Where does Callaway get their leather from?

[Brangeta]

I've been looking at online stores for leather interiors and I'm not liking what I'm finding. Where does/did Callaway get their exotic colored interiors from for the Speedsters and such? I can certainly tell you, "lavendar" was not represented on any of the sites I have found :-\.

They aren't Katzkin are they? I'm not very fond of their color swatches... but they seem to be the largest supplier online.

A name or a website would be great guys if you have the info.

I'm particularly looking for Nassau blue and a blue-green teal. I found a Corvette website that makes Nassau interiors, but I don't know if I would go through them in the future or not. I'm very fond of the color though...

This set is cloth, but the color is the same:

 

[Brangeta]

I think I found out where to get your Neon Green Speedster some replacement carpet! These are some eye popping colors!
http://www.auto-interior.com/extreme.htm

 

[Peer81]

Jeroen is more into the Leather topic then I'm. So I hope he will correct me when an error is slipping into this reply

All the previous Callaway interiors where made of Connolly leather.
http://www.ukhide.co.uk/connolly.html
As you can read on the inet, Connolly had gone bankrupt a couple of years ago, if I recall correctly one of the owners or somebody else has bought all the hides to make a restart with the factory.
Connolly stand for quality beyond all the other factories, but the price is also much higher. My interior builder also has range of Connolly hides and you can see the difference because they almost have no reprint on them to correct errors in the hides. Only specific cows in feels w/ out barb-wire and they aren't allowed to fight with each other are good enough for Connolly.
The reason why it is still sold in very small numbers is because old RR and Bentleys etc also have a Connolly interior, these owners have a little more $$ to spend and want Connolly to keep it original. But as far as I know there is no Connolly for the big production any more.
The C16 has leather in it from Germany and Connolly is UK, so I'm also very curious which factory they've chosen.

To make colors is not a big problem. You can get every color you want and order them specially. So all the speedster (or almost?) have a unique color which is made one off. Also the price for a special color will rise to 1.5x or more the normal price (I don't know how much exactly). My interior-builder calculated about 5 hides will go into my c3. This is because only 60% of the hide can be used / good enough for a car. For example the leather from the legs and the neck is to thick to use (from what I remember )

The carpet is no normal carpet. The carpet used is Wilton Carpet, this is 100% wool carpet also English. Compared to normal carpet it feels much softer, black is 100% matted black and has not the shine normal black carpets have. If you manage to get some some pieces you'll feel the difference. Also these carpets can be made in different colors.
A normal carpet (without installation will set you back around 150 dollars or euros, for the same size a wool carpet will be around 500 dollars / euros. Will cutting to the good size and installation you'll have to pay around 2000 dollars/euros for a full carpet in your vette.

PS. I have a picture of a little piece of Wilton compared to normal carpet, if you want I can post it here but you can't see the difference that good on a photo.

Groeten Peter.

 

[SurfnSun]

I believe the 1" thick Wilton wool carpet was a $15k option on the Speedster. Ive never felt anything like it in my life, it is so incredibly soft.

 

[Peer81]

I believe the 1" thick Wilton wool carpet was a $15k option on the Speedster. Ive never felt anything like it in my life, it is so incredibly soft.

Of course it also came with the compleet interior in Connolly leather. And about 5 hides (cows )will go into a compleet corvette interior so for the quality the price isn't that extreem I think

Groeten Peter.

 

[Brangeta]

Thanks for the info Peer81, that was very helpful! I am also curious what leather the C16 is using.

I'm unsure what my future C8 build will be. On the one hand, I may find a very low mileage Camaro and have Callaway convert it into a C8 (and hopefully use newer, cooler parts like the seats used in the C16).

On the other hand, the owner of a black C8 I have been in contact with, still has the car and seems to be holding it for me. I don't know if he's going to wait the year or so I need to make the money for it though :ugh. If I buy this car, I would probably have the interior completely redone because I do not like tan/beige. My original plan was to have a mostly white interior with black and nassau blue and teal accents like the original C8s had.

However, I am having second thoughts. I think I would rather have seats more similar to the pictures I posted earlier and blue carpet. I don't think I want white at all anymore. I think this would look good in a black C8. I believe I would rather have the interior done first, and worry about painting the car my nassau blue mix later on.

 

[Jeroenvgfn]

Jeroen is more into the Leather topic then I'm. So I hope he will correct me when an error is slipping into this reply

OOEPPS, what have I done wrong this time

I am in the upholstery business ( just furniture ) and did my degree in fabrics -initially for clothes because my mom has a clothes boutique-
but leather was my specialty chapter in school because of the links with automotive use

 

[*89x2*]

I believe the 1" thick Wilton wool carpet was a $15k option on the Speedster. Ive never felt anything like it in my life, it is so incredibly soft.

Surf, the car you sat in at BG, had a Keith Collins (of BHMA fame) interior. The others used the Connoly Leath / Wilton Wool. There were some differences between the two - before I pass on to heaven, I would love to have a Collins set of mats :cool

Keith Collins website (which is ot working this minute,) is: http://www.artexture.com

I'll have to see if I can find a pic of the Speedster interior you sat in, for comparisons sake. In the meantime, here is the production car interior :cool

 

[*89x2*]

Folks, the C16 uses interior products from Alcantara®

Link: http://www.ultrasuede.com/products/automotive/oem/


The whole C16 story can be read here: http://www.callawayownersgroup.com/Pages/C16debut.htm

 

[Peer81]

Very nice picture's Chris.
I know big parts of the C16 interior are covered in Alcantara but there is still a large number of places with leather. Very nice to see the combo of the two of them.
Also on Sue's Speedster you can see the quality of the master by the stitches, just superb!
I still had the photo online so here are the three carpets next to each other.
First one is the original out of my 81 vette.
Second is the cheap replacement
Third is the Wilton carpet with 100% wool.
You can see (a little on the photo) the Wilton is only one color and doesn't reflect sunlight.

Groeten Peter.

 

[TurboLuigi]

These guys claim to have built the leather interiors for the initial Speedsters
http://www.carrscorner.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-642
and so do these guys http://www.advancedleatherworkshop.com/Callaway.html

Perhaps they are one and the same... or not....

If you would dare try to dye your interior, http://www.leatherique.com/ is highly recommended by Jaguar owners.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays!

-Luigi
:cool

 

[Brangeta]

Whoa... great info guys! That silver interior is amazing, my eyes popped out! :eek

 

[*89x2*]

Luigi, in the one link you listed, the name Johann Merkhofer is associated with that shop - he did the Speedster interiors and the interiors in cars like Tony's CR1 :cool

As you have suggested, they probably are, one in the same :cool

 

[*89x2*]

Folks, here is a pic (Thanks Luigi :cool ) from Bloomington Gold in 2004 w/ the ultra-plush Keith Collins mats / interior :cool

...speaking of BG 2004, this photo brings back the memories :cool What a GREAT show!

 

[Brangeta]

I just looked at every picture advancedleatherworkshop.com has on their entire site and I am just FLOORED. Those are amazing!

I think having an interior that fine is a bit out of my budget (and I'm not sure how I would insure the car if it had an interior worth more than the bluebook value... which leads me to a new topic I will be creating shortly...). I think if they work on Ferraris and especially Rolls Royces, they are way out of my league.

Right now, in all honesty, the place offering the Nassau Blue Corvette seats is looking the best to me. Corvette C5 seats are not that big of a problem to mount in a Camaro and the additional bolstering on the sides of the seat might be nice. I see no reason my C8 could not have C5 seats in it... Unless they are too tall... I will have to research...

As far as carpet goes, I don't intend on my C8 being a museum piece or a wallet killer, so I think I better stick to the type that comes premolded. Unless you guys have any idea what company can do better than this...

I'll probably be keeping this website in mind for the future even though I would kind of prefer a thicker, nicer feel to it... At least they offer non-factory stock colors for the premolded carpet.
http://www.auto-interior.com/chevy3.html#CAMARO

 

[Peer81]

Brandon,

I think you don't want to put in a carpets of all the big names. You know big names stand for the work they've done but also come with a big prices. It sure is worthwhile to ask around in your own city for some good interior builders. They maybe don't have the name but there work is still fine .
For a press molded carpet or hand made carpet the money goes into the handwork, not into the carpet you choose. For example in my vette I've altered the center console so a press molded carpet (400 euro's) doesn't fit no more. To make a carpet takes around 1200 euro's (handwork). A cheaper carpet (same as I had) will be around 150 euro's so total is 1350. But a Wilton will be 500 so total is around 1700. As you can see, for the extra 350 euro's you don't have to think very long what to choose

Furthermore. Normally we (Europeans) have to ship everything from the states for our vette's but it seems the finest interior products are from Europe so that is our advantage. So IMHO, stick to the press-mold or go all the way.

Groeten Peter.

 

[Brangeta]

Thanks for the advice Peter! I think press-molded is the way to go for me. Since the Camaro has very little carpet that is not covered by the floor mats, I think a more expensive set of nice floormats may be the way to go. Perhaps a blue press-molded carpet with black floormats. The C5 seats are still tempting me... I think I may ultimately go with them.

 

[coachtrim]

Hello, I would like to introduce myself, my name is Johann Merkhofer and I own a business named Coachtrim. A friend Emailed me a link to this Forum and wrote that it might interest me. It seems like you have a very active and helpful Forum, very nice. My shop fabricated all the Speedster interiors except the first Speedster which was done in Germany. We also fabricated several other Speedster like interiors in various Corvettes and Camaros back in the 90’s.
Connolly leather was used in many interiors but not exclusively. We also used an American leather supplier (also out of business) for some of the wilder colors. Connolly did not have many bright color choices available and they were very slow with custom colors. These days we use leather from www.edelmanleather.com and www.spinneybeck.com for our high end customs. For restorations that originally had Connolly leather interiors, there is “Connolly” available, sort of. A relative of the original Connolly brothers has set up shop to produce leather. Since he has inside info on color formulas, tanning, finishing, etc he has the ability to produce original type hides. They just cannot use the name Connolly. I do not have any info on current Callaway leather as we are not involved in the C16 project.
Merry Christmas
www.coachtrim.net

 

[TurboLuigi]

Johann,

WELCOME!!...

Thanks for the great info and we hope to hear more from you in the future.

Merry Christmas and Best Regards,

-Luigi
:cool

 

[Brangeta]

Very INTERESTING!

This information should be added to the Callaway Owners Group website! :cool