tommy, how's the leather?
 

i finally got the samples from CST (central office).

wow, the actual samples of blues look grey to me!

i have selected 3 colors that i like out of the limited samples:

079 dark charcoal (but it is too dark)
003 blue (looks grey)
005 dark blue (looks darker grey ;))

anyway, it looks like i'll have to actually make a visit b/c these samples just don't do it for me. i will also visit that allentown place and check out their leather samples (preferably in march when their manayunk store opens).

The color codes for my leather are:
601 - orion-ish
607 - silver (all perforated)
079 - for seatbacks - matches rest of charcoal pretty well

I agree with you - I didn't like their other blues all that much. Maybe Katzkin has something that you'd like better. Don't forget to ask them about Katzkin's new-ish alcantara-like fabric. Would look great as inserts, kind of like a Kleemann ripoff at $2000 cheaper.

It's very hard to tell this stuff from just samples, especially in non-imaginitive fields like architecture. :)

I have to call CST at 3 to see if the car'll get done today. I'm still assuming tomorrow. Until then, it's the babe magnet 4-door Focus (actually, it's my favorite rental - cd player, and not a land yacht [grand am, for example]).

Tommy,

I can't wait to see your pictures (which you are going to post soon, right?)

As since you brought up babe magnets. My little MB gets so much attention. Just this weekend, a really cute Frenchman came up and flirted with me just to talk about my car. I like this car more and more every day;)

It's done!
 

I'm going to pick it up in about an hour! It had better be flawless! I'll bring in my camera to work tomorrow, and take some pics, and try to have some pics up tomorrow night.

At least post your comments tonight so we all know how it came out! :)

Whoa, Nellie!
 

The seats are great! I especially like the door panels - they look really good. Before I get any comments, yes, the "SRS" patches are charcoal, and they stick out on the silver leather, so I don't need that pointed out! :) Actually, since I've got the 3-tone, the patches match the charcoal base color anyway.

The perforated leather is really nice. As Kwik would say, they're not perfect, but they're damn fine for aftermarket seats. One weird issue is: the blue is like the Orion in bright sunlight; when it's cloudy or night, the Orion looks darker than the leather. No biggie.

It was a headache getting there, though. I got the keys, paid, and hopped up in the rental to return it. What happens at a red light? Someone rear-ends me at 5 mph. I checked the rental, and it had a nice little imprint of the corner of the guy's license plate frame in the bumper. Not wanting to get hit up by Avis, we called the fuzz, and that added a nice 45 minutes to my day. On the way home from my near-death experience in the rental, I figured that I was worth a really bad meal. So now, the interior smells like drying glue with a faint hint of Wendy's big bacon classic. Look out for the Chanel version coming soon to your local Neiman's.

So, to sum up, CST did a really good job - appears to be in the same quality of install league as the other CST jobbies. So, Young, what are you waiting for? Get it done already. If you're interested, I'll be in Doylestown this weekend - if you want to see the leather, let me know - we could meet up somewhere in the middle.