Michael S.

Hey Everyone,

I finally worked up the nerve to remove my rear wiper arm (VERY easy) and now (while the rear package tray is removed) I want to get my rear deck repaired. The leather has shrunk a bit at each of the corners and is pulling away from the backing plate. It has already pulled several staples out at the right rear corner and needs "restreached" about 1.5" to get the leather back in its proper position. I've got to get it repaired... as Porsche wants something like $1700 for a new part!

What I'd like to do is get the upper part of the package tray completly recovered in matching Porsche black leather. That way I can cover up the "slot" that removing the rear wiper arm has created. I have no idea what this will cost, but I do know there is no one in my little corner of South Carolina whom I trust to do the work.

Does anyone know of a shop they can personally recommend to do this kind of job? What do you think it should cost? The part isn't very heavy, so shipping should't be a problem.

Thanks in advance for all your recommendations!

Cheers!

David in LA

Another option is to buy a 1/2 hide of black leather and DIY. I purchased 1/2 hide (which is pretty large when you think about how big a cow is!) for about $80-90 from an upholstery supply shop which supplies Porsche carpeting and matching leather. I've used it to replace and recover the vinyl on the door panel inserts and the bin doors on my RSD....I still have about 14-15 sq ft remaining so will probably recover other vinyl interior parts (center console, door panels, etc) when I get a chance.

max911

You could try repeated treatments with Color-Plus "Leather Soffener". once the leather is supple again, stretch it back in to place and reattach. then, keep the leather treated.
I have read about people using it on the older 911 leather dashes that have had shrinking problems.

Stevarino lent me some of the above product, and it is working great on my seats.... better results than i had with the Leatherique conditioner.

good luck,

max

Michael S.

David,

Can you give me the contact info for the shop?? I would consider a DIY... but I've never done upholstery work before... but it can't be that hard, right??

Still... I'd like a recommendation for a shop that I could trust to do this kind of work.

David in LA

The place I bought carpet and leather from is Veteran Co. in Los Angeles (no affiliation yadayadayada...). You can probably contact them for a leather samples to see how well it matches...they have several grains and colors so ideally an in-person comparison is best.

If you look underneath most of the panels you will see that the vinyl/leather covers are just glued onto particle-type board. Upholstery adhesive would work best but I just used rubber cement and it worked fine. It's not really upholstery work per se...all you're really doing is just trimming and glueing leather...it's not like you are recovering your seats or working with complex shapes. Take a look at the back of your panel and peel the cover off the corner a bit and you'll see (this will be done anyways if you take it to a shop so you might as well see what's involved). On installation just make sure you don't stretch/pull the leather too much when you glue (I only glued the backside, not the front) as that will remove the grain texture...unless that's what you want. The only thing with my door panel insert is that there was some foam-like padding underneath so I just layed the leather on top of that and glued it only on the back side.

Chris C.

Leather magic here in Atlanta does ferrari work and did an excellent repair on my daily driver.

C-plus Soffener rocks! I've used it on all my cars.