I've wanted a leather interior for my MX3 for the longest time, but they're hard to find, usually rough when you do find them, and expensive to boot. Got a great deal recently, front and back seats, will look like this:
interior by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr
Wow, so awesome, i'm blinded and I cannot see them!
Yeah... dunno why the flickr links aren't working...
Figgered it out. 
This is the first money I've spent on the car in a couple of years. Going to show it some lovin' over the winter.
nice.
I'm hoping it doesn't turn out to be a real bitch of a job recovering the existing seats. I'd like to do it myself if possible.
From anything I've ever read, the keys to car upholstery are:
A. Extreme patience
B. Hog-ring pliers
C. Somewhere to lay the new covers out in warm sunshine so they soften up before you try to install them.
I guess A is up to you, and Princess Auto has B for 10 bucks. Warm sunshine may be an issue over the winter!
Hmm. Should I throw them in the dryer for a minute? 
Patience has never been my strong suit. 
Heat gun. Easier to control.
Really? Oh, that's right! I visited the Porsche factory Classic custom department a few years back, and watched a technician painstakingly cover a centre console piece with leather. He used a blow dryer and a plastic burnishing tool to work it into the crevices. It was really fascinating to watch... and explained why Porsche charges so freaking much for their customization.
Pro tip: in additional to "real" hog rings, you can also use shoat rings from Ace Hardware. What everyone else said. Just takes some stretching and patience. Your foams look good so that is a help. Make a diagram of everywhere you have to remove a hog ring while removing the old covers. That will help show you where to put the ones for the new cover.
I am so jealous!!!!
conesare2seconds wrote: Pro tip: in additional to "real" hog rings, you can also use shoat rings from Ace Hardware. What everyone else said. Just takes some stretching and patience. Your foams look good so that is a help. Make a diagram of everywhere you have to remove a hog ring while removing the old covers. That will help show you where to put the ones for the new cover.
Thanks! I've never done anything like this before, so I'm sure it will be a "learning" experience (translation: liberal use of the word "berkley")/
dansxr2 wrote: I am so jealous!!!!
I've been checking http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/index.php for the last couple of years until a good deal showed up. Most of the sets available were either ridiculously expensive, or pretty nasty. With shipping, I paid $200. If you keep an eye on the For Sale forum, there's often a set to be had.
I need to get a nice set of factory seats. I hate the cheezy racing seats that are in it now...
You can pick up the stock seats so cheap from guys parting them out. $50 set sort of cheap.
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