I had this whole design of a mostly suede interior for my '05 350Z in red and black but I visited one of the custom shops and the guy was insistant on using leather instead because Suede aparantly fades undes the sun in just a couple of months!

any of you guys who have installed Suede on their dash, doors, rear trut-bar noticed this happening??

im really worried now cause I might have to scrap my plans of a suede interior and rethink it in leather.. Ive got every imaginable interior carbon fiber kit to go with the suede (that would look real sweet)

maybe if I use real suede like Alcantara for just the parts that are exposed directly to the sun? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

i doubt it, but the sun in dubai might pretty much melt the whole car. there are cars that come stock with suade inserts in the doors and pillars for example. if that was the case then a lot of people would complain about it. im sure there is no shortage of sick cars in dubai with suade interiors, check one of them out thats a couple of years old.

 

where did you find these carbon fiber kits? and yes, cheap suede will fade under constant exposure to the sun/heat....

 

There's suede and then there's suede.

Tell the installer you want automotive grade suede, not the cheap stuff! Much cheaper than alcantera and will hold up great!

InZomniac (has suede pices going in the Z later on in the year!)

 

Alcantara is synthetic (not real suede)

 

what exactly is real suede? if Alcantara is synthetic then how can it be considered better than the real thing?

I have seen a blue Skyline GTR with the entire dash covered in blue Suede but his dash faded after a couple of months. I dont know if he parked it in the sun or in a garage though..

there are a lot of people here with suede interiors. what about you guys?

 

Real Suede tends to stretch in some cases and will look like hell---Like ur seats

 

BTW ---I got the Katskin leather seats with the Fake suede inserts and they look great----

 

I would vote against suede too.. As my good friend has two lexus Is300's and the suede is almost coming off like hair falling out......lol

 

My whole interior head liner, pillars, seats, some pieces on the doors and seats are all suede...They've been in the car for over 8 months and no fading...

Another point...the sun will fade just about anything if left in it long enough....

 

get ultra suede, thats what i got all over my car...it feels and looks like real but will hold up longer...it been in mine for well over a year and no fading at all...and the dash is always in the sun when the sun is out.
u can see some of the dash here.

 

do you live in a hot environment like California or Texas? and is your car a daily driver? guess it all depends.

my car is driven everyday but always garage kept. it will only see the sun during driving in the morning but the summers here are 110 degrees + for months. so i dont know.

 

suede fades....hey, that rhymed! lol.

 

I live in Florida and yes it will fade if exposed directly to the sunlight.....no matter the quality. The most vulnerable place is the top of your inside door panels.

 

If you have the $$$ to buy top grade suade then it won't fade. But it will look ugly in some cases since you can touch it and swirvle it and crap..

for example: Black suade seats, slap with hand and pull back, whitish/grayish mark till you f*ck with it again.. if you understand what i'm talkin about

 

I have high grade tint installed all over my car including a clear tint on the front windshield. 55% heat reduction and 98% UV it claims.

dont think that would help much though!

but as long as I keep the car out of the sun most of the time, ie. dont drive it to work and leave it parked outside for the rest of the day, I think I should be fine and should last a year or 2.

I was thinking of installing leather on the top dash and top part of the door panels instead of Suede. the rest of the car that doesnt normaly get exposed to the sun I can install suede.

 

Alcantara=FTW

You can order it direct from Sparco and that stuff will last....

 

Alcantara is more durable than real suede and is stain resistant, so water spots, spills, etc are less likely to damage the material compared to suede.

Here's a wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcantara_%28material%29