Re: The Alacantara saga

[Dave Head <dhead@sundial.net>]

He wrote...
>Also, do you know of any source for the 'Alcantara" fabric?


I first started looking for alcantara fabric about 2 years ago.
Called/emailed every major upholstery fabric place I could find across the
country. No one ever heard of it.

Read in an English mag last year about an RS-2. Saw the seats were
upholstered in blue alcantara (inserts, of course). Either that mag or an EC
article I read about the same time talked about how people were going back
to quattro GMbH and having things done - including having seats
reupholstered w/alcantara. Not being rich enough to ship a 200,000 mile beat
up tq and myself back to Ingolstadt for a redo, I emailed Audi of Germany
(actually asking about alcantara and the famed 'quattro' material in the
later 4Kq cloth seats. I got a letter from a Fr. Fuch (!) about a month
later stating that their sole source was a textile company called Gertex GMbH...

I contacted Hans-Juergen Schneider at that point, since he lives in Germany.
He agreed to contact them. They directed us back to quattro GMbH. Our
esteemed foreign listmember then contacted Fr. Fuch again, and recieved this
reply:

From: "Hans-Juergen Schneider" <h.j.schneider@pop3.main-kinzig.net>
To: Dave Head <dhead@sundial.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 12:28:36 +0100
Subject: quattro GmbH
Reply-to: h.j.schneider@pop3.main-kinzig.net
Priority: normal

Hi Dave,
spoke with Fr. Fuchs from the quattro GmbH today and she is not 
interested in selling any of the fabrics directly. This looks pretty 
bad at the moment. She also told me that any deals with people in the 
US would need to go through AoA. The only chance to get the fabric I 
see at the moment is to get the exact specification from the quattro
GmbH and then contact Gertex again. My guess is that Gertex is not 
interested in selling small quantities but in large batches only. So 
if you would order something like a few hundred meters we might be 
able to get a deal with Gertex.
Let me know how I can help you any further.


I tried talking with AoA and once they heard I was attempting to order
something from Germany that 1) wasn't sold in the US, and 2)had no part
number - they weren't interested in the slightest...

Mike Hoppen had no idea for a source. Neither did Ivor. I'll see if Scott Mo
could ask Ned next time they speak. 

If anyone has the email address to the tech section of EC, I'd appreciate.
It seems Audi has no interest in those of us that want to keep their cars
original. I could reupholster the car in real suede (a dumb idea) or Ultra
suede (not auto quality = won't hold up) - but I believe that if it is
available in Germany it should be available here. 
********************************AUDI FAN***********************************
                                   EMCM(SW) Dave Head  
87 5KCStq 218K miles                1.85 or so... bar 
    qcusa #3442           Oviedo, Florida     plate: STLTHTQ
******************************************************************************