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Starting in 85, all 928 seats had the little holes in the center sections of the seats' leather.
For the later cars, starting some time around 88 or 89, there were two types of leather: The "flat" standard leather with the little holes in the center sections of the seats, and the optional one that can be described as supple, gathered, draped, lose, or "Raffleder" in German.
Note that the leather itself is reallly not the difference - it's the way it has been sowed.
Cobalt's seats in the 928 and turbo both look like supple leather (Raffleder) to me. Very nice!
Note that the leather itself is reallly not the difference - it's the way it has been sowed.
Although there is no designated difference, there are differences.
My 81 Euro had glove-soft, thin leather on the seats, while the leather in my 89 is not nearly as nice as many other 928's I have seen. The car has always been garaged and kept out of the sun, but its leather is more akin to a football.
Forum time still an hour fast as of this post... ?
I have option 980 "Raffleder" also known as "Supple" leather on the factory XX8 GT seats and wanted matching sport seats to put in while I soften and preserve the original seats.
The original seats looked like this and were shrunk to the point where they were "Tight" as a drum. I started treating them in the car with Leatherlique and they improved to this level.
Now they are out of the car and in plastic bags soaking up more Leatherlique. I apply the Leatherlique heavily and put a hairdryer on low blowing inside the bags. It is working quite well...
As luck would have it, I had purchased a set of sport seats years ago that had moderate wear and had been dyed from CanCan red to black (not presentable.) So, I contacted Bob at Classic 9 Leather and arranged for all new "concourse perfect" leather with Raff. They came back beautiful and will be installed in the car this week (I will post photos).
If you have true "Raff" seats, please post a picture so we can document the variations.
Raff, supple, gathered are all the same. Many of the ‘gathered’ sections might have already shrunk tight...making it look like a standard seat without the little holes. In my experience, they seam to look better for longer. Most of the standard seats you see today look terribly shrunken...since they were tight to begin with.
So do all 928 Raff /Supple /Gathered have perforations in the pleats? I've had later 911s with "supple" and no perforations. How would a Raff sport seat be optioned? with 2 option codes Raff and Sport? Were there ever raff sport seats offered? Seems like it could be counterintuitive.. the sport seat concept throughout Porsche history is not only different shapes but typically firmer too. (firmer may not be a word) I am liking the raff sport seat mod for GT R's black GT though.
Did they offer sport seats with supple leather? I know sport seat were not available in the 911's with supple leather. To get supple leather on the 964's you needed to order full leather seating and then the Raff leather on top of that both front and rear additional costs. The 911 sport seats came only in partial leather without the option of full or raff leather. I believe Classic 9 can modify stock seats to sport and then cover them with supple leather. I have seen it done on the 911's.
Did they offer sport seats with supple leather? I know sport seat were not available in the 911's with supple leather. To get supple leather on the 964's you needed to order full leather seating and then the Raff leather on top of that both front and rear additional costs. The 911 sport seats came only in partial leather without the option of full or raff leather. I believe Classic 9 can modify stock seats to sport and then cover them with supple leather. I have seen it done on the 911's.
It wasn't possible to order sport seats with supple leather for a 928 either, from factory.
In fact, sport seats weren't compatible with supple leather and memory.
I was not worried about "original" for these seats. I wanted to save the original seats and have sport seats to match the rear seats in the black GT which were option 980.
So now I have unobtanium sport seats!
But back to my original reason for reviving this thread... Please post photos of really well preserved supple or raff seats so I can compare my new ones. Thanks!
Not black but in decent condition considering they are 25 years old and 66k miles.
Also why not try to dye the seats you have? It is a bit of work to do right but will save quite a bit of cash. Color plus makes a great product and I know of many seats changed from Burgundy to gray and other extreme changes holding up for over 10 years and thousands of miles. To do it right you need to spray them IMO and most of it is in the prep. You also need to feed the leather once a year to keep them from drying out and cracking. More often if the car sits in the sun and heat. I recommend Surflex
I did not do the dye project because the Sport Seats had some small cracks in the super thick perforated leather and the first dye job was pretty poor.
Additionally - I wanted the sport seats to reflect at least the 980 option.
I did not do the dye project because the Sport Seats had some small cracks in the super thick perforated leather and the first dye job was pretty poor.
Additionally - I wanted the sport seats to reflect at least the 980 option.
They make product to fix cracks it is a lot of work and probably will be hard to do correctly on the perforated leather. It usually works best on the bolsters. Best luck with the project.
Not sure why but I find the 928 seats to be one of the more comfortable seats Porsche used compared to the 911 seats of the time.
Cobalt, I agree that 928 seats are great. I find the sport seats to be my favorite of all. They just fit my body and I can drive comfortably for many hours.
In fact I have driven 928's many times straight through between Florida and Michigan.
I also agree that with a ton of work I could have repaired the old leather and re-dyed it. This particular car is one of one so I'm not skimping or taking shortcuts on anything.
11-02-2005, 05:29 PM
