QUOTE (87lsdonth8te @ Mar 4 2008, 05:37 PM)

straight up my homeboi own an interior shop and when chad chonson bought the ostrich hide which was 48 inches by 52 or less cost about 700 and it doesnt have a lot of color options u cant tell which is what unless u holding them in your hand needless to say the faux lasts way longer than the real deal since they are truly not made to handle heat in cars and get real ugly so from experience everybody ridin faux gator, ostrich, manta ray i always look a the rating the fabric comes such as rip and tear,colorfastness,and to me the most important is rubs it should have atleast 6000 if not it wont last 1 year...............
the ostrich i have is hot rod blue ostrich im gonna drop that with blue suede and coach and done deal...hopefully soon im finished and ill post pics
x100 man.
When your home boy is eye ballin' your car, he'll never know the difference from Faux Exotic (print) to Leather Exotic. Unless you tell him! The only difference is on the backing of the material(s) - they both go through the same machine(s) to get the prints on 'em. The difference is leather, leatherette, or vinyl - leather is real cow, it's cow hide on the backing & it is thinner than a leatherette or vinyl backing. Due to that, and the fact that it's real leather, it wears out quicker than the leatherette or vinyl. Leatherette is leather faces on a vinyl backing (Allante is one we use a lot). It lasts good like vinyl does, but feels more real like the leather. It is in the middle cost-wise too. Vinyl is the longest-lasting, and most affordable.
The softer the leather, usually the more expensive & less durable. Definitely check the quality of the "rubs" on the material(s) you buy. All our product suppliers give all that info to us, so any real upholstery shop should be able to get that info to you before you buy.
Remember, as cool as fish bowlin' is - FL sun/heat ruins a nice interior much quicker than if you lived in Canada or some shit. I always recommend tint to our customers vehicles to keep the interior fresh.