Bought my first ZT

[Steven211]

Originally Posted by Darcydog

My alcantara seats are the same - I did a temporary repair that has now lasted two years by :-

1) cutting the saggy bit in the centre of the “bubble”

2) then gently with fingers separated the alcantara from the backing material

3) use a felt material cut to the shape of the gap made with fingers between top layer and backing layer

4) cut strips of dressmaking “hem tape” - enough to cover the felt in 3) above - SWMBO uses this - it’s about a £1 for a large role of it - but it is only about an inch wide. Not found this stuff in large sheets.

5) glue the hem tape to the felt - I used a light spray of an aerosol impact adhesive - you don’t need much as it only to keep the hem tape in place on the felt piece whilst you insert it in the cut so it is on top of the old backing material and under the alcantara.

6) when this felt with hem tape “topping” is in place grab SWMBO’s Iron and a clean Tea Towel soaked in clean water.

7) make sure the alcantara top is nice and smooth and using the hot Iron on the wet tea towel on top of the alcantara gently work the iron from both sides of the cut into the centre. Don’t worry about overlap at the cut at this stage. The heat and the water/steam melts the hem tape and it then holds the material together and is flexible.

8) you should find the alcantara is firmly fixed to the new backing material - and I had an overlap of about a cm in the centre of the cut tapering out to the edges.

9) I then cut another strip of hem tape to match the overlap - recommend great care here as this will be visible when finished. Spend a bit of time making sure the hem tape is in place then gently place the wet tea towel on it and use the hot iron as before.

I was well pleased with the result!

You can only see the join if you really look.

I expected it to last a few months then new rips to appear - but to date it has proved to be a good long lasting repair that extends the life of an otherwise nice drivers seat that was really only fit to be scrapped.

If your seat looked as bad as mine did - give it a go - my thoughts were that I could hardly make it look any worse.

And the result is good!

Brilliant I will give that a go cheers.

[Steven211]

Originally Posted by marinabrian

Champion, I'll bring my R8 tourer down then, does he have a rectification shed?

Brian

Haha I will let him loose on mine first, he may be a bit rusty after all these years haha. He would of welded your rear floors and arches if I'm correct. And no he works at JLR (since 1998) but he has a welder in his shed that hes not used in years.

[Steven211]

Not updated this for a while. My ZT has had a mop and polish off my friend when I worked with him, it really has brought the paint to life. I have also fitted a CDTi badge and fitted Apex alloys with good Continental tyres. Looks and drives much better now.

[Arctic]

Hi Steve.
Apex look a lot better I used to have set in black sparkle, also some 11 spokes white, and Hairpins black sparkle. all look good on the MGZT and on the Rover 75

[jonc3725]

Nice save and good start. Apex or straights really suit the ZT.

[Steven211]

Originally Posted by Arctic

Hi Steve.
Apex look a lot better I used to have set in black sparkle, also some 11 spokes white, and Hairpins black sparkle. all look good on the MGZT and on the Rover 75

Hi Arctic, thank you, those apex wheels look stunning, they're my favourite out of the range of wheels. Amazing what a difference a set of wheels can make.

[Steven211]

Originally Posted by jonc3725

Nice save and good start. Apex or straights really suit the ZT.

Thank you, yeah they do look good, the old wheels were really pitted and looked horrible, these are okay for £150