Car interior repairs

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Wed 9 Jul 2008 13:28
Car interior repairs - BazzaBear {P}
I have a friend who is having a company round in the next day or two to look at two small repairs on her car interior. Both caused by an inattentive friend with a cigarette, one on the seat, one on the roof lining.

She would like to know a reasonable ball-park figure for repairing such things, so she has an idea whether she's being ripped off or not. Can anyone help?

Can these companies do spot repairs on this type of thing? Seats are fabric by the way.
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Wed 9 Jul 2008 14:15
Car interior repairs - deepwith
Several years ago I had a repair done on a front seat. Although it was a small, circular burn hole in the fabric the repairer removed the section of the seat cover and replaced it. It matched beautifully and the repairer explained that when we asked for the quote he asked for the year, model and colour of the upholstery - he buys fabric from written off cars so is able to match most right down to the wear and tear! Most cars are comparatively easy apart from Renault, who tend to bond the fabric to the seat - more difficult but not impossible.
It cost £29.00, paid by the teenager who had decided to check what would happen if you put the hot cigar lighter on the seat .....
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Wed 9 Jul 2008 18:53
Car interior repairs - Roger Jones
You'd be surprised what can be repaired at reasonable cost. I doubt that there are many rip-off merchants in the coachtrimming business, but the easiest way to check is to get more than one estimate. These are crafts people, who will want to give you a good result; they say things like "No, I wouldn't do a cosmetic job on that because you will not be happy with the result" -- their motivation being a good result rather than inflating their charge time. They shouldn't be charging much more than independent mechanics' rates, if that -- £50+ an hour?

I've had several jobs done by Barton & Son in Luton. Mr Barton was able to warn me that replacement piping on an armrest would be 1mm thicker than the original and therefore noticeable but probably acceptable -- I said go ahead and he was proved dead right.

Check out coachtrimmers in Yellow Pages and Google. Where are you?
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