flyingchappy

I recently had the seats recovered. I guess is was a spur of the moment decision since the cashmere wear was really bothering me as you can see from the before pictures. De-installed and took them to a local leather re-upholsterer for vintage cars. He had ordered the full leather covers from Gahh in Cali. Partial leather was not available. My impressions are mixed. They are significantly better than the originals but the fit is not perfect. There seams to be too much leather in spots. This could be because we utilized the original foam padding. I was told this could be redone without much problem. Interestingly, the center perforated pieces are actually glued onto the foam backing on the originals. I am looking for another upholsterer to fix them.

RDS928S

Color & leather look great.

Hard to tell from that one pic. Is there a foam pad kit available?

Rich

flyingchappy

Thanks Rich. The color is perfect and leather quality is really good. I don't think there is a pad kit available. I went from partial to full leather and maybe that has to do with the fit. Just is some spots there is some extra leather.

ilko

I think they look very nice. Keep in mind that the leather might shrink and settle after a little use and those couple of creases might completely disappear. Have you talked to the installer about that?

1pcarnut

Those wrinkles would look okay if it was a supple leather option but otherwise I agree with OP and would try a different shop.

Kika

The installer will be limited by the cut of the kit provided to some degree as well, and they may tell you they just did the best they could with the kit that was provided. If you are truly unhappy though, try to work with them to see if they can fix the problem and make it right.

mrsullivan

i wouldnt touch a thing. i think that they look fantastic. there may be a little extra leather here or there, but it sure isnt very noticeable

JPP

I was just talking with an upholsterer about this. He was saying that GAHH makes the best 'kits' but you still need to really know what your doing to get them to fit like factory covers because none of the non-factory covers use the Porsche/German engineered fasteners that 'tighten' the leather as they are installed. He showed me a set of factory covers he had just removed and they had an ingenious system of metal and plastic fastening devices that are ridged and designed so that you can 'ratchet' them tighter in places to custom fit the cover to the frame. The replacement GAHH covers that replaced them had a similar all-plastic system that didn't tighten as well, so his solution was to make custom 'adjustments' and re-locate some fasteners inboard to get the custom 'fit' of the factory covers. I think in these cases you get what you pay for. He charges $1600 to cover a set of front seats in leather with perforated centers and I think that's the going rate at Auto's International as well ...

Kika

When I had my SC, I had the driver's seat recovered with a kit from Autos International by Trimline in Redondo Beach. Personally, I thought the job was excellent, but to be honest, once my butt is in place, there was very little of the seat to be seen. It was much better than the worn out, dried out original, and it was comfy.

Manual at Trimline did tell me that it was one of the better kits he had used. that was about 15 years ago though.

Onami

Having run a foam manuifacturing plant for a decade and now managing a furniture company, I can shed a little light on your problems. Your covers are made to the specs of new seats with new foam. Your 15 year old plus seats with numerous use cycles will be nowhere near their original dimensions now as the foam will take a set after this amount of use/time. I always replace foam and covers at the same time to help with this issue, however a good upolsterer can make a poor fitting cover look like a custom fit if they spend some time on it. If your car gets driven, I think your seats look fine as is. If it's show car, you may need to take it back in for some adjustments

flyingchappy

I haven't gone back yet. I thought I'd let it settle for about a month or two and maybe the heat from the sun would shrink them a bit.
I have my old covers and there is plenty of staples and fasteners and I don't know what he used to tighten everything up. His charge was $1500 for everything.
My thoughts are the same. The drivers seat has the most excess and it would make total sense. If I'm driving it I won't see the seat I'm on anyway so it really doesn't matter. My next action will be to take them back and see what he has to say. He seams really reasonable and willing to make things right.