Mondo 300

Look's bl**dy good though so definitely worth it for the effect.

Expensive stuff though, thread...

350z seats, right? Looks really cool, nice work!

Close... 300ZX seats. And thank you

I calculated this the other day: to make ONE seat base centre, it uses over 92 metres of thread for the diamond stitching!!

...see here!

The diamond quilting takes hours to make though!!

Hello mate. I have original handbrake and gear knob in tan leather, but both are worn. To buy new is ridiculous, therefore how much do you charge to retrim in the tan leather a worn knob and handbrake?

 

Cant believe i got through that without a battered knob pun ������

Use as many battered knob puns as you like!

Pricewise, you'd be looking at around £55 for the pair. Until I can nab a spare handbrake lever (or you wanted to send me yours?), you'd have to wait so I had something to pattern up from as I foolishly didn't take a pattern off Mudman's car when I did his!!

So, pictures:

And here's the difference between the two shift patterns:

Quandary!!

I was asked to retrim a stock gearknob in black leather with black stitching and also to fit a brand new Nismo shift pattern decal

The original leather is only stitched on the front vertical edge - everything else is pressed into seams in the knob itself. So that means a bespoke cover (like I did with Mudman's handbrake) and a whole load of handstitching!

The only snag I've hit is this: the existing shift pattern is cast into a lump of metal, which is then glued into the top of the knob. Because the Nismo pattern is a very thin metal decal, it won't form properly over the top of the existing insert. It's also 2mm too short and 1mm too wide!

I can only assume that any Nismo variant gearknob is a different design to the stock one, as it's a genuine Nissan part.

If I use this Nismo pattern, it's going to make the end result look rather bad, so I've PM'd Jimmy to see if he just wants me to refurb the original pattern instead.

I'll get some pictures up shortly to show the retrimmed knob and also to highlight the problem I've mentioned!

Si.

Nah!! Same car!

Is this not a repost? I'm sure I commented on this car when someone posted the eBay ad a few weeks ago.

Unless... there are two of these "exact replicas" kicking about... *gulp!*

Glad your back Si

 

My roadster is in need of a re-trim ready for the summer

 

PM me when you have a spot booked for me

 

Rob

I'm thinking early February, Rob. But I'll give plenty of warning so we can plan accordingly, of course

However, my troubles may not be over yet... as I've got a horrible suspicion that the bridge of my nose has partially collapsed!

I was warned that that could happen and there's now a very visible step from the top half of my nose to the bottom. Imagine the top of your nose where it meets your browline... mine steps in towards my face from there, then steps back out again around halfway down (or where the hard cartilage ends and the softer tissue begins).

So, from the side, the top half of my nose looks sunken in by 2-3mm!

I've got a review on January 29th so I'll see what the surgeon makes of it, but I've a horrible feeling that I'm gonna have to go through it all again.....

That's... just... nope, can't quite find the words!!

Yeah, I'm back grafting again and desperately trying to get caught up! This steering wheel's been waiting for a while so I thought I'd better get it out of the way.

The owner is, ironically, on the verge of upgrading from his Celica to a 350Z so I'm sure he'll pop up on here once he's made his purchase.

I decided to "ease myself" back into work with a steering wheel. Cos they're really easy and not at all stressful to trim [/sarcasm]

This one's for a Toyota Celica and the owner wanted a leather/Alcantara combination, with dark grey handstitching.

I do mine slightly differently to how Royal do theirs, but it's always nice to have options right? I use a cross-stitch design, rather than a corset-stitch.

Guess this means I'm back grafting again!!

Well, I'm recovering from having my nose operated on before Xmas. Most of the visible bruising has gone now but my beak's still pretty swollen and full of clotted blood inside. Lovely!

Whether it's had a positive effect on the cluster headaches or not is difficult to say at this point... but I can confirm that I currently have no feeling in the end of my nose or the centre of my top lip now, which is slightly alarming! Knew I should have saved up and gone private!

But I'm easing myself back into work now as I really can't afford to slip any further behind. So, to anyone waiting for work from me (I'm looking at you, ZXRob!), I'll be in touch asap to get everything sorted out.

Cheers,

Si.

A small update: I had my pre-op last Thursday and my blood pressure was measured at 160/120, which is apparently ludicrously high!

So I had to have readings taken at the GPs last Friday and then again on Monday to see if it was being in "a hospital environment" which was causing my pressure to soar. Monday's reading was 140/100 so, as that was still too high, I had to have 24 hour monitoring where the results came down to a more respectable 125/87.

The hospital are satisfied with those so I'm all systems go for admission first thing tomorrow morning.

I'm honestly hoping I can be back on my feet and grafting sooner rather than later as I hate the fact that people have paid deposits and agreed dates, only for me to have to reschedule due to this. I realise it's unavoidable, but it's still not how I want to be doing things.

It also means I'm now officially behind with absolutely everything!

Anyhoo, I'll shush now and go back to getting myself ready for tomorrow...

Site reads as though £500. How much would it be the please

A pair of full leather front seats for a 350Z start at around £600. The price increases for things like embroidery or perforated leather, etc - all depends on your spec, of course

MTFU Si

That's it, I'm bringing a chisel to the Xmas meal... I'm gonna get Harby to pin you down then I'm gonna position the chisel beneath your septum... then I'll produce the biggest mallet you've ever seen...

Then we'll see if you're telling me to "MTFU" or not...

Well, it's 2 weeks today and, if I'm completely honest here, I'm starting to brick it a little bit!

I dislike being in hospitals at the best of times and the prospect of having my face literally smashed in with a big surgical chisel is just urgh!!!

All I can say is that it'd better be worth it.....

She's looking superb, mate

 

 

I'd love to use Hide and Seat but at £500 a seat aint gonna wash with the bank manager

I wish I could charge £500 a seat!!

It's all a ruse!

His missus is away on work, and will return home on Dec 18th to find he has bought another 300zx and will take it out on his nose with a ball hammer......

 

In all seriousness Si, I hope it's a quick recovery!

I wish...!

Thanks guys! I'm hoping that it has some sort of decent effect, but I'm honestly not holding out a lot of hope...

Just thought I'd better keep people in the loop, especially as it's going to have an impact on my work!

As some people are aware, I suffer from a condition known as Cluster Headaches. The symptoms (for me, at least) are alarmingly similar to having a small stroke: the right hand side of my face sags a little, my right eye will neither open or close properly and the pain behind my right eye is beyond description! In recent months, the attacks have also started to affect the movement in my right arm and hand.

These attacks can and will come at any time of the day or night and can last anywhere from 20 minutes to over 4 hours (my current record). The doctors seem to know very little about this condition so I've been trialled on all sorts of medication over the last 4 or 5 years - Sumatryptan, which closed my lungs off and slowed my heartrate to a crawl... Amitryptaline, which just made me into a zombie... and Verapymil, which is what I'm currently taking. It seemed to have the most positive effect but even that seems to be losing it's potency now.

In addition to being a walking pharmacy, I also have an oxygen supply as pure oxygen is the only thing we've found that can actually make the attack go away. So I constantly have at least one sizeable oxygen canister nearby in the house.

This wonderful condition also cost me my career in the Civil Service earlier this year, which was nice of it.

Now, when I was younger, my nose got broken multiple times (falling off bikes, playing ice hockey, fighting, etc) so the right hand side of that is completely mangled. The doctors and my neurologist have an idea that the increased sinus pressure could be partially fuelling the cluster headaches so they've decided, in their infinite wisdom, that I have to have a Septorhinoplasty (a complicated nosejob, for the non-medical amongst us)!

This was supposed to happen around August/September time but, as tends to happen when you can't afford to go private, those months came and went without any notification from the hospital.

Said notification has now arrived, however, and I can officially declare Christmas and New Year to be ruined as my operation will take place on December 18th! Bear in mind that I'll have a face like a crap boxer for 3-4 weeks afterwards and you can no doubt understand why the aforementioned holidays are as good as cancelled in Mondo Manor!

The upshot of this, I suppose, is that I'm going to have to reschedule pretty much every job that's booked in from mid-December onwards as I don't imagine I'll be feeling too much like working when I can't see out of my black eyes, I can't breathe through my swollen nose and I can't leave the house as I'm to try to avoid getting the cold in my snout whilst it's healing!

Hopefully I'll just be able to graft all day and night once I'm back on my feet to get caught up, but I'll only really know more in early January. So I just thought I'd give people a heads-up anyway as there's probably going to be at least a week or two where I'm not very chatty on here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and sorry for rambling on!

Si.

I remember a recent post from someone inquiring about an alcantara retrim on a Zed. The guy (sorry, name escapes me) from Hide n' Seat gave a considerably good estimate and looking at the craftsmanship in Mudman's red retrimmed interior, the quality is spot on

That would be me

I've got another 350Z to do next month as well. Happy to offer a quote if required here.

Si.

100% in for me and Fran, mate