Experience/technique for reupholstering interior in Alcantara?

[Johan@SjoebergDP]

Hello!

I'm redoing the interior in my NSX, and my local reupholstery shop had a couple of concerns regarding the process. When I informed them that the panels first need to be wrapped in upholstery foam before wrapping in the Alcantara fabric, the response was that might not be possible. He told me the Alcantara first needed to be glued to the foam before gluing it to the panels etc, and that could pose a problem with the glue that they were using. I told them I'd do some research and get back to them.

Anyone here have any guidance or advice that I can relay to the shop on reupholstering the NSX interior in Alcantara? The process to do it, and in terms of choice of upholstery foam, suitable glue, if the OEM stitching placement will be enough or if extra stitching is needed to be able to wrap the somewhat stiff Alcantara around all edges etc (i.e. the glove box).

Pictures below that I found online and here on the forum for reference.

 

[Soundeffects]

I wasn’t involved with the process on my car but everything was wrapped in alcantara on every piece from top to bottom. Everything has held in great except I need to put some more glue on the headliner for some reason in one spot. Sorry I couldn’t give you much more advice.

 

[Johan@SjoebergDP]

I wasn’t involved with the process on my car but everything was wrapped in alcantara on every piece from top to bottom. Everything has held in great except I need to put some more glue on the headliner for some reason in one spot. Sorry I couldn’t give you much more advice.

Thank you Soundeffects for sharing your experience. I'm a little puzzled by the questions I got asked by the upholstery shop, seems like these are basic techniques really. They seem a little reluctant to do the job, maybe they don't want it.

I received some good advice from Carbon 6 Composites, a shout out to Jeff over there. The recommended approach seems to be to lay down suitable closed cell foam (~1/8 thick) first, and then wrap the Alcantara on top of that taking care not to lay down the glue to wet. Since the Alcantara is quite stiff, an extra seam may be required to put around the glove box. Is this the case for you Soundeffects? Any other extra seams anywhere?

 

[Gthong]

if they "seem" like they don't want the job... my .02 is... "don't let them....

also... yes those are cool interiors... but.. if you want a car with alancatera... shouldn't you just buy one... the conversion must cost a fortune... and who's going to buy it from you someday... I would suggest buyers will be looking for as close to original as they can buy?

I also mention that to guys doing mods to make the NSX faster... why not just buy a faster car?

that said.. Ive been wrong before...It's clearly just my .02

 

[Soundeffects]

Thank you Soundeffects for sharing your experience. I'm a little puzzled by the questions I got asked by the upholstery shop, seems like these are basic techniques really. They seem a little reluctant to do the job, maybe they don't want it.

I received some good advice from Carbon 6 Composites, a shout out to Jeff over there. The recommended approach seems to be to lay down suitable closed cell foam (~1/8 thick) first, and then wrap the Alcantara on top of that taking care not to lay down the glue to wet. Since the Alcantara is quite stiff, an extra seam may be required to put around the glove box. Is this the case for you Soundeffects? Any other extra seams anywhere?

I literally have no idea if they put foam under it or not, I would guess not but maybe I’m wrong. Also I used ultra suede now that I went back to double check. It is the more affordable alcantara version. I had real oem alcantara in a Ferrari stradale and it was great but it wore out in certain spots from sun and rubbing a bit. It’s not easy to keep mint over a decade later. Dirt on alcantara, horrible to remove lol.

 

[NSXGB]

Definitely use foam. My dash and door cards were done by a professional who did an amazing job and used foam.
If you can, find someone who has done an NSX interior before unlike I did the first time!

 

[Johan@SjoebergDP]

Thank you all for your advice and for sharing your experiences. I've notified the shop about these details and they're getting back to me with a quote this week. They've done a bunch of interiors before and they were stocking Alcantara in small quantities, but no one has done NSX interiors in Sweden from what I know.

Let's see what they quote me...