurs.

Makes sense, you can see in that pic, kindly supplied by Jules, that the leather parts wear differently to the vinyl parts. the leather kind of stretches and creases. the vinyl doesn't do that at all. To be fair to them, my seats have worn incredibly well, they still look like new, however while they don't stretch and wear like the leather they do crack. my right leg side bolster is covered in cracks in the material when you stretch it.


So whats the make up of the Monaco seats? They have leather in place of the alcantara, but the summit material everywhere else? or are they essentially the same as the alcantara seats except with leather (that could be coloured)??



Nice find Peter. That's a better ideal than the leather one :D

This was my mock up of a blue interior:
https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/gallery/albums/500/medium/Blue_Interior.jpg

I would go for a more subtle greyer type blue (if its available) as I think a royal blue would be a little bit too in your face. Defiantly worth a try though, alcantara would be much easier and cheaper to work with than leather.

[Phil]

Actually, Ian, 'Summit' is the pattern on the latest material used in the non-leather (non-SE) spec cars. It is a very subtle dark grey herringbone if I remember correctly. The sides and backs are vinyl. Or, as I have seen - man made leather.

[Jules]

I know it's a bind but sometimes I use the 3rd setting of the Memory Seats (set to full back position) for getting into the car!

This way is reduces the wear & tear on yer bolster;)
Or just getting in very carefully without scraping yer bum across the seat prolongs the life of Bolstered seats no end!

[SH4RKY]

Alcantara update!

So... I have a friend who is a tailor. Out of curiosity more than anything I mentioned about alcantara and if he could get some... he told me he can get any material ever created by man and that he had a sample book on its way! haha

This is the official stuff from Italy and this is part of their automotive furnishing sample book. I think the colours have been spiced up a little in my picture taking and processing... so imagine them being a little less bold. From memory, 5th red down is that subtle misty type of red that was actually in the MG range. Blue... I would say 4th one down would match the MG seats.

https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/gallery/albums/500/medium/IMG_7560.JPG
https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/gallery/albums/500/medium/IMG_7550.JPG

Anyway, where was I.... oh I have a spare dash which im planning on covering with the stuff. It won’t be any time soon, and its still really an idea at the moment. but as per my usual style ive done a quick mock up to further the idea of the blue one above.

As you can see from this pic... I wanted a really deep blood red. But as you can see from the samples, they dont really do that colour. So I was going to go for one of the MG ones. Unsure which yet.
https://www.two-sixties.co.uk/gallery/albums/500/medium/ZTRedv3.jpg

The dash would be first as i have a spare and can 'play'. I think I would do the seats to match but that may be later due to costs. Would have to pick up some door cards from a breaker too as matching the fleece material with the dash would look really good imo.

Other issue is type of alcantara. There are 3 types, one is just the material, its thin soft and pliable. The next has a harder wearing backing material, probably cotton, to stiffen it up a little and add some weight. The 3rd has foam attached and minimum order is 50m! Haha, shame as it is very plush. Probably not good for panel covering etc though.

I think although I like blue quite a lot, I may go with the red option as Black and Red work very well together, plus there are some outside touches that could work well if the interior is done to match.

Only other issues are actually getting round to doing it and trying to order some obvious trimming material through a savile row tailor o_O haha

[SteveChilds]

I painted my dash in my old Aurora CDTi and I'll do the same again for this one when I've got some spare cash.

Would like to get the red Alcantara seats though as well as I had those as well with the old CDTi. Did try and talk the buyer into a swap but he was having none of it :( lol

Be interested to know how much it costs you to get the seats recovered.

[SH4RKY]

There is an estimate somewhere in this thread. Its a lot. Im hoping that when i finally come to do my seats ill be able to reduce cost by stripping the seats my self, supplying the material my self... so they will just have to stitch them. we shall see.

[pessling]

lots of choices Ian, will be looking the muts nuts when done.

[Ian Maw]

Can the covers be bought new ( who made them for MG ), or can our reluctent friends in China help. I have the leather option, but would like Gunsmoke Alcantara.

[SH4RKY]

They can yes. Well... not so much actually. You used to be able to buy the covers but there are no more available. I believe EMS(?) had some new black covers. Bit pricey at around 600£+ iirc.

Not sure who manufactured them.

[mikpeirce]

I purchased a second hand complete front and rear seat set off e-bay, and stripped the seats myself before getting my local trimmer to replace and re-stitch the alcantara. It cost me just under £700 including covers for the headrests (As they are moulded foam and cannot be retrimmed).

Rebuilt the covers onto my electric memory seats, using the alcantara foams (As ther are a denser material than the full leather, giving better support). I also took the opportunity to fit rear heated seats while they were stripped down! :D :D

Used the below company, based in Letchworth, Herts.

http://www.a1autotrimmers.ltd.uk/

[mikpeirce]

Attached a few pics of re-trim.

[SJR]

Sharky,
I don't know if they are any use but there are two blue alcantara head rests on ebay at the moment.

SJR

[SH4RKY]

Yeah, they are on quite often... shame the rest of the seats arent. :)