OK peeps, even though it might be a little way off, I am looking for ideas for my trim. I am thinking sand colour leather is the ultimate, but no cash for that. Might go a beige velour or something, to compliment the sweet red colour. Also trying to con my wife into stiching up the trim. Surely you can unstich the original trim and use the pieces as a template for new stuff?

Anyone got colour ideas and has anyone made their own?

Keen to hear peeps opinions and feedback.

you can redo it, but the piping i am told is a dog to do, and you need to really know how to sew. that counts me out.

yea i was chattin to my wife about this last night. She said no way to the piping. I don't think it's necessary anyway. A lot of new luxary cars just have velour or leather stiched patterns, no piping.

Surely a home machine could stich velour, no piping or vinyl?

Hey Anton,

My mum has an industrial sewing machine and overlocker, she's a tailor of 26 years... She helped me do my door cards with foam backing and red stripes to match the back seat. It's not hard work but it's alot of work. Results are awesome with the foam backing... it feels good I also redid the cooper convoluted dash and repaired it.

I can tell ya how I did it, it was alot of sewing and vinyl glue ($15 at Clarke Rubber).

Eventually I might have beige vinyl interior with matching headlining etc but I think black cooper dash is the only way to go... and there aint anything wrong with mine at the moment. Leather... totally out of my budget... you're looking at $1k-$2k+ just for the leather supplied

If I were to complete the job in my car, i'd pull out my rear side panels and foam backing vinyl that too, wouldn't be hard.

Seats are something else though... You can do it without the piping but it looks bodgey... I'd attempt it before going non-piping... Mum knows all about piping so I can ask her when i see her this weekend.

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

Yeah home machines can do vinyl, you just have to go slow and keep the stitching wide, like 3-4mm wide. Mum double stitched just to be safe. It's pretty sturdy. Just make sure your wife gets good strong thread.

Then it all depends on what patterns and stuff you want on the seats/ doorcards. I think my mum was saying that there is a trick to doing piping... like I said I'll ask her this weekend

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

the trick to piping is to sew it to the front face ( i think, cant remember ) the way you described is exactly how u retrim, unpick and use as templates, unless yiu are gonna make the faces a different shape

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lookin for another clubby

What appearence does the foam backing give your trim, and do you just stich the material to the foam? Is that how you get the padded look on door cards?

Are you coming to the meeting tonight? Might have to talk to you about it if you are.

Yeah padded look. Makes it feel like a my brother in law's Nappa Leather BMW trim if you squint and wear rubber gloves

To get it to "ripple" with the contours of the trim lines you have to sew it with the foam but it then starts to get tricky and it is thick as a matress after that. I tried both and settled for foam backing only, it's still pretty good if you ask me.

Get the best vinyl you can buy, clarke rubber's one is pretty good, thick, soft and durable and about 8 colours.

I don't think I will make it tonight as I promised the missus a date to the movies

I only live down the road from the club meeting place though so maybe you want to give me a buzz and perhaps come over and I show you? up to you...

PS. I aint no expert by the way so dun expect too much

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

thanks for the offer. I wouldn't mind picking your brain and checking our your Deluxe, but I don't think I will have enough time before the meeting.

I just did a whereis.com.au check on how to get there and it's telling me 45 minutes!! Damn I thought it was closer than that.

oh I meant after the meeting

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

these are the seats i made myself, front and back.



i simply pulled the seat's apart that i had and used the old stuff as a template.
results, well it's not as tight, but it's not loose either (tight as a nun to fit over the seat )

i used a camel skin sort of colour and a nice red.
i'm prolly looking at selling these seats in the near future aswell

i can take a few photo's of how they look in my mini, that was just in a wrecked panelvan.

I had my two front seats retrimmed in beige vinyl about 6 months ago. Mates rates about 150 for the pair.

Quite recently, a friends uncle made me up 4 new door trims. He was able to source the same material used on the seats for the door trims, and he made them up very nicely indeed. He was a trimmer for the Tram corporation here in adelaide. When they went bust, they auctioned off their 20,000 dollar "sewing machine" and he snatched it up for 1/10th of that.

I'll post up some pics soon... he made up a new board using the old door trims as a template and it has two "bum cheeks" about 1/2 way down the trim... the rear trims line up with the front so it looks very nice!

I love them... only cost me 50 bux for all 4.
Gotta love people in the know.

I found that if you can calculate the required amount of trim (and add 30% more for extra bits and pieces in the future), its best to then go to a trim wholesaler and buy it BY THE ROLL. Rolls of marine grade vinyl are usually $18 per metre (by 1.6 metres wide), but they give you a better deal for the whole roll (you can sell the rest at a later date )

When you are at the wholesaler, you can also match up colours for vinyls and carpets, or come across CHEAP ends of rolls and discontinued rolls (can be used for 2-tone inserts)

Friend of mine is a RECARO trimmer aswell, and does my stuff after-hours for CAAAAAASH....

ADELAIDIANS: go to "Daley's" on Richmond Road for your rolls of trim... and take cash

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs