rawky

Hi Everyone,

The seats on my 1991 S4 have been on my nerves since I got it. They are cracked and one panel closest to the driver's door on the driver's seat has a hole in it. There is a UK wide known firm that happens to be only 20 minutes from me, which specialise in leather restorations!
I got a quote for them to do both seats for £500, but when I visited their website, http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Lea...ourant_Kit.htm, I realised the do-it-yourself kits are only c£50!
So my predicament, do I just have them do it all? Or do I use the kit on the parts I can and have them repair the one busted panel?
Experiences and Opinions Needed!

Rawky

Marine Blue

Do you have patience and skills to perform the work yourself? If you mess it up, you can always pay them to do the work although they may charge more if you really screw up the tear repair.

jpNcos

How much is your time worth?
If you are going to have them do the repair. I would let them do all the work. Once you have a good surface after the service, it is much easier to maintain them yourself.

G Man

You could probably buy NEW leather upholstry from one of the craftsmen on this site for not much more than what the company is charging for them to do the restoration.

Brett928S2

Hi

I had the drivers ripped bolster replaced by a local firm in Bournemouth and it cost £70 and its a "fair match" but not perfect....

I have also used those kits on my blue steering wheel.... it was a LOT of work and reasonably successful but I would never try it on a pair of seats....

That needs an expert really and the seats will have to come out and be stripped I would think to do it properly, so £500 seems a reasonable price to me for what its worth....

All th best Brett

Scotts87928

Rawky, I have replaced two sets of leather covers. One set on an '81 with the older style seats and a set on my '87 with sports seats. I have also reconditioned my linen front seats on my '89 Leatherique (no affiliation)

The '89 were tired looking but didn't have any holes. They came out really nice but it took about 12 hours during a three day weekend to complete the process. I did remove the seats, and took them apart by removing the backs from the bottoms. While not completely necessary to take the seats apart, I'm glad took the extra time. I cleaned them really well, then used the chemical cleaner (acetone type of fluid) and then sprayed on the dye with the same color. I have a attached pics of the driver and passenger seats and as you can see they look great! The driver's is on the left and is number 22.

The redo is a nice comprimise but the new leather on the other two cars is better than even the new cars I have sat in. The seats on these cars while heavy are second to none!

IMO, if you are going to keep the car, have the seats recovered. I bought GAAH on the first set and Paul's on the second. Both sets are of impeccable quality.

Leather restore was less than $100. Reupholster was $1,200 plus shipping and a lot of work replacing them. Or about $300 to have a shop install them.

Marine Blue

Very nice work Scott, the linen looks excellent! Looks like your back seats need a similar treatment.

I would also vote a complete recover if you intend to keep the car.

lrpman

Nice job Scott. Follow the directions and you get the results, SIMPLE.
You guys should have GUESSED by now who I am.
LRPMAN, Leatherique Restoration Products MAN, wife and I own Leatherique and you have helped me a LOT with my 928's so I guess you should know that I do TAKE CARE of fellow Porsche owners. JUST ASK and you shall receive.
We are saving the seats in Krysti's 928 using a combination of replacing PANELS then redying the balance to match.
Here I go getting banned but oh well.
George & Krysti Pavlisko
Leatherique
for 43 years and still going.

Rob Edwards

I've been marinating a very crispy shift boot from the GTS in a plastic bag with Rejuvenator oil for a month now, rubbing in a little more on a weekly basis. It has really softened up the shift boot a lot. Great product, George!

jpitman2

My 83 is an all leather interior, in WHITE - seats, dash, roof, the wholething, excepting only carpet and door bottoms. WHen I got it the seats were about dead - dry and badly cracked. Took a while to find white leather, but in the end I found some and had them recovered. The rest of the leather was showing its age, with the rear quarter front edges at the B pillar the worst - seat belt tang being allowed to reel back and hit it?
I found a local guy here who does refurbs (family has been in the trade since 1940s), and just left the car with him to do all but the seats. You would not believe the improvement - even areas scuffed deeply into are now pretty much invisible unless you know where to look. This cost me A$4k, but that includes remove and refit the rear quarter panels to do them on the bench (fit new speakers under them), the roof, sun visors, dash, hatch trims, console, pod, recovering the casette tray, the lot.
Anyway, if your leather is showing its age, but is not actually damaged, guys this good can really lift it back to excellent condition. When I asked how he did it, he just smiled and said 'thats what you are paying me for'. He makes a good living mostly out of restoring ladies leather accessories and shoes, with cars as a bit of a sideline. Was restoring a VERY early Corvette - red with whit side scallops ,ex Japan I think.
jp 83 Euro S AT 52k, Brian Long P110.

lrpman

Rob, little trick I use 600 grit wet or dry to rub the oil in something that is like a BRICK. It does take off SOME dead dye but think of it as color sanding for leather. DO NOT EVER dry sand leather if you do you will only do it ONCE!!!
I going to take some 600 and Rejuvinator Oil to th edash on my blu car to try a STRETCH the leather back so I do not have to replace it. See how well I do or DO NOT do with that porject.

RyanPerrella

Ive done it.... I wouldnt do it again

However, one vendor makes one hell of a leather cleaner!

I cant say i got the as advertised response from the "leather rejuvenator" that I had heard so much about, but heck, the cleaner one of the vendors sells is awesome, so awesome i dont want to tell you where to get it. I have to keep some secrets dont I...... (if you really wanna know, I guess i can post it. )

Hilton

This has me interested - my '89 has a full leather interior. The rear quarter panels have pulled taut along the edge just below the rear quarter windows, and I was planning on figuring out how to stretch them back to re-glue the edges to the rear side.

Any tips you can give on how to stretch the leather George?

I was planning on giving the leather a lot of rejuvenator oil loving under plastic wrap, once out of the car, to provide some malleability and softness, but still worry about how to actually stretch the leather into position and have it stay there.

lrpman

That is the experiment I am trying with the dash. I am trying it using the Rejuvinator Oil and some 600 paper to force the product into the leather using the HEAT of the sanding and knowing the reason for the shrinkage is the moisture going out of the leather from the sun.
The theory is that when the moisture is replaced you can then stretch the leather back in place.
Facts are I have had the leather soften on a dash before and lay back down where it was supposed to be but that was not a stretching process. The fear of course is that even when the leather is soft again which will happen over time the, the leather structure will be to damaged already to take the pulling required to put it back in place and thus rip apart at the weak point.
A little fact is that the FINISH on the leather is what gets hard first then that does not allow the leather to breath which is why the leather finally cracks and becomes brittle.
Most times when you get a poor result you have a case where the finish is so hard the product can not get down into the leather to do it's job. That is where the sandpaper comes in to OPEN the finish to allow the product to get in and work.

Marine Blue

George please keep us posted on this. Many of us have leather rear quarters which have shrunk and need to be restretched to fit. If you can document a technique it would help tremendously.

Rob, another trick on the shift boot which worked for me. After coating it in Rejuvenator, put it in a ziplock bag and put it on a heater in the house for a couple of weeks. Keep adding Rejuvenator to it as needed. This worked on my 87's shift boot. Alternatively, since you live in SoCal you can put it in the sun on a warm day while its in the bag, that should also work well.