Original Leather for Seat Reupholstery

[BuddaLun]

Pelicans,

I am about to have my sport seats re-done in brown leather. Is there a source who sells the original type of leather used in our cars from factory (I have a 1982 911 SC with Brown Leather Partial Interior)? I'd like to keep the exact color, feel, and perforations.

Additionally, is Jason Cullen still providing leather and seats for our cars?

My search yielded the following helpful threads and sites:

New Leather on my seats! WOW!

Leather Seat Recovering

https://www.autobahninteriors.com/

https://www.heritagetrim.com/

[Arminho]

Let me know if you find someone. I am trying to redo my front seats in Midnight Leatherette for my 74 911, and nobody can tell me what that color is... On the Porsche CoA, it says Midnight Leatherette. What a headache!

[Drymartiniwi]

Try these guys http://www.Lseat.com.
You can request samples


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[walt]

I am interested in this also, has anyone dealt with Lseat? The reviews are all over the place from great to horrible.

[BuddaLun]

These folks seem to have some original offerings:

http://www.classic9leathershop.com/index.php?p=home

[BuddaLun]

Originally Posted by walt

I am interested in this also, has anyone dealt with Lseat? The reviews are all over the place from great to horrible.

Lseat seems shady. Just, IMO.

I think we need a shop/person who knows our 911s and understands the intricacies of what makes a proper restoration.

[BuddaLun]

Has anyone used Classic9? TIA!

[reefdiver]

Yes, Classic9 is a great company for interior work. I sent all my parts there for recovering.

[chrismorse]

After reading a lot of reviews, I went with classic9. A pair of (perforated center section), champagne sport seat covers was a bit over $1700.
They ordered the leather from Germany. Took about 6 weeks. Good folks to deal with.Local installation was $350. They came out beautifully, I need to finish the front end work, including tunnel fuel lines, before seat installation.
These sport seats were from an 84 944 cores ran about $1000.
One option I felt worthwhile was "French Seams", rather than the beaded welt, which takes a beating. They are boxed up on a top shelf in the shop, or I would post some photos- will do when installed.
Chris

[FrankM_]

Mine is in treatment at Lakewell.com since I live near them, they have a lot of the original colours on their webshop but you can always call them (Central European Time).

[BuddaLun]

Originally Posted by chrismorse

After reading a lot of reviews, I went with classic9. A pair of (perforated center section), champagne sport seat covers was a bit over $1700.
They ordered the leather from Germany. Took about 6 weeks. Good folks to deal with.Local installation was $350. They came out beautifully, I need to finish the front end work, including tunnel fuel lines, before seat installation.
These sport seats were from an 84 944 cores ran about $1000.
One option I felt worthwhile was "French Seams", rather than the beaded welt, which takes a beating. They are boxed up on a top shelf in the shop, or I would post some photos- will do when installed.
Chris

Super helpful. Pics of the stitching would be great!

[Arne2]

I had a pair of core sport seats for my '84 Carrera rebuilt by Autobahn Interiors. The brown leather was great. I also had Tony do French seams rather than welting, for the same reason. Zero complaints, I would do it again.

[ramonesfreak]

I’ll be doing my seats this winter so I’ve been ordering samples from the usual suppliers, several mentioned above. Amazing how each sample is a different shade of brown and a different texture. Not confidence inspiring when your spending avg $1,500

[Arminho]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

I’ll be doing my seats this winter so I’ve been ordering samples from the usual suppliers, several mentioned above. Amazing how each sample is a different shade of brown and a different texture. Not confidence inspiring when your spending avg $1,500

yes, this is exactly what i'm running into! I have a feeling i'll just need to send in the rear seat butt pad to whoever supplies the upholstery fabric. That way they can compare. My rear seats are still original.

[ramonesfreak]

Arne2’s photo above is exactly what I need. I have the same color but non-sport seats. I just do not want to have to ship my seats anywhere. Unfortunately that seems like the best way to make sure you get an original color and texture.

[BuddaLun]

Originally Posted by Arne2

I had a pair of core sport seats for my '84 Carrera rebuilt by Autobahn Interiors. The brown leather was great. I also had Tony do French seams rather than welting, for the same reason. Zero complaints, I would do it again.

Lordy, lordy those are beautiful seats!!!

[ramonesfreak]

After looking more at this photo I’ve convinced myself that the best thing to do is just send my seats to Tony and let him decide what materials and then do the work instead of trying to order the covers and have a local company install

Here is thread that suggests Uhaul wardrobe boxes work great for shipping seats
How to ship car seats?


How to ship car seats?

Originally Posted by Arne2

I had a pair of core sport seats for my '84 Carrera rebuilt by Autobahn Interiors. The brown leather was great. I also had Tony do French seams rather than welting, for the same reason. Zero complaints, I would do it again.

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by BuddaLun

These folks seem to have some original offerings:

http://www.classic9leathershop.com/index.php?p=home

I got a sample from here and while it seems good quality, the leather was highly textured and looked nothing like the original. I was very clear in my email to him about what I needed. For $1,700 I’m not about to take a chance on something I likely can’t return and, the wait in the winter time is really long like 6 weeks or more to get the covers.....if they turn out to be wrong you gotta get back in line

[BuddaLun]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

I got a sample from here and while it seems good quality, the leather was highly textured and looked nothing like the original. I was very clear in my email to him about what I needed. For $1,700 I’m not about to take a chance on something I likely can’t return and, the wait in the winter time is really long like 6 weeks or more to get the covers.....if they turn out to be wrong you gotta get back in line

Totally agree.

It seems Tony @ Autobahn is the best bet.

[toddetch]

Have you checked for local upholsterers? Our PCA had a tech session at an upholsterer who I went back and used to redo the butts of my seats. In general, the seats were in pretty good condition, except that the butts of both seats were ripped. He had several catalogs that we looked through to find the right texture, color, perforation pattern, etc. I took the seats out and to him, a few days later I had seats with rebuilt foam bottoms and new leather on the bottom. You can tell the difference between the new and old when you really look - mostly because the older leather is shinier from use.

Before:



After:



Just thinking it might be worth checking around a bit locally before shipping them off somewhere. I liked being able to see the samples before ordering and see them before picking them up.

NOTE: I have no idea why the second pic is showing up upside down, but hopefully you can see it okay...