She is done! Well except for maybe tucking in a couple stitch starting points. MANY hours, a few fingers getting poked with the needle. All said really glad I started. Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, I'll do an interior detail, Lexol, and be done with that!


the back of this center console was my last stitches! Woo Hoo



Showing seats and center console while stitching the headrest. That little flashlight in the drink holder put in some work!

 

Looks beautiful!! Good work!!

 

Leeper
Looks absolutely superb , every time I see pictures of your interior I start thinking I want to add just a few more stitches here and there such as the centre console now !

 

Thank you! It was definitely a chose but also a labor of love. Having Pandora made life much easier. Center console went fast so power through that. My seats were serious time invested

 

incredible work. I wish I had the patience

 

Looks great , nice job. Let me ask when you stick the needle under the existing thread do you think you stretch it. How long was the thread that you started with and how did you string it together when you needed to use more thread. Did you also have to or tried to remove any of the thread.

 

Thank you JT.
Looks great , nice job. Let me ask when you stick the needle under the existing thread do you think you stretch it. Possibly but the thread that I used, and that was used by Jaguar, is a very robust polyester so I highly doubt that it's actually "stretched" per se more likely that I slightly pulled it up when going under it.
How long was the thread that you started with and how did you string it together when you needed to use more thread. I hope I understand your question properly - I started with a spool of thread that was over 1000 yards long, I think over 2000 yards long as that was the least amount I could purchase of this thread. Using the SWAG system I venture to say that I used maybe 100 yards of it. Did you also have to or tried to remove any of the thread. I did not alter or remove any of Jaguar stitching/threads. There were two occasions that I had to remove threading which I had done after I realized that I had gone in the wrong direction. Tomorrow I'll take a VERY close look at everything to make sure I'm done stitching then make sure I tuck each end exactly the way I want... may eve apply a tiny droplet of super glue on a few ends.

I was not pleased with how "washed out" the original interior looked being everything was charcoal, almost black. Had it been a slight shade lighter I would have been happy enough to leave it well enough alone. After seeing my son's Honda Civic Si then some other cars, including the newer XK's I knew I wanted to change it if/when I got my XK. The last part was that the holidays were upon us giving me the time off needed to invest the time to get'r done. Again I've never sewn anything in my life, not socks, not anything this was my very first endeavor after seeing that link on the NSX forum so credit goes to him and his awesome wrkmanship

 

JagToes
There is no stringing together , you need to endure you have enough thread to do that one particular area then tie it off and tuck the ends in if you can or apply very small dot of superglue

What I did was measure the area that I wanted to thread through then added a good 8- 10'' extra just incase .

After you thread string/polyester through the needle its very important you super glue the end of the string near the needle eye to stop it from fraying if you don't superglue your string it will unravel halfway and will need to remove as start again

Thread size to use is M13 or M15 / tex 210

 

Great job, well done!

 

Late to this thread but hopefully this helps: I bought a 2010 XKR convertible and loved it so much that it wasn't until someone pointed it out to me that I noticed the Cranberry contrast stitching had faded in the sun.

I went to an art supply store and bought a very nice fabric marker that matched perfectly, and had a very sharp, fine tip. The trick was to just lightly tough the tip of the marker to each little bit of thread (as opposed to "drawing" along the stitching). Obviously this wouldn't work on dark thread,but if someone had light thread that they want to give a red look I can tell you this works quite well.

But yes, you have to have a little patience.

 

This is a two year old thread, but I am wondering if anyone who has attempted this ran into any problems. I'd like to try this but I first inquired with the owner of a local auto upholstery shop to see if he has ever done it or would do it for me. This was the email he sent me:

It’s a huge risk. If you accidentally cut a factory stitch you have to make or get an entirely new cover.

That was my primary concern when I first saw this thread. This is a project I would consider tackling myself but am wondering if anyone ever inadvertently cut the factory stitch in the process, and if so, what the result was.