Peter Simpson
911 Carrera 3.2 Targa Sport
Year: 1989
Mileage: 105,957
Current Mods: Had the original seats retrimmed and fitted by Newton Commercial
| Last month, you might recall, we described how Peter Simpson’s 911 Carrera 3.2 came to be in proud possession of a set of brand-new carpets, very kindly purpose-made and then installed by well-known classic-car trim specialist Newton Commercial in Leiston, Suffolk. But that was only ever going to be just a part of the not inconsiderable task of gradually refurbishing this 911’s interior, and so this time it’s the turn of the two front seats to undergo a large-scale makeover. Or perhaps that should read complete transformation? It has certainly done wonders for the car’s overall appearance and feel. Not that the original seats (below) were in too disastrous a shape to start with, you understand. In fact, freely admits Pete today, the biggest problem was really just the combination of 20-plus years of general wear and tear on the leather – the side bolsters on the driver’s seat were inevitably among the worst-affected areas – together with the now frankly rather dated appearance of the material. ‘More recent Porsches that have essentially black trim – and I think the current range of models in particular – use a really nice graphite-coloured hide that has a sort of satin finish to it,’ says Pete. ‘But in my car the leather seemed to be a particularly dark and rather overpowering shade of black, and just a bit too shiny, as well. And I really didn’t like the white piping at all. That would have to go. Far too 1980s for my taste! ‘I guess it would have been feasible to have had the leather treated in some way to put a bit of life back into it, and the piping alone could almost certainly have been replaced by a better and less obtrusive colour. But then if we were going to all the trouble and expense of doing that it seemed only sensible to have complete new covers made up. To do a proper job, in other words.’ John White, one of Newton’s highly experienced development engineers, was remarkably relaxed about the scale and complexities of the project ahead – despite having never before worked on a Porsche seat of any kind. ‘All car seats of this period are made on much the same principles,’ he told us. ‘In fact, all car seats of most periods are pretty much the same. It’s really just a question of very carefully taking the thing apart – I always take lots of photographs for reference – dealing with any sort of structural and mechanical problems within the metal frame, and then using the individual parts of the old covers as patterns to make up new cover sections – one for the back, and another for the base, or the squab as it’s usually known in the trade. ‘We found a couple of minor problems with one of Pete’s seats – there are some gear teeth missing from one of the drive gears – but that can be fixed easily at a later date without disturbing any of the fabric, as such. Fortunately, though, both the steel inner frames and the various bits of foam padding that give the seats their essential shape were all in perfect condition. But we can always weld up the frames, or cut out new blocks of foam. Actually, there’s not much that we can’t fix!’ Those covers themselves John made from one of the many hundreds of standard automotive-grade hides that Newton routinely has in stock (and it’s worth noting that furniture-grade leather is generally much less hard-wearing), eventually – as you can probably gather from the pictures here – sliding them down over the once again padded frames, in much the same way that you’d put on a pair of socks. The rear face of each seat back, though, has been retrimmed in a matching synthetic so-called leathercloth material – partly to keep costs down, but also because that’s how it was done by Porsche to start with. ‘We can do pretty much any combination of colours and materials anyone might ask for,’ suggests John, ‘but most people want something that’s fairly standard in appearance.’ Reassembling the seat, continues John, is the classic reversal of the dismantling process – well, more or less, anyway. ‘You have to be quite careful not to trap or even cut any of the various electric cables,’ he says, ‘and obviously you’ve the added complication that you don’t want to make even the slightest mark on all that beautiful new leather. It’s reasonably resilient stuff, but naturally you do have to be a bit careful. I always make sure that my working area is padded with an old blanket. You need to have it at the right height, too. So don’t try to retrim your seats on the floor!’ Not that you’ll necessarily be doing the work yourself, of course. ‘It’s by no means beyond the skills of anyone who can do basic mechanical jobs on their cars,’ argues John, ‘and plainly some people who’ve never picked up a spanner in their lives will have a natural aptitude for it, but it does require the right kind of mental approach.’ For that reason, he adds, these new Porsche seat covers from Newton will certainly be available for DIY enthusiasts, but in practice are no less likely to be fitted by a local vehicle-upholstery specialist of their choice. ‘Obviously we’ve only this particular high-backed seat in our range at the moment,’ says John, ‘but we hope that, now Porsche owners know what we’re doing, we can gradually build on that as we gain experience and patterns from other prototypes. Just like we’ll be doing with those carpets, of course.’ Our man Simpson, needless to say, is delighted with his new seats (left) – and carpets, too, of course. ‘They look superb,’ he says, ‘and they smell so good, as well! I’ve made a resolution to keep them clean, and to treat them regularly with hide food. And no one’s allowed in the car wearing denims. I don’t want the pocket studs wearing holes in all that gorgeous new leather!’ The only slight downside, Pete suggests, is that the still original back-seat cushions and the door cards now look a little out of place, but John White has already thought of that. The former – trimmed in a vinyl material – he successfully rejuvenated by treating them with none other than Swarfega hand cleaner (‘Great stuff,’ he says), and the latter he plans to have a go at in a month or two, once he’s got some other important prototype work out of the way. And then Pete’s 3.2 really will be a silk purse once more. Prices? A pair of covers like these will cost you £699 plus carriage and VAT – plus fitting, of course; perhaps another £100 per seat. Not exactly inexpensive, then, but the genuinely good things in life so rarely are. Check out www.newtoncommercial.co.uk/ |
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