Hollywood_North GT

No question about it, and he's workin' real hard to try and make this happen. If he can't find another suitable "donor" car, we'll see if they suggest the reskin. It's more work than swapping the seats, cause you have to take out the seats for the reskins, too. Two processes instead of one.

Thing is, I took a good look at the car last night, and quite liked it. Has all the goodies...and all the techno stuff seemed to integrate quite nicely. If it had had the red interior, it would have been utterly perfect.

iPod jack is the best audio solution EVER. I bought an iPod with 80 gigs last week, and have my entire music library synched onto it from iTunes. It is so cool to be able to carry your entire library anywhere you go on what amounts to a miniature juke box, and then just plug it into the center seat console and amplify it through the NAV/stereo unit. And it sounded great.

What can I say, I'm a technology junkie.

kevinb120

Nope, you just get the parts for side airbag cars. Even custom leather upfitters can do seat airbag leather interiors.

mail906

What do you think it would be worth? New leather taken off a new SN197 for whatever reason?

RobK

I don't really know. I've seen full sets on ebay around $500, but I don't know if they sold or not. They're out there, you just need to keep your eyes peeled.

vistablue mustang

If I were you, I don't think I could wait anymore. Suggest the reskin and tell them you will split the difference and let them keep the leather for a cloth seat upgrade like mentioned. If you want to see how easy and good a seat reskin can look check of PSH, as Brad had his seats changed. Hope you decide to take her as she needs a good home..........(just a little guilt trip )

crazyhorse

Do what you want and think is best, but, you really wanted that Bullitt. Can't you see yourself in that DHG, low bling, no-nonsense street cruiser?

If the Nav would get dropped (which I doubt anyway), you can get even nicer aftermarket nav systems that are better quality for less money.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-TabuQ9z...avf=Y&skipvs=T

The redfire GT is a fine automobile, no doubt. The Bullitt, however, will be much more unique and likely offer some performance upgrade.

vistablue mustang

I disagree, because we actually have no clue about the Bullit's specs for all we know it could be the Shelby GT(which is not bad at all) in DHG or something else but without knowing it's hard to say just wait. Then factor in the time you have to wait and the chance that he won't be able to get a Bullit for MSRP let alone 500 over invoice and you have the problem of now you waited all this time and it's out of your price range (as it very well could be as MSRP could be 4K higher with out the ADM's which we know there will be). To me it's better to get what you want now, be happy and then do a couple of mods for the extra HP and handeling upgrades that may be on the Bullit.

Hollywood_North GT

Trust me, I would like to take her home.

Dan has asked me to give him 48 hours to locate a suitable donor car, so that's what I'm doing - hopefully we'll have some info by late tomorrow. It's a bit complicated, because not only does it have to have the red interior, but it has to have the power seat/heated seat/airbag modules, too. So that narrows the field.

But if he can't find one, then I am going to suggest the reskin idea (the seats have to come out anyway), unless he suggests it first. I certainly don't mind splitting the cost on the whole thing, provided that cost is THEIR cost for the part and what THEY would pay for the third party upholsterer.

At least I'm finding out - albeit the hard way - just how rare my combination is/will be around here. And that's not altogether bad.

I'm really trying to avoid that option for a multitude of reasons:

1) I prefer the OEM look (you can always tell when it's aftermarket).
2) OEM is less of a temptation to thieves.
3) You never get the investment back on aftermarket stuff later when you go to sell the vehicle.
4) Too many installation monkeys are likely to scratch your dash during install - and even if they don't, it's a likely place for dash rattles to settle in later.
5) The car I ordered has the Mobile Ease, and after having tested it out, it all integrates very well. Still has the speed activated volume, too, if you want it.
6) I would also argue that aftermarket units are NOT better quality. The Ford OEM unit is made by Pioneer, and widely lauded, and when purchased with the car, covered under your new vehicle warranty, which is typically longer than the warranty on an aftermarket unit.

Believe me: I anaylzed this six ways from Sunday.

That's the clincher. I was quite interested in the Bullitt, then Ford dropped the ball on its introduction. So I have no way of knowing what it will look like, and I'm not prepared to wait another year only to find out I don't like it anyway. We already know it won't have much of a power boost, and with a few easy mods, one can do the same to their GT.

I would LOVE a Bullitt, if it were done right, and if they introduced it in New York. Sadly - and likely due to not wanting to siphon attention from the bloody Shelby GT - Ford probably won't show us the Bullitt till next fall. (Personally, I feel that Ford has put too many of their Mustang eggs into the Shelby basket.) In any event, one won't be able to get into a Bullitt until almost a year from now. That's too long to pin one's hopes on a car that, by every indication, will be underwhelming anyway. And at that point, we will be hearing lots of news about the 2010s, too - and then one starts thinking, "Hmmmmm..." about those. And pretty soon you're waiting forever.

As to ADMs, it's illegal in BC, and my understanding is that the only way dealers are getting away with it here is by putting a few miles on them and then inventoring them as technically "used" vehicles. I don't see them doing that with the Bullitt, and especially not my dealership. Besides, if you factory order the car, they can't do that. My dealership has been really good, too - after all of this, I don't think they would sell me a Bullitt for anything over MSRP, even if they could.

But, who knows? Circumstances may dictate that I wait for a Bullitt after all.

kevinb120

Well an 'ADM' sticker is kinda generic. If you have a set of $3000 aftermarket wheels on a Mustang on the showroom, you will put an ADM sticker on it, even though it is a dealer installed accessory. It doesn't really say 'ADM' on the sticker, they just call them that. If they are on a shelby with 'market value adjustment' or something written on it, thats different. I get leather done custom for about 600-900 cost installed, mark it up 30%-40% or so(the more expensive, the less markup %) and put it on the 'ADM' sticker as an installed accessory. I think for a car to technically be considered 'used' it needs to have been titled.

Hollywood_North GT

Well, talked to Dan. No donor cars available anywhere. So that option is exhausted.

Apparently the Ford OEM skins are idiotically expensive, so much so that we have decided to go with a custom interior skin solution; namely Katzkin. mail906's "Black Widow" package looks quite striking, so that is the package I am probably going to go for.

Dan seems happy to go this route, and pick up half the tab, which - all things considered - sounds reasonable to me.

Ironically, it may actually end up looking better than stock - the two-tone effect looks great with the Dark IUP - and at least the back seats will now actually be leather.

RobK

+1 In my area dealers are actually buying each others hot cars and sticking them in their showrooms to generate traffic. When the new M5 came out last year the local BMW dealer didn't have any, but three non-BMW dealers did have them. All were "used" with only delivery mileage on them. I just saw a red GT500 sitting in front of a local Toyota store of all places yesterday.

kevinb120

Well, if they will do custom leather, there is NOTHING wrong with it and the quality of the material is much higher then the OEM, its all top-grain. Think it out though there are hundreds of combinations and special stitching and insert styles...

Like I said, I was originally going to get a color called 'pumpkin' for mine with black stitching, and you need ICAP for the premier group anyway so I went with red. If I do hang onto this car and the leather is wearing hard after a few years, I'm going to totally change it to custom colors.

kevinb120

When the PT cruiser came out the local Lexus dealer bought a few and sold them for $10,000 over sticker. These days if you've titled one, its hard to get $10,000 for it

RobK

Of course if you are going custom you're not limited to just the seats either. Actual leather door panels are nice too...

kevinb120

They also have red leather, you can get contrasting stitching too, and possibly a more 'ruby' color to match the car. I have done a near identical color red leather setup in a Fusion with perf center inserts for well under $1000 before. Not sure how complicated the door panels are though.

1 COBRA

IMO it has a cleaner and classy look, a much better design than the red OEMs.

kevinb120

Heres a sample of classicsofttrim's leather colors

http://www.classicsofttrim.com/colors.html

You can do two tone(both all the way up or just the centers), perf, piping, colored stitching, suede inserts, whatever you want. Plus embroidered or heatset(3d) logos...They also have other stuff like carbon fiber textured leather.

Tispco

I think you will be happy with this choice. It looks great. I have installed two Katzkin leather interiors. They make a great product. The one in my Jeep has been installed for four years and still looks like new. They have tons of color, stitching, and leather chioces, so look carefully. Might as well make sure you get exactly what you want as long as you are going through the trouble to reskin the seats.

Hollywood_North GT

I wholeheartedly agree, George.

Hollywood_North GT

Yeah, there is no end of choices, is there?

This may end up being the proverbial silver lining in the dark cloud.