Alcantara vs Suede

[jeffnhiscars]

Bought 4 yards of the alcantara and have maybe 1/2 yd left. The centers I bought 5 yds and have about 1.5 left.

[jeffnhiscars]

imagine black door cards :-)

[jeffnhiscars]

I ordered my Alcantara today. Car goes in June 12.

How fun is that :)

[jeffnhiscars]

I did go to Gulf Fabric the other day and it was quite interesting. It's a full city block warehouse with your typical "find th hidden customer door". It's pretty much trade only but they do sell retail. Small showroom with one very efficient and helpful gal taking care of customers.

I showed her the swatch chart I got from my upholstery guy and she gave me charts for both Alcantara and Ultrasuede. In case you haven't read up on these, Toray the Japanese company that invented both, makes ultrasuede in Japan and owns 70% of Alcantara who mfgs in Italy. I studied the color charts while she took care of her trade customers,which gave me the oppty to chat. I asked one guy of Alcantara was worth the extra cost and he asked how many "rubs" my othr swatches were rated for. It was 60,000. The Alcantara is rated at 200,000 according to the astm standards that apply. Worth noting this.

It just happened that an older gentleman wandered out, had a few words with the gal then parked himself on a bar stool across the counter from me. Seems he owned the place so we started chatting. First thing he said was Ultrasuede (trade name product by Toray) is NOT auto grade so won't stand up well to the sun. He also told me Alcantara has cut him off as they ar not supporting the after market at least until their new production capacity comes online in a couple of years. When I asked if that would hurt he said there were times when Alcantara sales carried him through tough times. He also said they have restricted Tesla so if you want Alcantara in that new Model 3 you'd better hurry :)

Bottom line was, he said hands down Alcantara is the way to go. Retail is $113/yd by 57" and he still has inventory on a range of colors. Since I'm thinking 3 yards will be enough th pric doesn't phase me given the nature of the job and overall cost. I've got $450 in the mtech repro, been quoted $900 labor so what's $350 instead of $18/yd fabric rated at a mere 60,000 rubs lol

The top 2 colors ive ruled out since one didn't contrast the seats enough, the other was too similar to the rest of the beige interior. The orange is too bright and th gold just didn't grab me...so,I've pretty much settled on the red. Matches my paint and the existing door accents which I can refresh with my leftover red dye.

Interesting (and useless) factoid...Alcantara makes 2471 acres of fabric/yr which is very close to a square w 2 miles/side

[Escaport]

Fortunately Gulf Fabric is local so I'll check it out and report.

Can anyone tell me how many yards the seats take minus the centers ?

I'd like to know what you find Jeff. I'm also looking to do my seats minus the centers.

[jeffnhiscars]

My turn to bump a 7yo thread..lol

Looking at ultrasuede for my bolsters (to go with the red mtech I got from Brandon)!and came across this thread. Fortunately Gulf Fabric is local so I'll check it out and report.

Can anyone tell me how many yards the seats take minus the centers ?

[Tricked 323i]

Cool to know that.

Could someone make a guess for what color I should look to match the below seats (bolster in alcantara seems?) ??

Black 9002
Kevin

[svn2002s]

It is definitely not black, I would say dark or medium dark anthracite. Charcoal?
OTOH (...Peruvian cap on...)
Diego,
Antes de botar la guita en Alcantara, yo iria a Gamarra a chequear el suede que venden ahi. Tienen unas telas de la PM.
La pregunta es, Porque no compras the 'real thing' Anda donde estan las curtiembres mayoristas por el ovalo de Santa Anita y compra una pieza completa. Pilas nomas que tienes que decirles que quieres grado automotriz. La otra vez que fui por ahi compre tres 'hides' de cuero para mis carros.
Bueno, Bonito y Barato.
HTH (...Peruvian cap off..)

Cliff Notes... Just telling him my opinion on why he should try the real suede before he over spends in fake suede. Which in my opinion was a creation of the Luxury makers to charge near leather prices for a better sued with a registered trademark and limited availability/supply. (Remember M stands for Marketing).

[diegom6]

Cool to know that.

Could someone make a guess for what color I should look to match the below seats (bolster in alcantara seems?) ??

http://www.gulffabrics.com/alccolor.htm

[nmlss2006]

I'll pitch in: alcantara's wear properties are materially superior to suede - ask anyone who has had a genuine Sport Evo steering wheel / gearshift knob. Suede does *not* last long in those applications. Alcantara OTOH is one of the most resilient materials for car interiors.

[diegom6]

Gulf Fabrics is the Authorized distributor for Alcantara although other suppliers order from them and resell it. There is 2 types backed and non backed. Backed is used for seats so it doesn't stretch non-backed is for door panels or any curved surface which will allow you to wrap it with minimal to no wrinkles.

Here's a picture of the logo on the back of the backed material I use.

Can you re-upload the pic? Couldn't see. As I'm trying to buy some Alcantara.

Thanks

[Philipangoo]

how about microsuede ?

[SFGadgetGuy]

SFGadgetGuy - thanks for the info! What does the logo look like and where can one purchase black alcantara material at a good price?

Gulf Fabrics is the Authorized distributor for Alcantara although other suppliers order from them and resell it. There is 2 types backed and non backed. Backed is used for seats so it doesn't stretch non-backed is for door panels or any curved surface which will allow you to wrap it with minimal to no wrinkles.

Here's a picture of the logo on the back of the backed material I use.

[Jean]

SFGadgetGuy - thanks for the info! What does the logo look like and where can one purchase black alcantara material at a good price?

[SFGadgetGuy]

Just make sure it's real alcantara. A lot of people try to pass off Ultrasuede as alcantara but if it doesn't have the Alcantara logo on the back of the fabric it's not real.