Leather Fetish!!

The final stages are in sight and the IVA application is prepped and ready to post. 

I can start this update with good news, my interior has arrived, after a seriously long wait of 3 months (which has took the shine of it a little) However my final colour choice and ideas are now final coming together and look simply stunning in my opinion. 

I started off with the rear bulkhead leather cover, i wanted leather for this as opposed to the cheaper option of vinyl replica leather as basically I'm a snob and i wanted the best, along with that its so visible i wanted it to look good. 

 I was/am however a little disappointed with how it is finished. On all the images i have been looking at and viewing various cars on the AK website the leather cover spreads the full width of the back bulkhead and although most will be hidden by the seats, it did strike me as odd for it to be so short. In fact i was not a happy bunny and I immediately got on the phone to AK to have a bit of a rant. After speaking with Jon he said that for the last 5 years they have been made shorter like this as the full leather ones didn't fit very well.... hindsight is a wonderful thing because 100% if I'd have known that at the point of order i would have been looking elsewhere. I was a little miffed with the amount this all cost me also. Because my dash has been finished in carbon fibre i didn't want/need my dash covering in leather, nor did i want my door cards with pockets. I just wanted enough matching black leather as the rear bulkhead for me to trim my own door cards. I was offered a discount of £100 of the list price as the in house trimmer (Dougie) still had to get so many cuts of leather out of one hide. However i think the rear bulk head is roughly 30% less leather than i was expecting and three months from point of order to delivery (keeping in mind it was only the seats and bulkhead i needed) so hardly a quick turn around for basically half an interior order with no dash to do. But i have a blank dashboard in the garage so maybe i should call his bluff and send that to get covered for the additional £100, that would then be worth more to someone secondhand uncut and ready to fit to a car.......hmmmmm??? should i rock the boat??

Anyway onto the seats..... these i am exceptionally happy with, the colour is exactly what i wanted (Mulberry red) and the look biblical against the dark carpet and interior trim. I was adamant on the AK seat shells simply because of the headrest fixing kit, as if the headrest is removed their are no visible fixings and keeps everything looking smooth and clean line.... devils in the detail!!
 They are simply bolted through the floor under the base squab of each seat and held in place with four M8 nuts and bolts, with a big penny washer either side as a load spreader. I have used stainless steel nuts/bolts for this as the underside is exposed to the elements so don't want removal to become an issue at a later date. The stainless steel bolts however don't have a high grade strength marking (8.8) on the head which could be an IVA issue, but all the seat belt fixings do so i might be ok, the seats are not load bearing in an accident as the weight would be the occupant and so its the seat belts that need to comply with the rules more... and mine do.

 This was great to finally get the last little bits of the interior together and more importantly gave me my final seating position for driving..... no more upturned buckets for me. The seats have to be fixed directly onto the floor pan to allow the measurements for the seat belt top mount position. If they were lifted slightly on sliders for example then they would fall foul of this measurement and fail IVA. I'm happy with mine direct on the floor, I'm just under 6ft so i need all the room i can get. Getting in and out of the car is now a little trickier than before with significantly less room to move knee joints to bend in directions they are not meant to.... I'm sure i will get the trick of it

The best bit of getting the seats fitted and finding the desired position is the ability to now adjust the harnesses to suit myself, they are a very broad belt and if you follow my blog you will know that i specifically wanted the broad 3" strap as opposed to the standard 2"
 So with the drivers seat and harnesses adjusted for me, it was time to get the passenger seat set for my best mate, to which he was very happy with.

You can notice in the image with my little mate in that the top harness mount is exposed and when you are strapped in the metal can make contact with the rounded lip of the body. AK's solution to this is to have some little leather socks made to cover this, which looks good and is practical also.... but my harnesses were 3" remember not the standard 2" so the ones i had with my delivery did not fit.... Bugger!!

Easy to sort this mind as i had enough off cuts from trimming my door cards to make up some slightly bigger socks to fit my harness buckles. And lucky for me that i had just bought my significant other a lovely little white Toyota..... sewing machine!!! So that was useful to make them up. I have always been a dab hand at trimming as i used to make leather seat covers for my mini's back in the day, using a bloody great old sewing machine that belonged to my mother.... i still have that old boiler to in my loft (sewing machine that is... not my mother)  

 So that's the interior finished, just need to fit the steering wheel spoke cover and head rests (part of the AK IVA kit) as a these are needed to keep the car IVA happy. Next on my list is to start setting the ride height and shock stiffness. Again these need to be set for the IVA and to give me a standard height at which to adjust my headlights to. This will be done with a road trip to my MOT test station legally driven there booked in under the chassis number, i will be looking forward to that along with being scared shit less driving on the public highway for the first time.

I'll finish on the IVA application form which is all filled out and is awaiting postage. I have to send a "amateur build declaration" form also along with photo evidence of the build process from start to finish as evidence. I have a list of jobs i need to do first prior to IVA but the end is in sight.... i hope, just in time for winter!!!

Hmmm smooth leather door cards, with no pockets for shit to gather and clutter up.... just what i wanted.