suede vs. microfiber (opinions)

i started searching for suede to do my headliner/accenting. before i go any further, let me note that i have always been opposed to microfiber. with that said, i found some extremely nice dead stock ralph lauren sueded fabric that i am really considering using. l'm looking for some outside views on this.
 
*edit* i decided to follow my gut and went ahead and bought it. still like to hear some opinions though.

Suede has always been a favorite of mine for tastefully done interiors where it isn't used too excessively and of course +3 for the Lauren choice, but as I researched a lot of the materials for interiors and did comparisons, as well as asking those with certain interior materials their experiences, good and bad, I quickly learned that suede is very difficult to maintain in pristine condition which is when it looks at it's best. After viewing various suede-like materials microfiber was the actually most astonishingly best material you could get that was faux suede without the disadvantages of suede. I know most will end up either flaming this comment due to the difference in cost for both but when it comes to interiors that last and represent you till you replace them to the next scheme, it is awesome in it's own right. just my 2¢

the things that made me even consider the micro fiber are:
 
1) the color
2) its rl so i'm sure the quality is top notch
3) the cost of rl microfiber is not cheap, except in a case like this where i am buying a color from a previous collection. if you follow rl at all you know that once that season is over that color is done with so they clear it out. msrp for this stuff is like $100+ a yd. and i'm not gonna hate myself for taking advantage of a nice deal.
 
so heres where i stood when i decided to buy it. if it works out i got $600-700 worth of material, if it doesn't i'm only out $90. the pro of being easier to maintain is cool, but not quite cool enough to offset the lack of authenticity. this stuff is going to have to prove itself to make it in my car.

I vote microfiber.

Comes in fantastic colours, is cheaper, and feels great anyways.

Suede, like SiknLow said is hard to maintain looking good.

Guess i'm a bias balla, cause I like the suede. As far as maintenance is concerned (unless tinted) you need only treat the headliner once, but the pillars more often (because of the sun). To my knowledge you would still need to treat the pillars/headliner when using microfiber as well. Plus when ppl ask if it's suede I can say yes, it is. Ppl don't really approach me and ask if it's microfiber.:shrug:

i can dig it, but i can say its a ralph lauren headliner.

True. Does it have little horse/jocky  pattern all over it? If not, why just stop @ RL?  =)

I can vouch, Augdogg's suede inteior w/ roof is on point! SO SMOOTH AND SEXY! :biggthumpup:  (No homo!)

[QUOTE=PANCAKES!;125163]I can vouch, Augdogg's suede inteior w/ roof is on point! SO SMOOTH AND SEXY! :biggthumpup:  (No homo!)[/QUOTE]

Thx Oscar!:biggthumpup:

I've used suede, alcantara, and microfiber/microsuedes.  They all have a nice appearance and are only as good as the person installing them...remember that.

no doubt. this brings up a good point, but also kind of answers my question. i take it this is not something i should try myself. i don't have a problem paying someone to do it but i was thinking of giving it a shot. i mean, its not hard to redo right?

There is a reason that even the top furniture designers are using more and more Microfiber in place of suede.  Suede is maintenance heavy and microfiber withstands A LOT more abuse.  I think we would all PREFER suede, but by NO means would I look down on Microfiber based solely on the fact that it isn't suede.....  It will still be pimp if its done right and of course the RL is a plus.

don't misunderstand me either yousave a bit more on micro than you do suede but that's where it stops because you still need a quality upholsterer to make it snap back at you when done! If you look at it when it is done and you have to keep looking at it because you can't believe how good it looks..... 8 times out of 10 it was a great installer that made that happen!:biggthumpup:

from my expriance.. use both Suede and Micro Suede..
 
you can feel the diff with the real suede it is m uch more dence and softer and the smell is awsome!  with the Micro Suede.. it is alot cheaper but when you put the 2 side by side.. it doent even come close to the real suede and IMO and look more like velour ... the suede so far i have had no issues taign care of it.. as for the micro suede i had some issues trying to keep it clean.. 
 
As for using micro suede for head liners use not than enought Keystone glue.. the thing when heat gets to it it starts to blister.. 
 
I my self spent well over 4 grand on real leather to do my whole car  total of 8 hides.. and you waste alot of the real stuffs also becuase when you us suede its from a cow and there are some flaws.. the higher the price the less flawless.. Lucky my friend sponsored the labor and that price for the leather was his cost..

i got the rl in today. it looks pretty nice and the color is perfect. it doesn't have as much nap as suede, but its not like the cheap microfiber where you can see the fabric weave. i will probably run with it.

Novasuede is the way to go. Perfect feel and very easy to work with

Just do what I do:

If you think something would look tight, then do it.

If you like it, leave it, if you don't like it enough to do it all over again, then take it off.

Thats what happened with DOOKIE SPARKLE in crystals on my 3rd brakelight. I don't dislike it enough to take it off... definitely a memento moment.

If you want a step by step walk through on how to do your headliner shoot me a PM I can tell it to you quick on the phone (instead of a bunch of typing) though I should put together a DIY.

PS - I didn't email you those pics of my red door cause I ended up stripping the top off to demo something for somebody. I didn't forget or anything. Definitely going a different route then what I thought before.

EDIT: [b]I put diamonds on my food, because it makes my...[/b]
[img]http://www.vipstylecars.com/photopost/data/500/dookie_sparkle.JPG[/img]

damn... i was like "what dumb ass started this thread?". still got a pile of red fabric and nothing to do with it...  sometimes i set stuff on it to take pictures. that's about it.

You never did the headliner? Are you going to? I'll tell you how to do it its not hard. You only need $40 for glue.

I've seen a headliner/pillars suede wrap done... it's not that hard, but I know I can't do myself :pat: 
 
The guy that did mine, wraped everything in less than an hour... he made it look so damn easy... Just know that you will waste a lot of material... I would estimate at least 25 %...

i know this is a bit offtopic, but i kinda wanted to try my hand are rewrapping my headliner with a diamond stitched material, anyway to do it myself or would i have to buy the material? i do have pretty decent sewing equipment @ my house. i probably will try this myself one day, but just wanted to see if anyone has done it themself.

[quote=Green Grundel;243436]You never did the headliner? Are you going to? I'll tell you how to do it its not hard. You only need $40 for glue.[/quote]
 
naw... i made this post when i was working on the maxima. we all know how that one ended. still got the material (plenty of it) and i may go red/black 2 tone or stick with the cream/black but with some personal touches. :dunno:

[QUOTE=brainneeded;244041]i know this is a bit offtopic, but i kinda wanted to try my hand are rewrapping my headliner with a diamond stitched material, anyway to do it myself or would i have to buy the material? i do have pretty decent sewing equipment @ my house. i probably will try this myself one day, but just wanted to see if anyone has done it themself.[/QUOTE]

Diamond stitching is extremely hard to do right. To do it on a headliner and get it to be uniform over everything would be quite challenging. Try looking around online for "Diamond tuck" it's prestitched so it saves you a unbelievable amount of time. That you could do easily. You have to use 2x strength headliner glue (and a good amount of it) to get it to hold. Don't forget to spray both the fabric and the headliner, wait 60 seconds, and then lay it down. You get one chance. Work from one corner outward. 


[QUOTE=BLKonBLK98;244058]naw... i made this post when i was working on the maxima. we all know how that one ended. still got the material (plenty of it) and i may go red/black 2 tone or stick with the cream/black but with some personal touches. :dunno:[/QUOTE]

Well if you want any help you can always shoot me a PM. You should go red and black. Many cars come stock with black and tan but red... :biggthumpup:

[quote=BLKonBLK98;244058]naw... i made this post when i was working on the maxima. we all know how that one ended. still got the material (plenty of it) and i may go red/black 2 tone or stick with the cream/black but with some personal touches. :dunno:[/quote]

Any pics of said material?

[quote=Green Grundel;244071]You should go red and black. Many cars come stock with black and tan but red... :biggthumpup:[/quote]
lots of cars may come black/tan but i would definitely consider my interior unique as far as oem goes.
 
[IMG]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/BLACKonBLACK98/Q45/DSCF03633.jpg[/IMG]
 
it kind of depends on the direction i take or even stages. i'd like to get it lookin nice, old school, oemish first. then when/if i do paint and what have you i would probably want red.
 
just for fun:
 
[IMG]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/BLACKonBLACK98/Q45/DSCF0363-3RED.jpg[/IMG]
 
[quote=burgy;244164]Any pics of said material?[/quote]
none specifically of the material but i have used it as a backdrop for some macros.
 
[IMG]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/BLACKonBLACK98/DSCF0367.jpg[/IMG]
 
color got washed out when i uploaded it.

I had microfiber in my merkur and loved it
[URL="http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/3313/741/20780370110_large.jpg"][IMG]http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/3313/741/20780370110_medium.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[IMG]http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/BLACKonBLACK98/Q45/DSCF03633.jpg[/IMG]
 
Is that a picture of your stock interior?? If so that looks freakin awesome. The red version looks even better!

yup... stocktastic!

Well dang then I guess all you really need to do is fix that armrest ;)

I really had no idea they offered interiors like that. Lexus hasn't offered anything even close to that (in terms of color and useage) until just recently.

it's somewhat rare from what i understand  and only 90-93 iirc.
 
the same things that made the q a flop in comparison to the ls in the early 90s are what's gonna make it a classic imo. it was a pretty unconventional approach at a flaghship luxury car for the u.s. but when you get past (or in my case fall in love with) the cosmetics it really is a bad a** car. then engine, suspension, and fit of the car are very nice.

I have always liked your generation. In its stock form it's pretty unique (and kinda ugly with all respect, just the face not the rear or side profile) but a president conversion morphs it into a early 90's super bad ass sedan that when modded, in my opinion, can go toe to toe with ANY car from that era (bentley's and benz's included) regardless of mods. The early presidents consistently make me go "WOW!" when pics are posted up here.

i actually bought a 90 because it was so ugly and i thought if i bought a 94-96 i would end up not wanting to do a president conversion. it happened anyway. i don't think i'll convert the 90 but with 1g q's going for what they do i may get another one eventually.
 
iit's funny cause with everything happening in vip right now (i.e. fast and furious 5: tokyo luxury) i find myself looking at older big bodies. i'd like to scoop a 90 ls pretty soon and of course the almighty w140.

Ah the 140, if you juice it and put a chevy small block in it from the start you avoid %99 of the issues you will run into. Great car just so unreliable :(  LS, S, take the emblem off the grill and they are all the same haha I was looking through the FNF5 tokyo boop thread and between the crowns and the LS's and the S's from ~94-98 they all look quite similar.

You aren't going to convert your Q to the president?? I though you were all about it. I've been warming up to the non-president face the last 6 months or so, with your LED skills I bet you could do something serious with the headlights and mix it up a little.

i was all about it. it's pretty hard to explain without goin all homo. i just grew to really like the car as it is. i would also love to have a president though so the obvious is get 2. :dunno:
 
no leds plans for the headlights but the taillights is another story.

^ I figured that was the case. What's nice about the old platforms is no matter which one you build your budget will be roughly the same and the car two, maybe three grand so you really get the freedom to pick whatever you [i]really[/i] want.

Plus ain't nothing wrong with 2 infiniti's. If one starts giving you problems or you are running out of space you can always akira assimilate one into the other and make the uberQ.

Just buy the president headlights and some sheet metal, I bet you could get them in there in a weekend.

ha ha... 3 grand my a**. you can pick up a q for $3k (i bought mine for $900) but you're gonna be spendin a grip on maintenance if you do it right. i've spent f50 money on a g50 that pretty much looks stock + drop. it's kinda ridiculous. luckily my situation is improving and if i bought another i would have the time and space to do more repairs myself. just buying a 94-96 vs. a 90 would save me some cash in the long run too.
 
if/when i do do a pres conversion it will be complete, core support and all. no cut corners for me. that's just the kind of thing that bothers me even if it doesn't matter to anyone else.

Maintenance on a old car? I know nothing about that ;) At least your car is made by rational asian people instead of the germans.  I do all the maintenance it needs and it still has the audacity to insult me by having the 22 year old backlit digital outside temperature gauge work flawlessly when the cruise control and radio do not function at all.

[quote]if/when i do do a pres conversion it will be complete, core support and all. no cut corners for me. that's just the kind of thing that bothers me even if it doesn't matter to anyone else.[/quote]

Ya I feel ya on that. I was thinking more along the lines of if you didn't want the full conversion then doing the headlights could be a interesting hybrid. You know like "I don't want the Fabulous GS kit but i'll use the grill". I too am not down with cutting corners, which is why neither of my cars are built. They are actually de-building themselves but thats a whole other story.

The 94-96 is just so plain though. The 90 has that luxury bastard child that makes it OOZE with character. I like the side profile of the 94-96's, and the rear come to think of it, but the fronts give an acura vibe, I dunno thats just me.

Regardless I just want to see your shit get built. I feel like you and I are in a similar situation where we know what we want to do, we know how to do it,  but time/money/space/whatever is holding us back. 

Honestly your car is so clean you could just paint the body cladding black and put some HID's in and call it a day.  Well maybe some LED's too, and a license plate frame, perhaps a grill too.  As it stands it has an era-correct look to it that makes it so, so classy.  I'd rather drive your car around then either of mine in the state they are in. Do you still have those nissans? You should sell those and grab another infiniti. But I can understand keeping them for sentimental reasons.

What you really should do, is spray the inside of your windows with water, then tape a garbage bag over it, and let it sit in the sun for a few hours. That'll take the purple tint right off haha I didn't know that method worked when I pulled the purple tint in my benz. I did it with a heatgun and razorblade.  Took 5 hours.  I was so fucked up from the fumes I backed out of the garage straight into the garage door rail. *sigh*

[quote=Green Grundel;244408]Maintenance on a old car? I know nothing about that ;) At least your car is made by rational asian people instead of the germans. I do all the maintenance it needs and it still has the audacity to insult me by having the 22 year old backlit digital outside temperature gauge work flawlessly when the cruise control and radio do not function at all.[/quote]
 
rational? :smiley-rofl:
 
shoehornin' a decent sized v8 into a not so decent sized engine bay? putting tousands of dollars of coolant/vacuum hoses essentailly right [I]on[/I] the engine?
 
electrical has never been a problem in any of my nissans though. the bose radio didn't work of course, but that comes right out anyway.
 
[quote=Green Grundel;244408]Ya I feel ya on that. I was thinking more along the lines of if you didn't want the full conversion then doing the headlights could be a interesting hybrid. You know like "I don't want the Fabulous GS kit but i'll use the grill". I too am not down with cutting corners, which is why neither of my cars are built. They are actually de-building themselves but thats a whole other story.[/quote]
 
naw. i want to do a full pres, just not to this car.
 
[quote=Green Grundel;244408]The 94-96 is just so plain though. [B]The 90 has that luxury bastard child that makes it OOZE with character.[/B] I like the side profile of the 94-96's, and the rear come to think of it, but the fronts give an acura vibe, I dunno thats just me.[/quote]
 
truth!
 
[quote=Green Grundel;244408]Regardless I just want to see your shit get built. I feel like you and I are in a similar situation where we know what we want to do, we know how to do it, but time/money/space/whatever is holding us back.[/quote]
 
word. it's not getting slept on, i'm constantly adding stuff... it's just not stuff you can see so i don't bother mentioning it. all my fun is behind the wheels.
 
[quote=Green Grundel;244408]Honestly your car is so clean you could just paint the body cladding black and put some HID's in and call it a day. Well maybe some LED's too, and a license plate frame, perhaps a grill too. As it stands it has an era-correct look to it that makes it so, so classy. I'd rather drive your car around then either of mine in the state they are in.[/quote]
 
thanks. that's a fair rundown of how i'll probably go with the exterior, but that's last on my list. i'm more concerned about suspension, brakes, wheels, interior, audio, etc. even though all that stuff has been touched on it's far from done.
 
[quote=Green Grundel;244408]Do you still have those nissans? You should sell those and grab another infiniti. But I can understand keeping them for sentimental reasons.[/quote]
 
nope. max got flooded. rip.
 
[quote=Green Grundel;244408]What you really should do, is spray the inside of your windows with water, then tape a garbage bag over it, and let it sit in the sun for a few hours. That'll take the purple tint right off haha I didn't know that method worked when I pulled the purple tint in my benz. I did it with a heatgun and razorblade. Took 5 hours. I was so fucked up from the fumes I backed out of the garage straight into the garage door rail. *sigh*[/quote]
 
lol. i did some research on removing tint and decided i'll just pay someone. i gotta see what i can do to the outer glass first though. this car sat for a while with the previous owner and there's some etching. i want to glasshouse it but i can't do that if i can't get the stains off.

What?? Pay people to pull tint?? It's called a heatgun! My tint was put on in [i][b]1993[/b][/i] and I got it glasshouse with a heatgun and a razorblade. Do you have pics of the stains? There's a trick or 2 to removing that stuff.

yeah man... i'm too big and texas is too hot for me to be playin with window tint. i'm a diy'er in general but some things i'd just rather pay for.
 
i dunno if i could get the stains to show up in pics. i gave them a go this morning after posting and i'm pretty sure i need new glass. vingar didn't work and fine wetsanding didn't work. pretty sure it's etched.
 
1990 tint btw... and it's started deteriorating so i doubt it will come of clean (i.e. big pieces).

Ah fair enough. Plus I bet the tint shops will be able to do SOMETHING about the windows. New glass you could get at a you-pull-it junkyard with a little work. My tint came off in tiny tint strips I will never do that shit again.

You could also pull it and retint. Some of the green metallic lumar LM035 (I think is what its called) they use on the S550's. That shit looks so dope on black cars. On a side note it's so strange that benz also offers a purple tint on the S550. Why would you want prepurpled tint? Either that or its some sort of new record for shit going bad on a benz.

The S550 doesn't come with purple tint, its the actual glass.  You can find that on all high end luxury cars ranging from Bentley to RR.  Even in the rain you can see clearly.  It's great at night too

except for the fact that its PURPLE. It's grimace windows.

Its just the front and rear windshields.  I personally think that looks so sick.  A few VIP cars in Japan have tried to emulate the look but it just didn't come out right.

[img]http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/file.php?2,file=5700,filename=grimacedranksip.jpg[/img]