mike9186

The seat cushion of my driver's seat is ripped and torn beyond patching/repair and I need to get it reupholstered. I've read the threads of people buying the materials from vendors on Ebay but no one ever seems to follow up with the results of these products in the thread.

So I've got a few questions

1. Where is the best place to source the leather covers? Or should I find a local person who will make from scratch?
2. Should I replace both the Driver and passenger covers? The passenger seat is in very good condition.
3. Can I buy the Sport Seat Covers and have an upholsterer convert the standard seats to sport seats?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Mike B

Rocket Rob

Sorry I can't answer all of your questions. In my case, the driver side seat worn. I was able to buy a pair of used 12-way heated seats for the cost of a pair of new seat covers.

1) Not sure
2) Depends on how particular are on the leather matching.
3) Its possible. See GeorgeK's thread on what is involved.

Goughary

It would be Cheeper to buy a set of seats like yours, replace the one you have that's ripped and then sell the damaged set back to cover most of your costs. That's the cheep way.

The better but more expensive way is to take them to an upholster and have them both done so they match. Bells auto upholstery in Greenwich did mine with premade leather kits. I don't much like their vendor. The leather is a little too much like heavy duty auto upholstery and less like fine furniture uphostery. That said, it will actually wear better in the long run...so all good. However if I were to do it again, I'd get samples from http://www.classic9leathershop.com/ and buy the kits from them and have a shop out here do the install.

As to turning yours into sport seats. Don't. Just buy a set of sport seats and install them and sell your originals if you want to switch. I switched to sport seats which is why I had mine reupholstered to match the interior. I love them. So I recommend making the switch if money isn't an issue.

mrmandmman

I got my sport seat covers from daviddaoud3000@yahoo.com. He is one of the individuals who sells on ebay. It has been a year since they were installed. Not great photos as I just took them with my phone in my garage with the fluorescent lights on.

mike9186

Thanks for the pics mr mandmman! Those look terrific!

rstarga

gahh or autos international offer the best kits. Used by most upholstery shops.

R6XTERRA

Did you purchase the leather or the vinyl?

hamah

I couldn't find Autos International but I had checked into GAHH and World Upholstery. The later are much less expensive and I've heard good things about them FWIW. Anyone with more experience want to comment?

mrmandmman

Mine are leather.

Goughary

My up hostler used gahh. The leather is no different than my Audi seats. Which is to say, it'll wear well, but not the nicest leather. Feels a bit plastic. Order samples from the various vendors before choosing if you are looking for something nicer than standard. If not, gahh kits are very good, and the leather will wear well.

If you are in NYC, and ever get out to ct, you are welcome to take a look.

-nick

I got my covers from Custom Leathers in Ludlow, MA and would recommend them. Great price, and I thought that the quality was excellent. The install required hog ring pliers, an outward clinch stapler, and cutting pliers to cut off the old hog rings, one weekend and some very sore fingers from pulling the leather into place. The seats are much more firm and comfortable with the added padding that is stitched onto the covers. Feels like a completely different seat. A better installer would have pulled the creases out, but hey, now I have "supple leather"

Passenger seat with new cover, driver seat with old:


I'm still in awe of the work GeorgeK did to create his sport seats.

hamah

Did they make the covers themselves or buy them elsewhere from someone like GAHH, World Upholstery, or Katzkin? If you don't mind my asking what was the cost?

I think your installation looks pretty good. How do you think you might have removed those creases? I'm guessing you pulled them into place as best as possible. Perhaps the original foam had lost some of the shape required to fill the new covers?

When I hear or see someone that goes through this process I'm encouraged to try it myself. Last winter I took the seats apart to properly apply Color-Plus colorant (my pics of this are here). While this looked great for a while I can see I'll get maybe another year before they look pretty much the same as before. Probably next winter recovering them will be a project to put on the list. The only question is which way to go about it. It doesn't seem as though the installation is very expensive so I'm torn as to if I want to try and do it myself or just pay a little more to have it done for me.

-nick

Hi Steve,
I think that they put them together in house. The materials were the same as the originals- leather fronts and vinyl back and sides. They are on ebay as autocustomleather.

I'm perfectly happy with how they turned out. I'm sure my foam has compressed over time but the creases are certainly from my installation and positioning and pulling of the covers.

I can't stress enough how different the soft and pliable new leather is compared to the original covers. I even tried the leatherique system before replacing them and it really didn't do much. The whole car felt and drove very differently afterward.