Hey,

I have done a lot of searching and not come up with an answer on this, but I was wondering if it is possible to retro-fit a leather handbrake to a MK7 fiesta?

I have found a few places that sell the genuine leather handbrake, but I can't quite work out if you re-cover the old one, or have to replace the whole handbrake mechanism. If you have to replace the entire mechanism, how easy is it to do? Will the handbrake need to be re-adjusted afterwards?

As you might be able to tell, I'm no mechanic, but I'm quite handy and if its something I can do myself and not pay the dealer for, I'm up for giving it a go.

Cheers.

i believe that you pull the plastic bit off and slide the new bit on

I hoped it would be that simple, but haven't found any instructions for it, or anyone thats done it yet.

Does the plastic "handle/shroud", just slide on and off then?

The plastic handle/gaiter is lightly glued on, but I found you can break the glue by removing the top of the centre console and pulling the gaiter section of the handbrake around a bit (flexes the plastic and pops the glue off) then just pulling the grip quite hard till it slides off. Took me a couple of goes to get it to come off but once I found the right way to move it around it was surprisingly easy.

I fitted this to mine:

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/26472-cheaper-mk7-leatheraluminium-handbrake/page__hl__%2Bfiesta+%2Bleather+%2Bhandbrake

The plastic handle/gaiter is lightly glued on, but I found you can break the glue by removing the top of the centre console and pulling the gaiter section of the handbrake around a bit (flexes the plastic and pops the glue off) then just pulling the grip quite hard till it slides off. Took me a couple of goes to get it to come off but once I found the right way to move it around it was surprisingly easy.

I fitted this to mine:

http://www.fordowner...ther +handbrake

Thanks, thats good to know. I didn't really want to get involved with disconnecting the handbrake cable and replacing the entire mechanism. Can't say as I would have ever trusted it on a hill again!

i'll contact some of the suppliers, see if they can confirm, you just get the handle and gaitor and just clip them on. I assume the leather parts don't need glueing on?

I had the following back from European-Parts:

this is for the whole handbrake assembly that sits on the car. for the installation, you have to remove the center console around the handbrake.

Looks like this might be a mechanic job :(