[finickyEater]

I really like the look of contrasted thread on leather and, after looking at the interior, the french seams are already there but just black on black. I'm mildy crafty and am pretty close to a DIY for some Alcantara-ish (probably go with Ultrasuede Milano) inserts and thought that could be a good opportunity look at the threading. At this point, I figure I have three options:

1. Just yank the threading out and re-run it through a sewing machine. Con: I'm assuming it won't be that easy since the new thread punctures won't mesh well with the old.

2. Dye/paint the thread? No idea if this is even feasible, but if so, it could be easy and cheap. Con: I would image anything I would do to the thread would happen to the leather.

3. Go from scratch and make full custom leather seats my self...Con: it will probably take me a year to practice and still look like crap :/ I know there's no replacement for professionals but I just don't have the budget labor costs.

BTW, any options over $1k are out of the question. Any thoughts/ideas that can creatively keep the budget down would be GREATLY appreciated.

[landshark617]

I've already done alot of research into this so I'll pass along what I came up with so far that seems to be the way to go without insane costs or damage to the surrounding leather...

DecoFabric Paint Pen

cost is cheap, the paint doesn't come off easily once its applied and it doesn't affect the surrounding leather.

Here is a thread I found where the camaro guys were going nuts with acrylic paints and stuff but once someone tried the deco paint pen the results were alot cleaner and more professional looking LINK


I already have a bunch of these paint pens for when I get around to doing my interior. I work 2 jobs and simply haven't had the time to do it yet. My best guess is you'll need 2-3 of them to be on the safe side to do all the stitching in the interior

hope this helps you out in some way or at least points you in the right direction

[tofu-]

yup camaro guys use that. saw it on porsche forums too.

looks very oem

[dwells]

Hmm, is this reversible? I'm curious how black stitching on beige leather would look.

[akotten]

Originally Posted by landshark617

I've already done alot of research into this so I'll pass along what I came up with so far that seems to be the way to go without insane costs or damage to the surrounding leather...

DecoFabric Paint Pen

cost is cheap, the paint doesn't come off easily once its applied and it doesn't affect the surrounding leather.

Here is a thread I found where the camaro guys were going nuts with acrylic paints and stuff but once someone tried the deco paint pen the results were alot cleaner and more professional looking LINK



I already have a bunch of these paint pens for when I get around to doing my interior. I work 2 jobs and simply haven't had the time to do it yet. My best guess is you'll need 2-3 of them to be on the safe side to do all the stitching in the interior

hope this helps you out in some way or at least points you in the right direction

Those look effective, but their stitching is white to begin with, so it is easy to dye a different color. I have a feeling this won't work well with a black thread.

[tofu-]

Originally Posted by akotten

Those look effective, but their stitching is white to begin with, so it is easy to dye a different color. I have a feeling this won't work well with a black thread.

it will work fine. it's paint, not dye

[tofu-]

i've been debating doing black stitching on my coral red, but decided i rather keep things factory

[akotten]

Originally Posted by tofu-

it will work fine. it's paint, not dye

Oh! I guess I missed that. Hmmm... interesting, but I don't think I could mess with my seats. Blue would look nice though!

[finickyEater]

Originally Posted by landshark617

I've already done alot of research into this so I'll pass along what I came up with so far that seems to be the way to go without insane costs or damage to the surrounding leather...

DecoFabric Paint Pen

cost is cheap, the paint doesn't come off easily once its applied and it doesn't affect the surrounding leather.

Here is a thread I found where the camaro guys were going nuts with acrylic paints and stuff but once someone tried the deco paint pen the results were alot cleaner and more professional looking LINK


I already have a bunch of these paint pens for when I get around to doing my interior. I work 2 jobs and simply haven't had the time to do it yet. My best guess is you'll need 2-3 of them to be on the safe side to do all the stitching in the interior

hope this helps you out in some way or at least points you in the right direction

Great, thanks for the helpful tip. I'll give it a try in a small area and see how it holds up. I don't have high expectations...but I can risk the $10 trial and error

[landshark617]

Originally Posted by finickyEater

Great, thanks for the helpful tip. I'll give it a try in a small area and see how it holds up. I don't have high expectations...but I can risk the $10 trial and error

from what I've read on a couple forums its been used in high wear conditions and holds up fairly well. I suppose once a year it couldn't hurt to touch it up to keep it looking its best especially with the lighter colors like the grey and the whitev

I plan on using this method to do mine when I get the time to focus on it. I'm really anal when it comes to the way things look so it has to have the appearance of a factory finish rather than looking like I just took a sharpie marker to the exposed threads everywhere. You want the comments to be "I didn't know you could choose the stitching colors when ordering a new 3 series" instead of "WTF did you do to your interior?!!!"

[rollinstone157]

Very interesting! I'd certainly be down to try it. Can I get some group opinions on the color choice though? I have a space gray sedan with the black Dakota interior. Blue, black, or red seem to be the obvious choices for me. I would worry that white might be too...much. If I had an alpine white car I'd be all over the white, but since the outside is silver, I think I need a darker, more contrasty color for the stitching. Any thoughts?