I'm not too proud to say you're right. So yeah... Why didn't I do this sooner? LOL

OMG this guy has skills. He literally eyeballed the color match for the dye. Two hours later and the seat looks nearly new again. It's amazing. Pics later.

 

Here are a pair of Before & After pictures. He also touched up a streak of dark stain on the back left bolster, which was nice.

I told the guy that I'm not going to let this happen again, and will be sitting on a microfiber towel from now on. He laughed and said that probably wasn't necessary. However, if I'm really concerned about blue jeans causing future damage to light colored leather, then sitting on a towel isn't the best choice. Better to use linen, like a white pillow case.

Anyway, it's going to sit in the garage for a couple of days while it cures. Which is no big deal, it sits for days at a time anyway.

 

So far this year:

Driver seat leather restoration.
Powder-coated, rebuilt calipers.
Removed and reapplied the roof wing.
Transmission mount de-mod.
New thermostat.
Coolant flush & fill.
Fender graphic project.
Heater hose connector.

Which is a lot, particularly since I've done absolutely zero to the car in 2022 and 2023.

 

That came out great!! You're going to appreciate that every time you open the door.

 

Thanks, Lego. And you're right, I'm so freaking happy about this. Wish I had figured out long ago that restoration was a real thing. I've been living with this discontent for 6 or 7 years, long before the pandemic.

The next project is to have my lower rear bumper rewrapped or painted. But that's definitely a 2025 goal. I've done enough this year. Mechanically and maintenance-wise the car is sound as a drum (until something fails LOL).

In a few weeks I'm taking the G on a 5 hour road trip north of Toronto. Should be fun.

 

A Canadian friend of mine had this really nice garage built. I'm so jealous. I think my car looks great in it.

 

So much room for activities

 

Here's Andy's steering wheel, with Redline Goods leather wrap stitched perfectly. He did a really good job on this thing. I love how the darker segments are EXACTLY the same as the Redline Goods leather & color I selected for my shift boot, my center console lid, and my parking brake boot. It's the exact same. That's so fantastic. It's going to look great in my Stone Leather interior!

Now I need to research how to install it, LOL.

 

You'll need a 20 safety torx bit, the one with the little hole in the tip. Also probably a breaker bar for the steering wheel nut. Disconnecting your battery and draining system energy reserves by holding down the brake and then leaving the car alone for a few minutes is key for the airbag. Very simple overall though.

 

Good advice. Thanks!

 

30-minute job, max. 45 if you are painfully cautious.

Everything @hexotic mentioned is spot on. I would only add to:

1) take note of the alignment marks before popping the wheel off, and

2) make sure you notice how the "horn ring" gets mounted behind the bottom tab of the wheel and reinstall in the same manner. It's very easy to miss this step which will cause airbag alignment issues and the horn may not sound.

You'll notice it when you get in there.

 

Here's another random, long term idea my friend Matt pointed out this past weekend.

In a little more than a year from now, my wife and I are planning on moving to a new house. And the likelihood is the new driveway won't have this severe hump to get up and down from at the end of my driveway. In other words, there won't be anything keeping me from installing the front Sport Lip (chin).



I never thought of that until now. So that's in my long term planning... get a front sport lip after the new house. Along with getting it painted and installed, I should have my whole front bumper and grille repainted. Man, that would look real nice, because Pearl White gets weird and inconsistent as it ages over different materials. The white on the bumper and the grille is no longer matching the rest of the car.

 

This is similar to the restoration project on my MY2000 S2000. I replaced the headlights with BNIB OEM replacements (I thought I'd never find these!). I've had a BNIB OEM front lip for a little over a year now but didn't want to install on the now almost 25 year old front bumper (original). Flash forward to earlier this summer when we took the car to a party and had a woman in a big pickup truck back into the car as it was parked. She damaged the left rear fender and broke the drivers side tail light. While getting estimates for that repair work, I asked the shop to include restoring and repainting the front bumper and had them do all of the work in one trip. I got the car back in early July and am waiting for the paint to cure before proceeding.

I mention all of this to ask if you plan to PPF the front end after you get it repainted and add the lip? I already put Llumar on the headlights on my car and plan to PPF the whole front bumper and lip in a few weeks when everything is cured and ready. My wife's MX5 was purchased new and the first thing we did after purchase was PPF the front clip plus mirror and windshield surround (basically, every surface that faces forward on the car) with the 3M vinyl PPF. She was following a landscaper's truck when something fell off and hit her front bumper. When I looked at it, there was a scuff mark that I was able to wipe off with some detail spray, a MF towel and some elbow grease, which sold me on the value of PPF on a new (or newly painted) car.

Just a suggestion!

 

Do you know where you're going to source the lip from? I feel like prices on them are going up because they're harder to find? I've thought about adding the lip to my G as well, is why I'm asking.

@dwb993 I miss my supercharged AP1 so much.

 

Unpainted replicas are going for $400 on ebay, and every now and then an OEM sport lip comes up here on the forum.