Quartet Insert Material

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi,

many of you know of my efforts to find a good replacement material for the "Quartet" fabric. I've spent a lot of time on this (12 months or more) without any real success.

This morning, however, everything has changed. I got a PM from Jackherer (almost apologetic in tone) saying had I seen/come across a dutch supplier. I went to look and blow me Peugeot seem to do a fabric for the 206 which is pretty much "Quartet" not exactly the same - but it's a close match. Well done KIeran (I tried to PM you back but your inbox is full )

 

 

 

This now means that If the samples prove OK , I will be able to supply full cover replacement sets as I had originally intended.

Marvellous stuff. Drum Roll

regards

Dave

[eddie bullit 37]

Hi,

many of you know of my efforts to find a good replacement material for the "Quartet" fabric. I've spent a lot of time on this (12 months or more) without any real success.

This morning, however, everything has changed. I got a PM from Jackherer (almost apologetic in tone) saying had I seen/come across a dutch supplier. I went to look and blow me Peugeot seem to do a fabric for the 206 which is pretty much "Quartet" not exactly the same - but it's a close match. Well done KIeran (I tried to PM you back but your inbox is full )

 

 

 

This now means that If the samples prove OK , I will be able to supply full cover replacement sets as I had originally intended.

Marvellous stuff. Drum Roll

regards

Dave

do they do a green by any chance for the sorrento/steel grey amongst us?

[jackherer 543]

Wow, I only saw it with a yellow insert but that looks pretty good to me.

 

The weave is slightly different to the 205 but you have to compare them side by side to see it.

 

(PMs now emptied)

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Wow, I only saw it with a yellow insert but that looks pretty good to me.

 

The weave is slightly different to the 205 but you have to compare them side by side to see it.

 

(PMs now emptied)

 

Agreed, but it's not massive. I've had these fabrics under the microscope (literally) during my researches, and this looks good.

Dave

[james_pug 26 1 Cars]

Randomly I saw this material on some seats in a 206 whilst down the scrap yard today.

 

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y102/rs50/7cd66bb8.jpg

[cRaig 265 1 Cars]

Peugeot also used the same material in the early phase 2 106, it definately came in blue and red, but I dont know if I ever saw a green..

[jackherer 543]

They have yellow, red and two variations on blue but no green. Funnily enough they also have the material for the 205 Roland Garros Cabrio seats but no other 205s!

[cRaig 265 1 Cars]

No green! Sad times

 

Im sure the same (or similar) material was used in the 407 as well, my parents 407 has a very similar material in red/grey I believe.. So peugeot have used the same style fairly recently!

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi all,

The owner of the firm rang me today as he had checked out my website. They don't do green (yet anyway), but this guy told me that he had visited the factory (South of France) and could guarantee that the material is virtually the same production method as "Quartet". That is to say it uses those plastic backed felt strips in conjunction with a yarn core.He also said that he had the 1.6 black bolster cloth and would I be interested in that.(would I )

Samples are on their way and I should get them early next week, hopefully. The prices are good and all materials are in stock and available. The French site (ASCI) that I used for the last set of bolster cloth samples was bloody expensive and I must admit I was concerned. Now, with the possibility of a new insert alternative material and a second (cheaper) supply of the bolster cloth

the production of full 1.6 replacement covers, Rallye covers, and finally 1.9 1/2 leathers is back on the cards

Someone is looking after me.

Keep the faith

regards

Dave

Edited August 26, 2011 by dch1950

[205freak 7 1 Cars]

Dave that´s really good news, how long do you thing to start selling them??!

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Dave that´s really good news, how long do you thing to start selling them??!

 

I have only just been in touch with West Trading on Friday last. I will reserve judgement until I get the samples to evaluate them. I then need to proto the production covers. Let's say (realistically) 2 months or so, from my initial work and customer general approval . What I do like is that I am told that the end producers of the material are Peugeot approved main suppliers.

 

However,this is a tale I've heard before, and when I ring Pug to ask they've never heard of them !!

I have had many false starts on this trail and so I am being cagey here - quite deliberately.

we'll see.

Keep the faith

Dave

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi all got the samples today - very interesting as well.

The side bolster cloth is a good version and cheaper than ASCI's (half the price !) so will be using that I think.

However, I'm not so sure (yet) about the 206 equivalent fabric - I think I need to see bigger sections of it.

I also found a variant (same site), which also looks good , under the Volkswagen list (VOLK13118)

Here they both are - what do you think fellas?

 

 

 

the GOLF 4 fabric first, then the Peugeot 206 one next.

 

I would like the golf one if it could be done with a black insert instead of the grey, or the Peugeot one if the yarn could be black instead of grey. I've asked West Trading to see if they might accommodate me.

PS If enough of us can canvas this firm they might produce what we actually want.

D

Have a look anyway.

regards

Dave

Edited August 31, 2011 by dch1950

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi all,

I have had a fairly typical e-mail exhange with this firm this morning, I say typical because the procedure, that I have encountered time and time again, is that questions raised are rarely answered. This always makes me cagey and given that this firm doesn't seem to have a material that I can use I will probably not use them.

Because of the lack of answers I think we have a fire sale situation here. Never good and certainly not much use in guaranteeing material supplies for my business.

Should any of you wish to try it out, it may be OK, but unless I start getting some useful info from them I won't bother.

regards

Dave

PS the price is £20.45 per metre, they don't say whether that's vat exlusive or not !

D

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi all,

I have already stated my view on the West trading PEUG15118 fabric. However, Cybernck seems to have known about this fabric and has kindly sent me some pictures of a 205 re-trim using this material. This saves me buying some, trying ,not liking and losing the money . Thanks for that Cybernck.

 

here it is anyway:

 

 

 

My own preference is for the Volkswagen golf variant. Still there's no accounting for taste is there.

 

have a look see anyway.

 

regards

Dave H

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi all,

Because of the lack of information from west trading I have had to resort to trying to find some actual samples of VW Golf seats covered with the fabric (VOLK13118 red/black/grey?). No luck but I did find these in blue/black.

They look good - it was also interesting to see that Camira Fabrics (plaza fabric) also seems to a VW fabric as well.

Here's a couple of the said blue.

 

 

 

Imagine the red/black and you'll see where I'm going with this

 

interesting ne'st ce pas.

regards

Dave

[SurGie 54]

Good work

 

I really dont like the red set above at all, however the blue you just posted being in red i think would look good. As im not looking at the originals right now, but they look a bit too thin (smaller squares) compared to the original red strips

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Good work

 

I really dont like the red set above at all, however the blue you just posted being in red i think would look good. As im not looking at the originals right now, but they look a bit too thin (smaller squares) compared to the original red strips

 

Hi,

the red set is the PEUG15113 material, I don't like it either. We are not going to get exact replication of "Quartet" so a little bit thin/thicker redder etc is neither here nor there. It comes down to the best of a bad job - well not quite - but you see what I mean. The 15113 is the 206 material and has too much grey yarn in it. I now have to persuade West Trading to send me some better pictures (whole roll shots) so I can see what the red version Volks material looks like.

Good 'innit.

regards

Dave

[GLPoomobile 958]

Talking of Golf material reminded me that I walked past a newer Golf a year or so back and happened to glance through the windows and it had grey quartet style material. I didn't get a long enough look at it but at the time I thought it might be similar enough to use for this purpose.

 

I agree that it's going to come down to the best compromise you can get. I said before that I'm not interested in 100% exact reproduction if the search for perfection is going to get in the way of actual production. But having said that, I'm with SurGie in that I don't really like Cybernck's example, as the weave is too fine.

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Talking of Golf material reminded me that I walked past a newer Golf a year or so back and happened to glance through the windows and it had grey quartet style material. I didn't get a long enough look at it but at the time I thought it might be similar enough to use for this purpose.

 

I agree that it's going to come down to the best compromise you can get. I said before that I'm not interested in 100% exact reproduction if the search for perfection is going to get in the way of actual production. But having said that, I'm with SurGie in that I don't really like Cybernck's example, as the weave is too fine.

Hi,

I've seen that material (grey/black) on some recaro style golf seats. It's nice, and it's part of the the same design range. If you go on the Golf user forums though you will find them complaining that when they contact Recaro to ask if they can buy some, they enevitably get refused.

 

Just owning the car (a VW in this case) isn't considered to have any sway with Recaro. Ask VW and they say Recaro are the manufacturers, ask Recaro and they will say yes we make it, but VW own the copyright to the design so go to them !! So that sort of tells me if they can't get it, how come West Trading can and seem to be selling it rather cheaply.

 

The obvious thought is that they don't have much - I've asked this question but they won't give me an answer. Clearly , if it's an end of roll job (30 or 40 metres left - say) then the constancy of supply concept goes out of the window. We then get to the usual end of conversation argument which goes along the lines of "VW (Peugeot) order 10's of thousands of metres of this fabric, we make it (at a very nice profit), then once thats done we have a few thousand metres left that VW didn't want (rejected by Q.A ) .....", and they then sell that off to "specalist" firms (essentialy catalogue shops, i.e. end of line one off sales). My point here is that the VW manufacturer has no intention of ever making this fabric again (they trot out the usual guff about the dye tanks and the like). I want my covers to look the same - not a hotch-potch of various flavours of materials that look vaguely right as I think it makes me look bad.(and I do care)

 

The material in Cybernck's example is the PEUG15113 (the 206 variant) and is not very good (for our application anyway). I like the VW naterial, but what use if I can only do 15 or 20 sets of inserts ( it takes 1.37 metres per car for the inserts - despite what the french say )

If we could get it together and bulk buy, I feel we might have more success. The only problem that then looms is - why should we co-operate with Dave Hickman just to make money for him., and I'm very aware that one

regards

Dave

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi all,

I contacted West Trading again earlier this week to see if they could send me a jpg of a larger piece of the Volk15118 material as a piece 50x80mm isn't to good when you want to see what it really looks like. I've had to wait for a response (staff holidays) but got some pictures back from them this morning. Several problems arise though as the roll sample is different to the original site image.

This isn't down to indiscriminate use of flash - or at least I don't think it is. There are clearly 2 different colours used as the min-sample the sent me by post matches their image on the site.

I have yet to find out out how many metres of this fabric they actually have, as they don't want to say. Although they have said that they can't get any more made (end of line syndrome again).

I have to say the guy at WT (Henk) is very fond of 1 word replies and this is starting to grate with me a bit.

 

so here we have the original (50x80mm) sample

 

 

 

followed by the material (supposedly same) as it appears on the roll:

 

 

 

Is it just me?

regards

Dave

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi all,

I've finally managed to get an answer out of "Henk" - they have 10 metres of the Volkswagen material. Enough to do 6 cars (all 4 seat inserts), but as I said earlier I won't be using it. It may be fine for a one off retrim.

In the case of the black fine-rib cord for the 1.6 bolsters his current and only stock is 200 metres. Again an end of line roll, so no more once this goes. This is a slightly better situation as it's as good as the ASCI material and about half the price.

(that's one for you Tom - in case you could'nt get any from ASCI via the french forum).

regards

Dave

Edited September 16, 2011 by dch1950

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Hi guys,

I've ordered up some of the West Trading Rib cord to assess it. I know I said that WT had 10 metres of the Volkswagen insert fabric (VOLKS13118) and indeed they do, but they are taking the line that they are a wholesaler and will not sell to the public/end user. How rigidly they apply that I don't know, but if you would like to try it you may have yo be a bit creative. This does further reinforce my view that we should get stuff like this under the aegis of the forum

I continue my researches and whilst talking to a a yarn dyer (as you do ) I was asking about small batch producers in the UK (of material) and he put me onto a firm called J Bradbury in Huddersfield. I got some samples off them and I liked this one.

(Note for cRaig - a nice green material this time, for a change).It shows definite possibilities.

 

 

 

it's a smaller repeat than standard, wool mix, contract seating material. This means in effect all tests required for such fabrics are passed and to correct standards. If this firm will actually do small batch production I will send them my specification folder (details,specs,pictures etc) and see where we go.

Keep the faith

Dave

Edited October 1, 2011 by dch1950

[kingboyk 2]

Dave, how about finding out how many people are actually in the market for cloth seat replacements and then approaching some people in the rag trade to see if they'd do a custom production run? (Forgive me if this is impossible, I know nothing).

[dch1950 37 1 Cars]

Dave, how about finding out how many people are actually in the market for cloth seat replacements and then approaching some people in the rag trade to see if they'd do a custom production run? (Forgive me if this is impossible, I know nothing).

Hi,

getting any sort of response on here is very difficult indeed. I have been researching this particular topic for over 12 months now. I'm not sure what you mean by cloth seat replacements. The only cloth seat (full) is the Rallye black rib set. 1.6 GTi's have cloth bolsters (optional leather) with different insert fabrics (Quartet, the 2 tone grey with that red stripe etc)

If, as I think you mean , what insert material might be used, then this has been a long haul to try and find out. There are a number of polls on here which provide some useful stats i.e. car colour, seat insert colour etc etc. So I know that a red "quartet" style fabric is the optimal insert material. The "rag trade" - I don't think so my son, you've got your terms mixed up here. This is old ground I'm afraid. A custom run as you put it can't just be ordered up, I went through this last year with a Turkish firm called Lukstek who assured me they were an OEM seat fabric producer for Peugeot. That turned out to be a load of cobblers as Peugeot had never heard of them. I rang PUG coventry about this - didn't get very far as they didn't have anyone there who actually knew what I was on about .

The limiting factor is dyeing the yarn and as these tanks are huge they produce yarn on a cosmic scale, which in turn requires huge production runs. We are looking at 1000 metres minimum (even from chinese firms) this would mean circa $5000 FOB, then we have shipping plus excise/import duties and you can see how this mounts up. it's just not practical and I'm not an eccentric millionaire. The scope of a "group buy" on here might be 20 if you're lucky

The realistic solution is to find a good (off the shelf) replacement insert fabric, this coupled with my bolster replacements would provide a good alternative (at least I think so).

hope this clarifies things for you.

regards

Dave

[kingboyk 2]

hope this clarifies things for you.

 

Yep, it does thanks Dave.