[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by OldJedi

I have a 2012 ZL1 and the suede still looks great and feels wonderful. I had a Honda Civic with suede seats and after 10 years and 130,000 miles they still looked new.

Driving my ZL1 on the track reveals the advantage of having suede inserts. Even though they are not Recaros they keep you in the seat and you do not slide in the seat no matter hard you drive into a corner. If you do not plan to track your car it might not matter but if you do want to track your car I would drive it first before you make a lot of changes. Just my opinion.

X2.

Not saying suede doesn't require care...cause it does. But so does leather. If you leave leather touch points alone for too long they get scummy and glossy, just like suede gets matted down.

I prefer the "soft" (?) look and feel of suede to the plasticky, and eventually cracked, look of leather, personally. Furthermore, big benefit to staying in your seat from suede.

[travislambert]

Originally Posted by OldJedi

I have a 2012 ZL1 and the suede still looks great and feels wonderful. I had a Honda Civic with suede seats and after 10 years and 130,000 miles they still looked new.

Driving my ZL1 on the track reveals the advantage of having suede inserts. Even though they are not Recaros they keep you in the seat and you do not slide in the seat no matter hard you drive into a corner. If you do not plan to track your car it might not matter but if you do want to track your car I would drive it first before you make a lot of changes. Just my opinion.

I've heard that some folks prefer the suede for track use. I suppose there is some benefit there, but at the same time I never really noticed a real problem with the traditional leather in the SS. I've pulled 0.80G+ and I didn't feel like I was going to slide out of the seat or anything.

Either way I plan to keep the suede Recaro Seats. My plan is to only replace the steering wheel, shifter, dash trim, knee pads, and door trim. In the door trim I plan to keep a small amount of suede to make it match the seats.

I prefer the look of traditional leather, but I could probably get used to the look of the suede. It's just the feel of the suede that I can't stand. I guess I'm a little weird, but it almost makes me cringe to touch the suede. It's a feeling like some people might describe as fingernails on a chalkboard. So for me it's not really an option. I have to replace the steering wheel and shifter at a minimum.

[travislambert]

So far it looks like about 75% of the voters prefer the suede. I actually expect about 80-90% since GM decided not to offer a traditional leather steering wheel and shifter option like they did on the 5th Gen ZL1.

I know that many people really like it, which is why I'm keeping all of the original suede pieces for my car. I'm even keeping the door panels intact and ordering new panels to modify. When the time comes to sell the car I'll have everything to make it original again.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by travislambert

So far it looks like about 75% of the voters prefer the suede. I actually expect about 80-90% since GM decided not to offer a traditional leather steering wheel and shifter option like they did on the 5th Gen ZL1.

I know that many people really like it, which is why I'm keeping all of the original suede pieces for my car. I'm even keeping the door panels intact and ordering new panels to modify. When the time comes to sell the car I'll have everything to make it original again.

That's dedication, and I admire that!

[travislambert]

Apparently leatherseats.com doesn't need or want any business at the moment.
They turned down my initial request where I offered to ship them brand new door panels to modify. Then I offered to remove the red center section, send it to them, have them make a custom replacement, and send it back. So I'd be doing all of the work except for cutting and sewing the material. They still weren't willing to do that.

Here's the mock-up image I sent to them along with the description of the request:




After being turned down with the second request, I thought about including this image in my response email:

[travislambert]

I ordered new door panels and I plan to modify them to match as described in post #19.

Do you guys know where I can get exact matching materials? I'll need a small piece of black leather/vinyl and a small piece of alcantara suede as well as the torch red thread.

(I found some torch red upholstery thread on ebay. The color matches perfectly, but the thread diameter was a little too small.)

[LesBaer]

I'm with the OP and prefer the look and feel of leather. Personally I don't think anything looks classier than the ceramic white...the sued in my opinion looks kind of cheesy but that's completely subjective. Everyone has their own tastes. I've been thinking about swapping over to the Recaro's though, but I'm in no rush to do it. That money is better spent elsewhere.

[unavailablezl1]

I am not a fan of Alcantara either. Real leather is so much better. I would buy the inserts.

[travislambert]

Hey guys, just a heads-up. The part # I had for the "Left Adrenaline Red Door Trim Panel" in the original post was for the convertible. I didn't think about the door panels being different on the coupe until mine arrived yesterday and the window switch assembly was different. I now have the #s listed for both the coupe and convertible.

I now have my interior swapped except for the door panels. The adrenaline red panels don't look too bad on the ZL1 (without changing the red center section). I'm thinking about giving them a try as-is before making any modifications to them.

I should have some pictures to post late this evening.

[travislambert]

Here's the new leather interior on my ZL1. (I'm sorry the pictures are a little crappy. The lighting in my garage isn't great.)

[Mr. Wyndham]

Looks good!!

[travislambert]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wyndham

Looks good!!

Thanks! I'll try to get some better pictures soon. These pictures really don't do it justice.

At some point in the future I still may do the door panel mods I described previously, but for now I'm going to see how I like the red.

[Mr. Wyndham]

I think, if this were me...I'd have stuck with the suede lower door panel, black arm rests, and red knee pads.

But it really does look great! Good job !

[mlee]

Originally Posted by travislambert

Thanks! I'll try to get some better pictures soon. These pictures really don't do it justice.

At some point in the future I still may do the door panel mods I described previously, but for now I'm going to see how I like the red.

Waiting for pics of that stripe...