young

hiya

re that allentown leather place, would they do the door panels also? w/ the warranty of the airbags?

maybe we can get a group buy on that!

young

tommy

He said that the Katzkin package doesn't come with the panels, but that they could do it. I'd hope that they'd be able to get the same leather color from Katzin as well so that it matches.

Maybe they could do the door panels as well in two-tone, for the full designo-ripoff look.

Since they do it, I'm assuming that they would warrantee it as well. I'll make sure to ask them on Saturday.

Gee, for a group buy of two, I bet they'd give us at least $0.50 off. That's EACH! Imagine the possibilities!

benzomonterey

Classic soft trim does the panels and they have MB's approval

young

yup, CST does do the side panels. what does MB approval mean?

i haven't seen the CST job done in person though (your photos are great!). i don't know whats so special about katzkin but tommy said it was very nice and i'll get to see it tomorrow at the car show. for $1300+, its competitive in price w/ CST.

benzomonterey

There are approvals required by the manufacturer due to the airbag situation. The classic soft trim kit has vinyl breakaway strips in the door panels to properly release the bag.

As a side note I worked for an installation place in Vegas that dealt with both companies, we had far better success with the CST leather the Katzkin seemed to have issues with quality and odor it often had a funky smell when installed. I am certainly not partial to CST over another brand so if there product is of good quality and the door panels are ok then so be it. But I know they cannot just install leather on the panels and have it work. It must have the seam. So check that out.

tommy

Benzo - thanks for the info on cst vs. Kat. I'll keep that in mind when I talk to them tomorrow.

The local cst is 2 miles from my house, so it would be very convenient. It's still up in the air, since I haven't even gotten my W-2 yet, so I'm spending money that I don't even have (or even filed the return for). Hoping to have it in by the end of Feb.

young

hi
i just got back from the car show and talked to the guy (older gentleman) who's car was the one being shown - silver c sedan. he had the inserts replaced w/ the puckered type as in other luxury cars w/ a lighter color - sort of looks like benzo's.

the coupe's leather would be more like the standard, taut leather, if i'd like.

they are indeed mercedes approved and they did many coupes for the allentown mercedes dealer including the side panels (front/rear). he was hesitant on the two tones mainly b/c of aesthetic reasons. i think he thought i wanted an orion blue/charcoal mix. i told him maybe the c32 type dark shadowy blue/charcoal. sorry, no group discount.

bonded driver will pick up the car and drop it off. the main office is in allentown, but they are opening a satellite office in manayunk (but no leather install there)

tommy

Young, thanks for the info. I don't understand his problem with two-tone. It's not like all of the Lorniser bodykits that they sell, and all of the other crap is 100% classy anyway.

One man's Pam Anderson is another's Rosie O'Donnell, I guess. Though all money is green, so if they have a problem with anyone's choices, it's their loss.

BTW: seen the leather on the new Beetle Sport yet? Very nice black/silver two-tone. Looks great.

benzomonterey

VW also has a new orange and a new yellow color with matching interior. The colors are bright but the leather work has a designo look to it even the contrasting stitching. Kudo's to VW for being daring.

Flashman

It makes a lot of sense in a BUG, where the car's exterior color flows inside the car over the door windows. If you see a regular BUG, you can see that having the body color already inside the car, makes it cry out for two-color seating combinations.

young

i will post some pics of the show in the gen merc forum/other/mbtech forums.

also, the place in allentown is auto addictions

http://www.autoaddictions.com

the mercedes area was large w/ lexus right across from them. the sl500 was on a rotating dais. S, CL, C, E, G, SLK were all there. only the CL was locked (and i got some attitude from the saleswoman about opening it). there were two c-coupés in the back - kinda lonely back there orion blue and red. although some high school kids were hanging around them.

tommy

I went there this morning. Yahoo directions were wrong, but I got there eventually, after slamming on the brakes when I passed by.

Showroom was your standard mishmash of driving lights, rims, shiftknobs, and shocks.

Also, unfortunately, the giant Brabus catalog with pics was at the Philly show. But, I was able to talk to the kid there about leather. He said that they could do any color combo - when I asked if they had any problems with any colors, he just said that they didn't like people to get too fancy with the number of colors; I told him what I wanted, and he was fine with it. Current thinking: silver perforated interior & headrest, maroon outside of seats and doorpanels, all with silver contrasting thread. He said that the installer uses fishingline on the door panels, so there are no problems, and yes, they do have a warranty, and liability for the airbags.

When I get it done, I'll probably also get some Brabus stuff - did you see the doorlock pins from Koolvin's post at benzsport? They're really cool. This'll all be done prob. at the end of Feb. - company year-end is this month, so I'll be a little busy at the beg. of Feb. Still hoping to get Renntech spoiler on next Sat.

benzomonterey

That combo sounds really nice. I love contrasting colors anyway. When I worked for the classic soft trim we did a dodge ram in the red and white interior of the old corvettes. Just really makes a statement. I think it will be nice with your blue. CST has also added silver to their pallet I noticed when I was looking at samples.

young

ok, a little research (search). benzo's CST cost $1500, and AA's $1350.

tommy, i looked for the door pins by koolpin, but i can't find it. do you have a link or a pic? i agree, it makes sense to get some other stuff done while they're at it.

tommy

Benzo - you're right about the silver, though it's in the "100% leather only" section. I'm assuming that means no vinyl on the non-seating surfaces, though I wonder if I could do what I want, and not have to pay the add'l fees for 100%. Any guesses? Their lack of a true silver is what was holding me back; now that they have it, it would be a hell of a lot easier to get done there.

Young- the $1350 was for seats only. He quoted me $1590 total for adding the panels. Did he tell you 1350 for the whole ball of wax? If so, then one of us got some bad info, and I don't know which.

The Brabus door pins are on a thread called "My Brabus," in the MB Discussion section. To do the install requires removal of the door panels.

So, the net result is that I'm up in the air on where to get the stuff done. I'll have to talk to CST again to see what's the deal with the silver leather. Also, I feel more confident in their abilities to get the panels done correctly, even though AA has done them before also.

young

yes, that older gentleman told me it was $1350 for everything! we talked about the side panels quite a bit about how they had to use special string; how it was covered, how the back panels are also done, etc. i hope he doesn't reneg on that!

to clarify, he said that they did the leather interiors for the allentown mb dealership which included the side panels and that the price he was quoting me was basically what they charged the dealership.

those pins are sweet!

tommy

"that older gentleman" is the owner, and that was his c class sedan there.

I guess the smart thing to do, if I wanted to go with them, would be to talk to him directly.

Also, the guy there said they would need the car for 3 days.

benzomonterey

One piece of info that I forgot, is that CST told me on the 16 cars that they installed leather on, two of them registered an air bag error that needed to be reset.

Also make sure you get the Allentown guy to show you a schematic of the leather. CST has one that I posted a long time ago when I had mine done.

I would get a firm in writing commitment about the pricing also since they weren't sure about the door panels in the first place.

I will try to post a few more pics of my back seat area. It takes a bit of vinyl sculpting to get it right. I hope that you can view a coupe with leather before you make your decision.

Benzo

young

heh, i just remembered the owner mentioning the mad-cow thing...

benzo, if the price is indeed $1500+ from AA, i'd rather go w/ the CST as they are closer and i definitely like the job they did on yours. did CST reset the airbag errors or did you need to take it back to the dealer?

benzomonterey

I didn't have the error. They just forwarned me it was a possibility.

tommy

The deal with the "100% leather" part is that if you want your seating exclusively done in those colors, it has to be all leather, not leather/vinyl. So, I'm ok to use the silver on my car. And, they can do the doorpanels in more than one color, so I really could get something designo-y for mine.

I really liked their silver as well, so it looks like there's no real reason for me to take the trek over to Allentown to AA, when CST is next door, especially since we've seen with Benzo's car that the pattern looks great.

Benzo, any more pics that you could post would be great.

benzomonterey

I will try to get some detail shots posted in the next day or so.

tommy

OK, so I was getting out of my car last night. I had just picked up a pizza. The damn pizza started to fall out of the box, I tried to save it, and one slice fell on my driver's seat, topping side down of course!

I cleaned it up as well as I could. Is this a sign that I should be getting leather?

Rick

The ad said "drop the chalupa" ...not "drop the pizza"

(kids these days...sheesh)

young

yeah, like i believe this story! you probably dropped it on purpose so you could justify the leather!! ha ha i got no problem w/ that.