The very same pile of shit!
I'm trying to prove you CAN polish a turd :)

Bring your steam cleaner to summer camp, and you can have a go on mine if you like...

Interior looks good.. would be nicer with black carpet, and personally I think the lightstone gearshift and handbrake handle are nasty! I had black leather ones on my vogue, but swapped the gearshift for walnut, and just managed to pick up a walnut handbrake handle and cubby box lid :)

If you wanted to replace the carpets with something close to original, then I found some listed as Champagne which were close - but I decided to go for black in the end!

The steaming's the easy bit! It's what it reveals to repair that's bum clench time.
What takes the time is abrading back the surface without destroying the leather. It's a very thin line. Repairing the tears and filling the cracks that are too deep to refinish also takes ages. Re-dyeing is easy, although masking the piping is tedious.
All in all, while I'm happy to experiment on my own stuff, I'd hate to be responsible for buggering up someone else's pride and joy. I'll bring the steamer and you can have a go at turning your own seats into something too nice to sit on without a paper oversuit if you like. :)
As I said in a previous post, I'm happy to have a go at sorting out your rust patch on the roof. If that goes wrong, only people over 6'8" will ever see it!
I share your views on the interior- should be all black. Seats, carpets, trim panels, head lining, the lot. I'd even do the wheels in a shadow chrome effect. Thinking about it, then I'd have a Linley.
Unfortunately I need to keep it factory original, as that's where the value is if I decide to sell this one rather than the blue one. That means having to live with an interior that looks like a porn stars bedroom. Actually, rather than doing the headlining at Summer Camp, I might just fit a full-length mirror up there...

You'd get away with putting black carpet in - I bet you nobody would know the difference, and would even think it's factory, given that some other vogue models in red/green/blue came with matching carpet..

I doubt I'll have time at Summer Camp to even look at my seats - and it's definitely not my specialty either! The rust spot would be good if you can take a look at it though. I've got my headlining to do, and hopefully a replacement ABS modulator to swap in by then too..

I like the contrast of the lightstone leather with the black of the vehicle (and now carpet) but I think black leather would be a bit much on it!

They'd know the difference if they had the LR bible to hand though-

Fair point, but given the number of P38 owners on the various social media outlets who don't even seem to have the vehicle manual (or at least never seem to friggin read it... I've refrained from saying "Your EKA instructions are in the frigging manual if you'd actually read it" more times than I care to remember!)

Must say Mark, you are doing a great job. I'm trying to understand the treatment you gave the leather seats (with the steamcleaner and so on), I'm getting it can be tricky and easy to spoil the leather. My seats are ashgrey, there is less joy to gain besides knowing they are clean. As for the headliner, my remark on the staples comes from jealousy of course, waiting for the chance to renew the lot. Your temporary solution does fine, I don't know what to decide yet. Closeby there is a shop that does all sorts of upholstery, in fact he is a saddlemaker, he has renewed the headliner of my former classic a few years back and did a good job for reasonable money (have to ask him again).

Ta Tony- it's coming on slowly.
Spent a bit of time with a bucket of soapy water on it today, washing off years of crap, to work out how to deal with the bodywork.
The oxidised chips and blemishes are all below the waist rubbing strips so no need for a full respray (thank your deity of choice!). Worst case I'll spray the bottom quarter of it, including front bumper. It's been lovingly keyed along both sides, the drivers mirror cover is badly road rashed as well so there's a fair bit to do.
On the plus side Now have working #1 and #2 key fobs and the 3rd Gen receiver installed and all locking stuff functions correctly.
With the confidence gained from my seat repairs I can repair the rear door cards so no need to replace/ modify new ones. I will need to get some Lightstone boot cards as the flocked cloth stuff on the ones I have is tatty.
That's enough for today though. Have to mow the croquet lawn and trample down the divots on the Polo field :)

That seat looks awesome, I wish the steamer could fix holes in leather too, I'd be sorted! :)

Coming along nicely!

The steamer isn't that great at fixing holes. That part of it was down to me. Hole fixing wasn't too bad once I grasped the concept, and the repair is pretty invisible, but the larger the hole the trickier it is to match the grain of the leather.

I bought a leather repair kit for my old dse, never got round to using it, it's filed in that magic keep safe place, lol.. I'm impressed with the job you did mark,,

Thanks Chris. The more leathery fiddling I do, the quicker and easier it gets. I've got a bit more of a feel now of how much heat to use from the heat gun, dye dilutions and airbrush settings that work best and just how wet you can get the seats when steaming them without losing the "tone" from the leather.

So while Marty is fixing headlinings at Summer Camp, you'll be cleaning everyone's seats?

There's no f in chance!
For me, doing trimming is is like puking. Although I can do it I hate the experience...

OldShep56 wrote:

So while Marty is fixing headlinings at Summer Camp, you'll be cleaning everyone's seats?

Nice try !
I was gonna suggest, but pretty much knew what the answer was gonna be 👀

Oh well, I did try

Oh nuts- something else to replace now.
There's a bit of play in the rear pinion flange, which I'm guessing will be a failing pinion bearing. I don't have the bearing pullers etc to rebuild the diff myself, so I guess I'm going to have to give Ashcrofts 350.00 in drinking vouchers for a rebuilt one.
Damn.

Even more irritating is that I was going to take it on a road trip for a week or so on Wednesday, travelling the highways and byways of Britain catching up with old friends.
Going to have to take the blue one now.

Is there impending doom that the diff won't make it for another few hundred miles of a road trip?

I'd just run it and see how it goes... does it whine like a banshee when it's up to speed, or hasn't it ventured out far enough to get up to motorway speeds?

No noise at all- that's the weird thing. Failing diff's usually announce themselves, as you say, by screaming loudly in protest. I'd have expected to find metal in the oil as well.
There's about 1mm of lateral play at the flange though.
I have driven it up to around 90 (on a private road of course) and no strange noises, wobbles, or any strange behaviour generally.