gregC2

My 91 C2 window sticker says I have a partial leather interior.
1. What's leather? The seat face only, the whole seat, what? Any leather on the doors?
2. When I bought my C2, I bought some Porsche leather cleaner. At that time, Hyde food was the hot item to use. Now, it's Lexol. What to use? Those that sell Lexol will say Lexol; same with Hyde food, and Porsche will recommend their own brand.
I don't want to damage anything, and I want to preserve the interior as long as possible. It's a driver, so I'm not interested in doing anything for a car show.
Thanks. <img src="graemlins/wave.gif" border="0" alt="[byebye]" />

Jay H

Greg:

I always believed that a partial leather interior consisted of leather only on the part of the seats that you sit on / come in contact with. The sides and backs of the seats would be in leatherette or vinyl. Also, the remaining parts of the interior would be in vinyl.

As long as you use a high quality leather cleaner and conditioner, you should be fine. I've used Lexol products for treating leather with good results. I've also used Eagle 1 products with decent results. I've damaged a leather seat with the cheap $4.99 bottle of Armor All leather cleaner/conditioner, so stay away from that "over the counter" stuff you can get at Walmart, etc. Some detailers insist on just cleaning leather with mild soap and water with a soft sponge.

Hope this helps,
Jay
90 964

Adrian

Dear Greg,
Partial leather option varies dramatically depending on the package of selected sub interior options (for what of a better word) by the original customer. I promise you, there are no two 964s which are identical.
Leather cleaner will not harm the vinyl or other synthetic products used in the interior. Which brand you use is up to you. This is a commercial decision. They are all basically the same,
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

PS: A full leather interior does not mean you have everything in leather either.

Rick964

So what exactly does "supple leather" mean then?

Adrian

Dear Rick,
I assume you are asking this question of me. "Supple" means soft so I assume soft leather. I know there are over 4500 possible interior options just for 964 including colour combinations. What your "supple leather" means will be in your option package. There are no black and white answers in this subject,
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

Christer

I have a half-leather interior. That is to say that the seat edges on the seat and the back and head rest are all black leather, the seat (where one's **** is) and the centre of the back is (in my case) a nice black velour (very soft) with faint white pin-stripes in it....very classy

I know that on the 964 you were able to specify everything inside in leather , even most of the switches! I know this because I looked at a bright turquiose(sp?) example with dolphin grey leather interior about a year ago and literally everything was leather. It was actually quite a cheap car because the colour was so revolting. I think I am happy with my Guards Red example, even with the black pin-stripe suit look!!!

Christer

Arthur.

From this you can see that Adrian's right. Mine has partial leather too, in that the back of the seats are in vinyl, or whathever it is. The parts that you sit on are in leather with the little orifices (?) in it.

Thomas Linser

Hi there,

Yep Adrian is right in claiming that partial leather is quite specific to each car!

I have partial leather in classic grey and the only leather parts of my interior are the sitting surface of my sport-seats, the gear **** lever, and the stearing wheel. All the rest is what Porsche calls leatherette, a very long lasting and good synthetic leather.

as for the cleaning of the stuff I use the Zymol lether cleaner and feeder. Ok it's not that cheap but it really works and the smell of the thing is very pleasent. Since Zymol is claiming using only natural ingredients I assume that it's about the best stuff you can buy. FYI the first time I cleaned the interior of my car I used water and a very mild soap, this cleaned all the residues that where incrusted (don't know if you can say that???) and then used a leather and vinyl feeder, the result was tremendous.

Hope this helped bye THOMAS

J-McDonald

My '91 C2 cab has the same "partial leather" as Thomas described.

FYI - from what I've seen, US market cars seem to have a much narrower range of interior options. What I've seen is: (1) partial leather (as described in Thomas' post); (2) "full" leather (i.e., seats (front and back), door panels, window sill panels, inside door handle "grab" areas, dash (identifiable by the visible stitching around the a/c vents), shift boot, steering wheel); (3) #2, but with the dash in vinyl. In addition, turbo 3.3, turbo 3.6, flachbau and some America Roadsters have leather covering the instrument bezels and all of the switches, in addition to #2.

I've never seen a US-market 964 with factory-fitted cloth seats (either full or partial cloth), other than RS Americas.

I've also noticed that some 964's have leather seats with the pin-holes described in Arthur's post, and some (such as mine) don't.

Arthur.

As you may have gathered, I'm trying the camera... Here's the partial leather with the pinholes.

Arthur.

Oh, and to get back to topic, I clean it with the same stuff you use for cleaning your precious leather couch. After cleaning you apply some kind of lotion for leather. You can buy this is any good furniture shop. The leatherette I clean with water and mild soap.

l3sl13

I go along with Thomas regarding Zymol.
The leather cleaner and feeder are excellent products and as for the vinyl cleaner... I always thought my car was clean and tidy until I used this one (came with the starter kit).
The car came up so clean that when I took it to our regional fun concours (no I'm not a concours junkie - my car's an every day ride) it won 'most pampered 964'... all because of a bit of elbow grease and good old Zynol.
Nuff said
Leslie

MelissaM

[quote]I've never seen a US-market 964 with factory-fitted cloth seats (either full or partial cloth), other than RS Americas. <hr></blockquote>

Well, it's probably not the most popular seating arrangement in the US, but my car has this. Not the pinstripe/velour variety that Christer described, mind you.

The sides (bolster?) & front part of headrest are black leather, the seat backs are black vinyl. The part where my 501-dyno goes is a black cloth, with Porsche written on it ever-so-subtly. I didn't think I'd want a 911 without leather seats, but these seats are really nice. People don't notice they're not leather unless I point it out. And...they tend to hold you in place pretty well.

So, anyone know what this option is? Is it still partial leather?

Oh, and the supple leather is the more pillowy looking leather, rather than the ones with the pinhole. (OK Adrian, you have to tell us the real, technical terms for this!)

-- Melissa

Adrian

Dear Melissa,
Officially this leather is called "ruffled soft crushed pillow look leather". I honestly have no technical terms for this stuff.
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

MelissaM

Adrian,

[quote]Officially this leather is called "ruffled soft crushed pillow look leather". <hr></blockquote>

Maybe the original German term sounds more official.

-- Melissa (who just got back from taking a co-worker to lunch in the cab -- top down of course!)