Hi all
while my 96 XJR is still laid up, I took a few hours over this week to address some niggles!
The cloth inserts in the door pockets and over the bottom of the Handbrake lever were old, mouldy and torn.
i purchased half a metre of oatmeal headlining from Martrim for around £7. and got cracking!

I disassembled the rear door cards and unpicked the stitching between the cloth and leather… because the holes from the original stitches are clear to see in the leather my plan was to simply feed the needle through these existing holes making sewing in new cloth an easy stitch.
man’s for the most part it was!
i used the old torn cloth as a template (drawn round on some card) and took plenty of reference pictures to help with my appalling memory as to what goes where 🤔
same process for the handbrake lever trim.
I took the time to clean up ever part before reassembly… using leather ultra clean then leather protect from ‘The Furniture Clinic’. I also treated the new cloth with Scotchguard to help keep it looking clean for as long as possible.

it’s a straight forward job if anyone is thinking of doing there’ theirs

ive uploaded a few pics of the process below!
Enjoy 😉

Door card off and disassembled.

1/2 Metre of AGD Oatmeal Headlining material. £7.

Old fabric unstitched leaving clear guide for new thread.

I chose a ‘back-stitch’ sewing pattern. (By hand)

Used 3M contact adhesive and pressed firmly in place.

Door card cleaned and reassembled

Old material on handbrake lever…

Again unpicked the stitches and pinned to card for a template…

New template paid on REVERSE side of new material (don’t forget to flip the template too!!!

Ready for cutting…

Copy fold from old cloth and sew them in….

This folds round the plastic…

Several folds on this piece then stitch through the old holes in the leather…

Fold it inside out to wrap around plastic trim…

All done

 

Nice write up! Looks like a tedious job. And it involves sewing. But a worthwhile result and probably a one-time job.

Checking in my car, I saw the handbrake lever fully covered with the leather boot. No fabric lower part. The manual shows two kinds of boots, and the Autolux cars got the fully leather covered boots. Possibly all of the USA spec cars. Which I am thankful for! In your case it sure needed refurb.

My car has the door pocket fabric and it isn't the most fresh, but still intact.