Hide N Seat Auto Interiors

Hide N Seat Auto Interiors Hand-made automotive interiors in County Durham. Classic Ford and Recaro seat specialist. NO repair service and NO recolouring service!

Replacement and bespoke automotive leather accessories, ranging from elegant gaiter/armrest packages to complete interior retrims.

Boxster, part 2. The entire cabin was stripped out for trimming, including a lot of truly custom work. The roll hoop cov...
30/05/2026

Boxster, part 2. The entire cabin was stripped out for trimming, including a lot of truly custom work. The roll hoop covers, for example: 28 hours went into those alone. And the trim pieces that meet them had to mesh correctly... more bespoke design and modification.

A replacement dashboard was sourced as the original moulded plastic item couldn't legally or ethically be modified to accept a leather covering without possibly compromising the function of the airbag. So a Leather Pack dash was acquired and retrimmed.

The doorcards were separated into their component pieces and trimmed, even the ridiculously awkward lower pocket sections. The grey leather flows from the top section of one doorcard through the seatbelt shrouds and the roll hoops through to the other doorcard because it had to look right and it had to make visual sense. Like I said, there's A LOT of custom work in this car.

All items on the transmission tunnel, the glovebox lid and endcap, the panel beneath the steering column, the B pillar trims and the inner sill covers... all wearing leather now. This was honestly a beast of a job and a very steep learning curve but the end result is eye-catching, to say the least . 😎

Every so often, I have to step beyond my comfort zone and tackle what I call "a big job." This 2017 Porsche Boxster S ha...
29/05/2026

Every so often, I have to step beyond my comfort zone and tackle what I call "a big job." This 2017 Porsche Boxster S has certainly fallen into that category as virtually everything in the cabin is now wearing leather.

The seats themselves needed some modification as the owner wanted them to look similar to the Spyder seats so, before anything else, the shoulders had subtle "spikes" added. Then they were trimmed up using Andrew Muirhead Burnt Orange and Charcoal Grey hides and finished with a burnt orange topstitch. The centre panels are perforated as these seats have both heating and cooling functions.

This Boxster also marks the debut of Hide N Seat doing our own embroidery; that's been a learning curve and a half!

I'll start tackling the rest of the cabin in tomorrow's post.

You know it's a big job when not only are you working 12 hour days 7 days a week, you've got "volunteers" in to do the j...
17/05/2026

You know it's a big job when not only are you working 12 hour days 7 days a week, you've got "volunteers" in to do the jobs you don't want to do yourself! 🤣😤

Quite a few years ago now, I was asked to do some work inside a Mitsubishi Evo... seats, headliner, steering wheel if I ...
06/05/2026

Quite a few years ago now, I was asked to do some work inside a Mitsubishi Evo... seats, headliner, steering wheel if I remember correctly. That car went on to win some awards. Which was nice. Well, the owner is back at Hide N Seat and, this time, he's got... a van! 🤔

So we take a pair of ST Recaros, which are an awkward design, and we make 'em all pretty and eye-catching. Black leather, grey Alcantara, some colourful stitching. But we change the design so the bolster inserts are longer. And we quilt the Alcantara using Ford's "MS-RT" emblem. And when that's all done, we end up with what I think are a pretty funky pair of seats. 😎

These are absolutely on spec with the owner's wishes and they'll finish the cabin off nicely alongside the Alcantara-trimmed lower dash panels. That I've just finished. They were fun (honest)... pictures of those later.

Ah, steering wheels... how I love trimming steering wheels. 🙄 And Momo wheels, like this one from a Ferrari 360 Spider, ...
20/04/2026

Ah, steering wheels... how I love trimming steering wheels. 🙄 And Momo wheels, like this one from a Ferrari 360 Spider, are their own special hell. Momo don't so much glue the covers on, it's more a case that they bond the leather to the rim on a molecular level so stripping them is "challenging" to say the least.

This one has now been modified for the TDC ring and finished in black Nappa leather with a yellow leather ring and black Alcantara grips. Yellow stitching ties everything together and the little horn emblems have been laser-etched into the Alcantara spokes. And then, for the sake of completeness, the cover for the steering boss now wears Alcantara with yellow stitching as well!

Hard work, but it certainly looks the part now. 😎

**PSA**Hide N Seat is closed today, Tuesday 7th April. Apologies for any inconvenience. Thanks, Si.
07/04/2026

**PSA**

Hide N Seat is closed today, Tuesday 7th April. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Thanks,

Si.

The Honda NSX. Almost as legitimate a Japanese supercar as my old 300ZX 😉. Aside from an old landlord owning one though,...
06/04/2026

The Honda NSX. Almost as legitimate a Japanese supercar as my old 300ZX 😉. Aside from an old landlord owning one though, I've not had anything to do with them. Until now.

These NSX seats needed to "blend in" with the factory leather elsewhere in the cabin so, instead of a matt black Nappa, I've used Futura Lena hide and it should be a fairly close match where the finish is concerned. The centres are now Steel Grey Dinamica and everything is finished with a black topstitch for that OEM look. They are both soft and supple, yet tight as a drum at the same time. I believe the car has a bit of a road trip in its very near future so these seats will be lovely and comfortable for that. 😎

hondansx jdmculture jdm

**Public Service Announcement**Hide N Seat will be closed for the next day or two whilst we look after this little man w...
31/03/2026

**Public Service Announcement**

Hide N Seat will be closed for the next day or two whilst we look after this little man who, in addition to dealing with osteosarcoma, came down with Vestibular Syndrome on Sunday night.

Sometimes referred to as a "doggie stroke, " it's apparently similar to vertigo. The inner ear swells up and presses on the optic nerve, causing the eyes to move rapidly and constantly. Cue disorientation and nausea. So he can't walk without falling over, which would be bad enough if that was his only problem but, because cancer is ravaging the bone in his left front leg as well, a fall could cause that to fracture and that would be the final nail.

The vet has been out yesterday to treat him for the Vestibular and it's now just a waiting game for him to hopefully get back to "normal."

I'll pre-empt what some people will undoubtedly think (but hopefully keep to themselves) along the lines of "If he's so ill, why not just put him to sleep?" He gets regular vet assessments and pain relief for the cancer and, every time they see him, I ask the question around "Are we being cruel here?" The answer, so far at least and as recently as yesterday, has always been "No, because he's still happy and alert and largely mobile. He's not in distress and he still has his appetite."

So we are guided by people who know a lot more about these things than we do. When one or more of those things changes, we'll make the decision to send him on his way to be with his brother once more but, until then, he'll stay with us and we'll continue to look after him. Should a vet tell us that it's time, then it's time; until then, it ain't.

This will no doubt affect some customers, although hopefully not much, and I can only apologise for that. I'll do what I have to to keep disruption to a minimum but, honestly, this pooch is my family. So I'll thank people in advance for their patience and understanding and hope that I'm back to work pretty quickly.

🎀

Steering wheels. Who doesn't love a nice fresh-looking steering wheel?First up, we have the classic RS 4 Spoke. There's ...
24/03/2026

Steering wheels. Who doesn't love a nice fresh-looking steering wheel?

First up, we have the classic RS 4 Spoke. There's not a huge amount of write-up I can give this; black leather with black stitching. The customer did say he wanted a grained leather, so that's what he's got. Should be good for another couple of decades at least.

Then we have... in truth, I'm not sure what we have here... Cosworth wheel, perhaps? It's from a Ford, I know that much! Anyhoo, this one's had the Nappa treatment and it feels very nice indeed.

And now the arthritis in my hands is flaring. Which is nice. 😶

I always get a bit of a kick out of doing these S1 RS Turbo seats because, even when they're "in good condition" when th...
20/03/2026

I always get a bit of a kick out of doing these S1 RS Turbo seats because, even when they're "in good condition" when they arrive, they always look tired and a bit sorry for themselves. When they're finished though, it's just "1985 in a Ford dealership" all over again!

So we have NOS Shark Grey velour and NOS Monza cloth - neither of which I have any supplies of now, before you ask! - and these iconic Recaros have a new lease of life. All the metalwork has been stripped and painted and there's plenty of new parts too: new lower bolsters, new upper bolsters, new base cushions, new headrests, new roller bearings and new friction washers (the part everyone misses out).

These seats are immaculate. Absolutely gorgeous!

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Unit 25 Furnace Industrial Estate
Shildon
DL41QB

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Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
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