Alcantara is a unique material made from a mixture of polyester, cotton and polyurethane. Externally, the texture of the fabric is practically indistinguishable from natural suede, but it is significantly superior to the capricious and expensive material in terms of performance properties, wear resistance and quality.
Alcantara has a solid appearance, which is why brands such as Audi, Porsche, Mercedes and others began to widely use this type of fabric to decorate their own car interiors.
Many car enthusiasts around the world, having decided to update the interior of their car without extra costs, choose this particular type of textile. The interior, which is lined with Alcantara, gives the car a luxurious look, and gives its owner solidity and at the same time does not greatly affect the budget of the car owner.
Advantages of the material
Let's look at the most undeniable advantages of fabric for car interior trim:
- Durable, wear-resistant material . It is difficult to cut or scratch with sharp objects. It does not become shiny and does not wear out over time. In addition, Alcantara covers are heat-resistant and are not damaged when exposed to sparks or ash. Predominantly resistant to dust, water and machine oils, thanks to its dense texture that repels liquids. As a result, the trim lasts for many years, maintaining the presentability of the car interior.
- Excellent thermoregulatory properties . The Alcantara interior lining is capable of maintaining the same temperature at any time of the year, which provides the driver and passengers with maximum comfort.
- The upholstery, made with a combination of eco-leather and Alcantara, can give your car a “luxury” look . Such covers always look great, they are pleasant to touch - matte, velvety fabric, shimmering with bright shades, creating a unique design. The car interior, “dressed” in Alcantara, has an amazing and very stylish look.
- Easy to care for . Using a damp cloth and standard cleaning products is sufficient. But it is best to remove stains “fresh”.
- Saving money . Purchasing Alcantara car seat covers is much cheaper than reupholstering the car interior or purchasing similar products made from natural materials.
Alcantara or eco-leather – which is better, let’s find out
It's nice to see, and even better to sit in, a car that's covered in leather.
You immediately feel status, self-esteem grows and the feeling that life is a success. But genuine leather is an expensive, albeit prestigious pleasure. Therefore, many motorists choose more affordable substitutes.
Today there are enough leather substitutes, fortunately chemists don’t get paid for their work in vain. But most of all, car owners hear such names as Alcantara and eco-leather.
About Alcantara and eco-leather
Externally, Alcantara resembles suede, and it also feels similar to it. The material has been produced (over 50 years) from three derivatives:
- cotton;
- polyester;
- polyurethane.
Prestigious car brands such as Mercedes or Lexus have seat upholstery made of this material.
Eco-leather is a relatively new material that is gaining popularity not only among car enthusiasts, but also shoemakers and fashion designers.
Fabric base and polyurethane film are the components of the material. High-quality polyurethane is non-toxic and does not harm the human body. Eco-leather covers look prestigious and status-worthy. Externally, eco-leather is practically no different from natural leather, but it costs several times less.
The process of reupholstering covers
First of all, you need to remove the car seats.
It is convenient to place on the cover the upholstery from fragments combining combinations of Alcantara and leather inserts. It is important to sign each part of the cover, indicate the material from which the cutting will be made, a marker will do, and make notes on the standard cover. Sewing and reupholstering of Alcantara and eco-leather covers can be viewed in this video! Enjoy your viewing!
Next, you need to remove the standard cover from the car seat and release the metal clips on the back of the seat. Tear the removed seat cover into separate parts and transfer them to the new material.
A piece of the standard cover is applied to the new material and pressed with weights. After which, use a gel pen or a thin marker to trace the outline. To combine the flaps, the stitch lines are marked around the perimeter with short notches.
Alcantara can be easily cut with large tailor's scissors. In this way, the parts of the cover are cut out according to the template. This fabric has a short and thick pile, which makes it feel like suede.
The fibers of this material are directed in one direction, which must be taken into account when cutting. If each piece has a different direction, then the product will be fragmentarily different in tone, as well as shade of the part. The upholstery of the chairs should be reinforced with foam rubber on a fabric base with a thickness of at least 5 mm. The parts of the covers are glued to the foam rubber using glue, but from the foam rubber side, not the fabric side.
Example of “Autopilot” car covers made of Alcantara
You cannot apply foam rubber intended for upholstering the seat with a brush, as this can damage the part. This way the glue will penetrate deep into the pores and when squeezed, the internal structure of the foam will stick together. As a result, the foam will not return to its original position.
For reupholstering, glue in the form of a spray can is suitable. Also, the German Mah spray adhesive performs well in the process of gluing fabric parts. This type is used in the automotive industry and perfectly retains its properties at gluing temperatures up to 160 degrees.
The individual parts of the cover, glued to the foam rubber, are sewn together. When stitching, the marks on the edges of the parts are carefully aligned, after which the parts of the cover are sewn together.
Then you should glue the seam flaps of the covers, spread apart, from the wrong side. Near the lapels, strips of foam rubber are cut to make it possible to clean the leather lapels and Alcantara for gluing.
Next, the folds of the fabric and leather inserts are pulled apart and pressed against the foam. An important point in upholstering a car interior is beating off the seams on the foam rubber.
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Using a regular hammer, the seams are flattened and the seam flaps, which are spread apart, are glued. Lapels are sewn using finishing double stitching. The free edges are not cut off behind the stitching thread, this will not be noticeable.
The edges are trimmed along the edge of the part. The resulting cover is turned right side out and straightened.
It’s not easy to put a hand-made cover on a car seat. You should start from the back of the seats. The straps are threaded through and pulled to the back of the seat. When the car reupholstery is finished, all that remains is to clean the covers; it is especially important to pay attention to this when the products are made in light colors.
The purpose of such cleaning is to remove abrasions, glue residues and fingerprints.
What is Alcantara?
So, this material is indeed very reminiscent of suede in its tactile sensations. It is very soft, pleasant to the touch and velvety.
At the same time, Alcantara is a very wear-resistant material, extremely durable, and it is very resistant to external influences.
And although it is called artificial suede, Alcantara is similar to suede only in appearance, but in terms of manufacturing technology it is completely different.
Car covers made from this material have maximum advantages. Examples of interior design can be seen here.
Alcantara is made from synthetics and contains polyurethane and polyester fibers.
This is recycled microfiber, which has gained enormous popularity due to its consumer qualities, among which in the first place is what is popularly called: “no demolition.”
It is impregnated with special adhesive compounds, stained, and, if necessary, perforated, and then it is treated with abrasive, which gives a simply wonderful velvety quality, which is provided only by natural suede, and nothing else.
But, in addition to softness and wear resistance, it has a number of unique advantages.
Advantages and disadvantages of Alcantara:
- excellent elasticity and softness;
- very long service life; hypoallergenic;
- Alcantara perfectly allows air to pass through and repels water;
- not subject to fading in the sun;
- this material melts but does not burn;
- has excellent anti-slip effect;
- no deformation of Alcantara under mechanical stress and temperature changes.
This material has many advantages, but the only disadvantage is that Alcantara is expensive. But...do you want good coverage for the inside of your cars? Don't save money!
It’s just that this material outperforms many upholstery options inside cars, and its main rival in the fight for consumer preferences is eco-leather.
Reviews
Today, there are a considerable number of reviews regarding the upholstery of car interiors with Alcantara. They will certainly be able to help you in choosing this material for the interior lining of your car.
Let's look at some of them.
In winter it is very cold in my car; in summer there is no escape from the heat. The solution to this was Alcantara seat covers. Thanks to them, comfortable conditions have been created for the driver and passengers in the interior of my car.
Michael
Very satisfied. Alcantara upholstery does not wear out over time, and the products are resistant to dust and machine oil. The material used did not deteriorate when exposed to sparks or ash. The interior of my car has maintained a presentable appearance for many years.
Nikolai
If you are tired of the usual interior of your car, but changing the trim is an expensive pleasure, then you have a budget option at your disposal. These are Alcantara covers that will radically transform your interior.
Egor
Alcantara covers: reviews from car owners
That’s why car owners note that they use these types of covers for a very long time, and nothing happens to them during this time.
The first thing they note is that Alcantara is surprisingly pleasant to the touch. No other material has such qualities. They also write that in winter these car covers do not get cold when getting into a cold car, as often happens with leather counterparts. And in summer, Alcantara does not stick and removes heat perfectly.
It is also noted that this material has excellent anti-slip properties, and when cornering in a car with these covers, everything will be great.
There are many other reviews about Alcantara, but almost the only wish is the same everywhere: “Well, come up with something to reduce the price of this super material!”
The answer to this is also the same. Don't be tempted by free cheese, it leads to a mousetrap! It's best to order covers here.
Eco-leather Arigon or Alcantara, which is better?
The new materials eco-leather and Alcantara cannot be compared with the first prototypes of leather substitutes. For example, leatherette was made from polyvinyl chloride with an artificial base. And modern eco-leather and Alcantara are materials of half natural origin.
Eco-leather is produced in various versions, but our consumers are most familiar with the Arigon brand. The material is popular and in demand for car seat covers or upholstery and for tuning studios (finishing any parts in a car showroom).
The latter is generally popular to improve the basic properties of a car. Arigon is made only by hand, so the quality of the material is at the highest level. In addition, Arigon has a variety of colors, which makes it possible to choose the ideal option for your car.
Products made from argon are breathable, which significantly increases its performance properties. Arigon is a type of eco-leather that comes in different designs. But if a car owner wants to get a unique and exclusive interior, then the Arigon brand is the best solution.
Advantages and disadvantages of Alcantara
Alcantara is a fairly durable material that is wear-resistant in use and mechanical stress, such as cutting objects or heat from a cigarette. Alcantara repels dust and dirt.
Remarkable ventilation performance allows the material to breathe, and good thermoregulation does not accumulate either heat or cold. The anti-slip effect is especially noticeable during sharp turns.
According to experts, the material has no particular disadvantages, but there are a couple of comments that it is advisable to take into account when choosing Alcantara as seat upholstery:
- Suede fabric requires regular care. Therefore, weekly cleaning of the interior and covers is mandatory.
- Suede is not always the preferred upholstery option for car enthusiasts.
- The cost of Alcantara is much higher than eco-leather, which is not an advantage in choosing the material.
Advantages and disadvantages of arigon
Arigon is eco-leather produced by the brand of the same name. Users who have chosen Arigon as seat upholstery note the following advantages of the material:
- The ventilation rates of eco-leather are not too high, so in the hot season the seats quickly heat up, and in winter they remain cold for a long time.
- The thermal conductivity of ecological leather is comparable to natural leather, so it is pleasant to the touch.
- The material levels itself. This is important as there may be cases where it gets crushed in aggressive mode.
- Eco-leather is “indifferent” to temperature fluctuations, so it does not crack and has a long service life.
- Eco-leather is easy to care for. It is enough to simply wipe it with a sponge. Even a difficult stain is not a problem. The material can be dry cleaned.
- Eco-leather covers do not come apart at the seams and do not lose their shape throughout their entire service life.
- Only a good specialist will be able to see eco-leather, which is difficult to distinguish from natural leather, which gives prestige and status to the car.
- Wide application makes the material in demand for many sectors of light industry.
- The material is hypoallergenic and does not cause negative reactions in humans upon contact.
The disadvantages of the material, such as seat upholstery, are the mandatory impeccability of the size of the covers relative to the seats. If there is insufficient tension or vice versa, the covers will begin to wrinkle and wrinkle or crack.
To make the right choice, you need to know exactly the dimensions of the seats and select the covers individually, excluding averages.
