L-Type vs P-Type

Seamus,

Yes, I've seen a Leather Terra Cotta L-Type interior before in a junkyard, so they do exist. As mentioned, the Leather tends to lean towards brown as it starts to age & darken. It's definitely not Maroon or Burgandy. However, I do feel that Maroon is what replaced TC in the 84 model year, since Black & Blue was retained. And the North America interiors only came in 4 colors during it's 5 year run (Black, Terra Cotta, Blue, Maroon).

I agree, the best thing that he can do now, is to find a spare set of seats that he can have made up. AND.... If possible on his current seats, find a small sample of leather that has not been darkened over time, this way the correct & original shade of the TC leather can be recreated w/ dye.

This is what Jim King did about 3 years ago when a bunch of us w/ the 84 - 86 Maroon interiors did our leather rim steering wheel recovers @ American Stitches in Texas. Jim had to find a small sample of Maroon leather that had not been darkened (our Maroon Leather's are NOTORIOUS for turning dark over time) and sent them a sample.

TC leather steering wheels. Nope.... ALL North America MKII steering wheels had the leather wrap on them, as evidence in Doug's picture above. Most of the time, the leather is in a advanced stage of rot, or as in Supraa_luva's case, the leather & the foam padding has been completely removed. I've also seen about 4 TC steering wheels that still had the original leather cover on them, ONE OF THEM was still in a 9 out of 10 condition!!!! No wear or rot on it. I pulled it off & sold it to someone in the midwest about 6 years ago (should have kept that wheel). Anywho, I currently have a TC steering wheel that I need to get redone, but the leather is in a advanced state of rot, so one of these days I'll see if I can head up another GP for leather cover refinishes @ American Stitches (we're probably about due for one now).

Leather cover replacement. This is where things get a bit technical.

American Stitches WILL try & go the extra mile to do a correct & proper leather skin replacement on our steering wheels. This includes trying to recreate the original stitching pattern, the seam locations on the leather itself (will explain that in more detail in a minute) AND, underneath the leather wrap, they will replace the foam padding that is inbetween the leather & the wheel rim itself (yep, why do you think the leather is a bit on the squishy side when you grab it). On our original steering wheel GP, we goofed on the thickness of the padding needed, thus when you grab the current set of redone wheels, the thickness of the leather seems a little smaller than the original ones. When we do the next set of wheels, we will have to ask for thicker padding underneath.

Seam locations. This is where it gets even more interesting. When we did the Maroon steering wheels (I had 1 Maroon wheel & 1 Black wheel done), we of course used the 84 - 86 steering wheels & the original leather stitching pattern was copied & digitized for future reference. No other MKII steering wheel was used, this includes the 82 - 83 wheels. On the latter 84 - 86 wheels, you will notice on the wheel rim TWO seam locations that are in line w/ both wheel spokes that are at the 5:00 & 7:00 positions. BOTH of those seam locations were recreated on our redone wheels. On the 82 - 83 wheels, those seam locations are NOT in the same place underneath the spokes, they are located on the sides at the 9:00 & 3:00 positions. So already this is a bit of a problem.

At this point, I need to do 2 things. 1. I need to send to AS, both a spare Black 82 - 83 wheel that I have, and a spare TC wheel that I have. Both need to be recovered & 1 of them can be used as the stitching/seam location template that they can copy & digitize for the 82 - 83 wheel pattern. 2. I have a ratty looking pleather console lid that looks horrendous on the top, but underneath, where it wrapped into the metal part of the console lid, the pleather & the original shade of Terra Cotta is still in brand condition. I'm going to have them use that as a color sample & hopefully they will get some leather made up & dye'd.

So yeah, it can be done, but there are a few minor technicalities that I need to deal with first.

One other thing that I forgot to mention. American Stitches will ALSO replace the leather on our 5-speed shift knobs. Maroon & Black can easily be redone at the moment. Blue & Terra Cotta, they will need color samples first.

If you want, I can bring 1 or both of my steering wheels w/ me to the Baxters meet & you can check out their handywork. I had a Maroon & a Black wheel done. LMK!!!!

I also need to find the AS website. Will have to do this later tonight.

Thanks Chris. A couple things.

"And the North America interiors only came in 4 colors during it's 5 year run (Black, Terra Cotta, Blue, Maroon). "

Not quite true, your forgetting the grey interiors on the 84 to 86s. Yes these are a replacment for the old black interiors (and they are mostly black), but the leather is a completely different color so it counts as the 5th color the interiors were available in in my book.

Since the faded terra cotta leather is so much darker, would maroon leather really look all that out of place as a replacement? I'd think it would be fine myself but I haven't seen the car nor a leather terra cota interior.

About all wheels being leather bound, don't know about that one Chris. Both the 82 and 83 TC cloth supras sitting at the local wrecker have no leather skins and look like they never had any. The 83 has 160,000kms on it and is in excellent shape. To give you an idea, there are no tears on the left bolster on the driver seat. Thats 1 of 2 DS supra seats I've ever seen in a wrecker that weren't torn (Jamie has the other one). God I wish someone would buy these seats, at least their out of the rain. I'll ask SupraZ if his 83 came with a leather wheel.

Nope...

Even for the US cars in 84 - 86, it's Black, Maroon & Blue. The Black/Gray interiors for those model years is what Toyota calls Black according to the 84 - 85 US Sales Brochures. A Gray interior color is not mentioned anywhere, and on both the 84 + 85 brochures, the interior color is listed next to all of the available exterior colors. Yeah I know, it's weird. From what I heard, Toyota started to get weird & superstitious at times, or it's another goofy marketing thing. I was hearing things like the Japanese would NOT sit in a all black interior (it's considered bad luck), thus there are some light colors in places. Or the color description would be something totally different to what it actually is. 1 example is in the Teal 92 MKIII's w/ the Leather interior. It looks like it's a all Black interior, but Toyota Marketing calls it Shadow Gray... Figure that one out.

I'll have my US Sales Brochure collection w/ me @ the Baxters meet, you're welcome to look at all of it.

Steering wheels. Am just about 99% positive that ALL of the North America 82 - 83 steering wheels have the leather covers. This is what seperates the Supra steering wheels from the Celica steering wheels, the Supra's were unique, because of the leather covering. The plastic on the wheel rim holds up pretty well & hardly every deteriorates, so that might be the reason why it looks new. I'll bring my TC steering wheel with me to the Baxters meet & will see if I can straighten all of this out. There is a chunk of leather missing in 1 spot & the plastic wheel material also looks pretty new. I pulled back some of the leather in places to see if the original color was still there, and it is, but I've decided to use the remnants of a console lid, that has a larger color sample on it.

Yep, to me if you stick in Maroon seats in a TC interior, it will look strange. The seats will be MUCH darker looking & the difference will be obvious. The TC interiors tend to go towards a orange or a rust like color, while Maroon tends to be a darker looking burgandy or purple.

Interesting debate this is becoming..