Airbag trimmed in leather & blue stitching

[ahmed24]

Thought I'd share some photos of my new leather Airbag project. Leather trimming airbag covers seems to have become a trend. Rightly so, it adds a touch of luxury in my opinion. There are quite a few Instagram sellers selling them. But I decided to make my own as I could not justify the cost of some of these.

Before I go on, some key safety issues and concerns need to be mentioned.

Trimming airbag covers is a controversial topic. Mainly because you are essentially adding an extra layer in the way that the airbag has to break-out of. Just because an airbag blows and splits the leather open, it doesn't mean it works properly. Sure, it's great that the airbag does that but, as with most things, timing is everything. Trimmers often make comments like don't worry, nothing can hold back that explosion or I've tested it myself on spare part and the leather splits up, no problem. Some will even show you video demos of a controlled airbag deployment which shows the airbag splitting. This misleads people into thinking that just because an airbag blows, it will work as designed by manufacturer.

The fact is, airbag charges are designed to coincide with the movement of a human body within a crash condition. The charge is timed so that the airbag is fully inflated at the very instant before a body comes in contact with it. Too early, and the bag vents out leaving less cushion for an impact; too late, and the body is already in its path and gets slammed with the full force of the explosion.

To illustrate the point about timing being everything, I've linked a video below to watch. It shows two scenarios of a watermelon dropping on an airbag. Firstly as it inflates on-time, and secondly when it's just seven hundredth of a second too late.
 

[kellogsj]

Looks great 👍🏻

[ahmed24]

14 hours ago, kellogsj said:

Looks great 👍🏻

Thank you. Im really pleased with how it turned out. Completely transforms the look 🙂 

[McShmoopy]

Good effort Ahmed! Looks great as always, I was actually thinking about doing a mod to the OEM IS steering wheel in order to make it heated, is that a mod you would consider doing in general? 

[ahmed24]

14 hours ago, McShmoopy said:

Good effort Ahmed! Looks great as always, I was actually thinking about doing a mod to the OEM IS steering wheel in order to make it heated, is that a mod you would consider doing in general? 

Thank you 🙂 Heated steering wheel is something you would do before wrapping the new leather over. I don't think it's something i would do at present because my steering is pretty much complete now lol. I dont see it being a hard thing to do before installing a new leather wrap over it 🙂 

[agent_dess]

Dude you are one crazy guy 😁 looking very good, I assume the air bag will deploy correctly if ever required?

[ahmed24]

On 1/12/2022 at 9:17 PM, agent_dess said:

Dude you are one crazy guy 😁 looking very good, I assume the air bag will deploy correctly if ever required?

I've taken all extra measures to make sure it will deploy as correctly as possible 🙂 like i mentioned in my original post that even if it deploys correclty, it's all about timing. If the timing is way off then it will effect it's effectiveness. But I have take measures to make sure the timing is minimally effected as possible by allowing the breaking points to snap easily 🙂 I'm making a few more for some of my IG followers including a 3IS one soon. Will post photos once they are installed 🙂 

[ahmed24]

Here are some more photos I took today and a few pics of some I made for other people. I will post photos of the other people's ones once they are installed.