Graham, totally agree with you, unless you're trying to do concours. Then you would want it as stock as possible (and clean and pristine). Maybe a silver?
I went into JoAnn's fabrics on a whim today. Found a PU vinyl (say pleather) that was very thin, rather inexpensive ($9 per yard) but it had a polypro back that was a little bit fluffy but quite removable though, it was 54" wide, so I could theoretically get about 6 dashes out of 1 yard. Inexpensive enough to ruin and not care. I am not sure how this stuff will work, but the grain looked good (three to choose from). I am certain I can strip it back off if I don't like it. the bonus is they had a bunch of different vinyls of varying thicknesses, but not a huge amount of colors. I originally went in to look at tan vinyls to surprise my dad with. None of them were the right color, so I'll keep looking.
Graham, let us know how it comes out.