Well, I finally got round to ripping the insides of the car to pieces, which I've been meaning to do for ages, since mine was quite frankly, disgusting to be in. The carpets were heavily stained in the rear and by the drivers feet (looks like leak damage in the rear) and rather than go down the route of new carpet, I followed the advice from another thread on dyeing the carpets.

Personally, although the end result wasn't all that bad, for the £30 that I spent on a cheap sprayer and 5L of dye, I'd have rather spent £60odd on a decent condition dark carpet instead. After spending ages with our diesel powered steam cleaner (quite literally an hour and a half of solid hot wash cleaning with traffic film remover on the carpet and mats, and another half hour rinsing with clean hot water) the stains on the rear footwell of the carpet were still visible. Oh well, lets hope the dye covers them, eh!

Well, the carpet dye DID cover the stains, but having used the entire bottle on just the carpets and mats, the interior carpet is still a little patchy at best, although inside the car it isn't noticeable. What was noticeable though, was the carpet no longer fitted as well as it did previously. (Possibly my fault, after two days draining the carpet was still wet, so I raised it up under one of the big gas bar heaters in our workshop with a forklift truck I suspect this may have caused a little shrinkage).

Now the dye I bought was from Autosmart (midnight), and to be quite honest, left the carpet pile feeling a little stiff, not a great deal better than if it had been sprayed with matt paint (my former employer used to do a lot of interior carpet treating purely with cellulose matt auto aerosols) and probably covered less well than aerosol paint would do. Trust me that using matt paint isn't as bad as it sounds. So this was another slight disappointment for me.

Whilst the results were OK and certainly not black (although I was only expecting charcoal - which to be fair is pretty much how it turned out), I was hoping for better, and given all the aggro it took, in all honesty I would say that it really wasn't worth it. Especially since I was hoping to have enough stain left to do the door cards as well, since they are somewhat grubby too. Oh well, save that for another day. There's another £25 I'll have to spend I guess.

Whilst I was ripping things out, I also got round to installing the loom for these rather nice seats that I managed to persuade Oet to part with (cheers Luca) which were apparently out of an S3 and the whole interior is a much nicer place to be altogether now. If only the door cards didn't look so crap up close. :no:

I was going to purchase his matching door cards too, but sadly being an estate, they really didn't fit. :'(

Next job will be to do something about those three horrible spotted grey plastic centre trims. I'm not sure about the done to death "carbon effect" transfer that everybody is using, so I may go down the road of colour coding, and using black magic paint with several layers of lacquer. The only downside is that I'll have to go without the trim for several weeks whilst allowing each stage to harden correctly. Well, that and it'll probably mark far too easily. Still not sure on this one. Any other alternatives anyone... :S

Then there's ripping out the knackered shocks, polyurethane bushes everywhere possible, arb bushes, drop links, trackrod ends, fit rear arb, cambelt change, waterpump, coolant change, decent speakers, yet more rough looking hoses to replace, investigate the whistling (not loud, but certainly noticeable), oh and discs pads and tyres all round within the next 5000miles to do.

Why did I buy this car again? :no:

Never mind, stuck with it now.

Apologies for the crap pics, my phone is terrible, and I'm not exactly the steadiest whilst holding a camera.

Now, does anybody know a good part number for the one missing screw in clip for the interior floormats?

Also, I need part numbers for the guide rollers (left and right) for the standard vRS front seats, as I had to do a little swaparound to fit these sits, and I don't fancy my chances selling my old seats too well with one missing (at least, once I've managed to get rid of the grubby stains!)

Part numbers, help, comments, insults, all are welcomed with open arms.

Edited 27 August, 201114 yr by demonufo

had these in mine and have to say didnt like the sliding around on them when conering!!!

look good need to buy yourself some good leather treatment that with help them look much better...

Yeah the passenger seat sure looks a little wrinkled (I guess it must have been a LHD Audi! ) but I've got a big bucket of good leather feed. Just lacking the time at the moment. :(

Sliding around when cornering isn't much of an issue for me. This thing rarely gets driven hard. It's never much fun compared to my bike, so I tend not to bother. The vRS for me, is purely a family car, and a gig 'lugger'. (Which reminds me, the wife's taken it somewhere, and it's still got my guitars and amps in the bloody boot. Oops!

looks good dude

glad you are pleased

the wrinkles are in the grain, my a6 that had full leathers had that kind of effect on the seats and they were rhd, as far as i know these were right hand drive too.

Just as you said good treatment will help.

Couldn't be more pleased. Thanks again Luca. The pics exaggerate the effect massively anyways, so I'm not too worried about what they look like. But since I'm suffering from Sciatica MASSIVELY at the moment, decent seats are a big plus.

Actually there was another big bonus. The seatbelt warning light connector doesn't fit, and subsequently the alarm doesn't annoy the living **** out of me anymore (I usually have to reverse off the driveway and NEVER fit my belt until I'm facing forward and ready to pull away. Bad practice, I know...)

I was going to change the connector, but then I realised the alarm wasn't going off... AWESOME! If only I'd realised it was that simple sooner...

Edited 27 August, 201114 yr by demonufo

you had only to ask

great though isnt it!!!

I always wanted full leather in my car, and still do but for some reason now ive seen it it doesnt look right somehow!

it does look right, did you see them in mine with the leather door cards....looked awesome?, interior looked like a different car

think its cos the door cards are light

I want leather in mine but would like them in Grey so I dont have to redo the whole lot damn you 4x4 Octy's. Oh well it could have been worse, I could have bought an L&K

Greatly looking seats there, I wanted these....

I saw those in Luca's car (pics) with his black carpet, black door cards it looked the bees balls.

Think it does not have the same effect if it is mixed with light grey / white panels / carpet.

Get those all replaced

Agree that carpet needs to be darker. probably better off just replacing it with a black one. would be less hassle. That's what i did.

I always wanted full leather in my car, and still do but for some reason now ive seen it it doesnt look right somehow!

That is purely down to the door cards. If any pop up I might go down the cut and stick route that Luca did, but I'm definitely going to at least try to make them darker.

Check out Luca's photo's on his account. That will give you a much better idea of how it can look (and much better photo's, too!)

Edited 27 August, 201114 yr by demonufo

Greatly looking seats there, I wanted these....

Sorry chief, I guess I just got the timing right. (Although financially the timing was ALL WRONG for me. )

I saw those in Luca's car (pics) with his black carpet, black door cards it looked the bees balls.

Think it does not have the same effect if it is mixed with light grey / white panels / carpet.

Get those all replaced

Agree that carpet needs to be darker. probably better off just replacing it with a black one. would be less hassle. That's what i did.

I definitely agree with you, but I'm not sure I can be bothered to rip it all out and go through that again. I just wanted to hide the grubby stains more than anything, to make it look like it's been treated better than it actually had. After all, I intend keeping this until the engine gives up the ghost, and I don't intend on letting it do that either. I don't like changing cars. :no: