Blackmans Leather Geelong has been in Geelong since 2013. During this time we have had the pleasure on working on many fun and interesting projects. From hotrods to supercars, Ford to Holden, Ferrari to Aston Martin. There is no limit to the jobs we have completed during this time. So here is a little walk down memory lane of our all time favourite projects.
We recently had the pleasure of retrimming a gorgeous red Holden SSV and bringing some life to a rather dull interior. This was an exciting project as the customer gave us some direction on what they wanted but the rest was up to us to make this a one of kind stand out interior.
We went all out with genuine 100% Italian leather upholstery, custom insert design with contrasted stitching throughout. We personalised the front and rear seats with Holden and SSV logos, retrimmed the steering wheel in two-tone leather, and trimmed the doors inserts and armrests in red leather. To top it off we fitted the front seats with toasty warm seat heaters just in time for winter.
Here is what we did with it!
Matthew pictured with Chris from Blackmans Leather Geelong at a recent race meet.
Being in the automotive industry we at Blackmans Leather Geelong feel its important to support those in our community who are like-minded. Which is why this year we are sponsoring karting champion Matthew Domaschenz.
Matthew comes from a family of racers starting with his great grandfather racing go-karts, his pa racing speedway and his dad racing go-karts, commodore cup and superbikes. Matthew’s uncles Jason and Mark raced go-karts, commodore cup and sprint cars. Between them 7 National and 23 State titles have been won. So its safe to say that racing is in Matthew’s blood.
At the age of 7, Matthew started racing go karts. In his first full year of racing he came 3rd in the club championships. In 2017 he was lucky enough to be one of twenty chosen to represent Karting Australia and attend the Australian F1 race to be a part of the pre-race grid presentation. Matthew held Fernando Alonso’s national flag at the start finish line during the national anthem. He was even lucky enough to be interviewed by channel 10 reporter James Allen while on the grid.
Matthew now races go karts in an extremely competitive class KA4 Junior Light. He has raced 3 race meetings in this class last year and has been in the top 5 in each race. Matthew won the overall Victorian Titles and the Victorian Country Series and placed 6th in the Melbourne City Titles in 2018. In the 2018 Australasian titles he was 4th overall in the first meeting. In the South Australian cup Matthew placed 2nd overall. With this accolade of achievements it was surely a great ending to 2018, so much so that Matthew was also awarded as the Victorian Cadet 12 Karter of the Year!
In 2019 Matthew is looking forward to racing in the KA4 category. He hopes to win the Victorian Title, Victorian Cup, Victorian Country Series, Australasian Titles and South Australian Cup in 2019 and if budget allows race the Australian Championship.
Matthews career goal is to race a F1, V8 supercar, Nascar, Sprint Car or Rally Car. He is definitely a car enthusiast and has an extensive knowledge on exotic, sports and muscle cars. Whatever his dream, its sure to say this young racer has a very bright career ahead of him.
THE KING'S NEW CLOTHES
It’s one of the risks of living with a car for so long – the decline in its condition becomes invisible to the owner, because degradation happens at a gradual pace. As a result, what you still imagine to be a reasonable interior looks (to less sympathetic eyes) as though something large died a horrible death in it. Such was the state of my mighty Kingswood, which celebrates its 35th year on the planet. It’s been in our shed for 32 of them.
Ms M and I were a little outraged it had fallen into disrepair – after all, we’d retrimmed it once. Then the awful realisation came: that was probably two decades ago.
Given that it’s a family pet, and the fact we’re hanging on to it, we’ve decided to go mad and get it done in the only material which really lasts – leather.
From there, the only choice was to see Chris Takos at Blackman’s Leather in Geelong, who seems to have become the unofficial staff car trimmer for this fine publication. He did a great job with Project HG some years ago, again with Leech’s XY Falcon wagon, and now he’s lumbered with the HZ Kingswood. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.
Somewhat courageously, we’ve given young Mr Takos a free rein. Next thing we know, he’s talking about heated seats, exotic designs and lining the roof with the same gear they use in Lambos. "Lipstick on a pig," was the rather unkind comment from one of my offspring, who should know better. Luckily for her, it was out of earshot of her mother, who regards the car as a blood relative.
It’s all a bit depressing to watch. With no ceremony whatsoever, the old interior was ripped out and cast aside. Takos used one of the front seats as a sketch pad to work on a new upholstery design, shortly before consigning its cover to the dumpmaster.
Meanwhile, the battery has gone flat, the car has got covered in workshop dust and it’s all looking a bit forlorn.
Then, out of the blue, he sends us a pic of the door cards, with the message, "Whaddya think?" I’m pretty easy to please – it was Ms M he really had to worry about. Fortunately, he’s been given royal assent and now we just have to wait for assorted folk to get busy on the sewing machines.
Wish us luck…
Source: Unique Cars Magazine http://www.tradeuniquecars.com.au/staff-cars/1408/our-shed-1979-kingswood/
See our work on the Kingswood in Issue 381 of Unique Cars Magazine.
