any advice on new leather interior?

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

Hello, it’s too 4+ months, but i finally got my car back to me in MY. Unfortunately, all that time on the sea has brought on a very bad case of interior mold. It’s so gruesome inside, I should have put up pics for Halloween, but I missed it…

I’m still wrangling with the marine transit insurance co, but there’s a chance they will agree to pay for new leather on all the seats. Has anyone ever worked with a shop to get this done? What I’d like to know is whether I can get good results if I try to convert the seats to the diamond stitch pattern found on the newer S6 models.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7Jxpf26JhSg/maxresdefault.jpg

#2

MY, is that Malaysia? I’m surprised to hear it got a mold issue in transit, was the car packed in the same container with rotting produce? Yikes.

No idea on the leather thing… but I’m guessing that if they’re willing to pay for new interior, they’re going to be looking at paying for the cost of factory replacement leather, not custom leather. But maybe you could do custom leather and pay the difference?

That new S6 leather looks really nice, I wonder if those seats are cross-compatible with our chassis’s - then you could just buy new Audi interior leather and not deal with custom made stuff

#3

can you just buy fully-stitched new leather from the factory and have someone just put it on? Someone get me a part number please…

#4

man if you have a ton of mold in there, i suspect all new carpet, HVAC system will need a thorough cleaning and msot likely the seat foam is damaged too, no saving that aka complete gut and replace of the interior…how though? container wasnt sealed?

#5

I would let them figure it out or call an audi dealer.

there are part numbers for the seats, ect.

http://www.realoem.me/Audi/USA/A6/2007/448/R/8/885/885020 is for the backseat for instance, the rest will be in there somewhere, likely you can search the newer cars, but probably best to call an audi parts department.

The C7 has a slightly different rear seat, and it’s possible they may have different plugs for the front seats, hard to say if that swap would work.

When I had flood damage on my S4, they replaced the carpet, seats and blower assembly due to mold damage from taking too long to complete repairs, which was all for nothing because the harness had developed corrosion from sitting in water too long waiting for repairs.

#6

well, I just got insurance approval. The quote was for full leather replacement on the seats plus a few other areas that were affected. We’ll see what the body shop can do. But I hadn’t thought about the HVAC system including blower. I just put on new cabin filters before I shipped the car, too.

#7

I’ve always loved the diamond stitch pattern. I would love to see it if you end up pulling it off.

#8

So here’s the result—have a look and tell me what you think.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171126/3c6bed5dbd2eec1fb1988061cf1dc4ba.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171126/4f267832c87677f481428c0c6003d11e.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171126/5c5804674859997b8bdf94c7c2778693.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171126/0e833f74b4e46d9fcf3ca1a2223b4c77.jpg

They kept it an extra week for QC redos—15 working days. About $2100 total. They still have to fix a few small things. But I think a few things were lost in translation. It would have been better if I were actually in the shop watching them. It’s nice, but not OEM quality.

Overall, I’m happy because it was paid for with insurance $$$. I like the colors.

#9

Oops, doubled up in one shot.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171126/52dcc7ee0881391a55588d297b15f865.jpg

#10

I think WOW. It looks fantastic. The color is a little bold for my taste but it really pops.

How did you go about getting this done. Was this something that was one off custom or they were able to order the skins. Can you tell us more in case some one wanted to do this on there own.

#11

I picked the leather swatch and gave the shop these photos:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171128/190cb2da4aefd2a8fcbbb49fc2b94c1d.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171128/4d064578a5b66ded3f14a555fe4e6af3.jpg

They said the change to a diamond pattern was “not hard for them”—then I left to travel for 10 days. There was a bit of a language gap, and they were left to do their best to interpret the photos. If I had to do it again, I’d ask them to skip the vertical stitches down the center of the diamond pattern. That caused a slight mismatch in the diamond pattern. They had to redo a rear seat bottom because the pattern mismatch we too great. They also had to redo a cushion gap that was a little too big in the rear seat.

My other complaint is that the leather is a little wavy in a few places—the cut was not exactly matched to the foam cushion. The shop said after the fact that it wouldn’t be the same as OEM—maybe 90%.

The foam also feels slightly softer and the lumbar curve a little more pronounced. But neither is a big deal to me. I only wonder how it will wear a few years down the line.

I also paid extra for the matching door inserts and to paint the dash bezel and dash trim gloss black. I was happy with those results.

Frankly, I was surprised the insurance co agreed to pay for the $2000 job. If I knew that, I maybe would have checked out a few other high end shops. But I was a little wiggy about driving a mold-ridden car cross-town for estimates (this place was relatively close) Also, with the time change it was 2 days to get a response from the ins co. So I just got lazy.

Overall, it feels like a different car with the new colors. I’m happy with the result since it was paid by insurance. If I had to pay for it myself, I would be a little disappointed in the little details.

#12

Looks like a soft leather baseball glove… nice

#13

I always did love the baseball stitch seats on the original TT

#14

That’s incredible that they matched the factory leather style so well! Impressive!