Seats recovering

[Aurel]

I am in the midst of recovering my seats, and I wanted to show some pics.
As you can see, they were beyond repair, the 25 year old leather was all dried up.
I went with Lseats leather in tan color, and I must say I was very impressed by the quality and fit. I got them in less than 2 weeks, the leather is supple and smells like leather. I did one cushion so far, and pretty happy with the result.

[G450X]

Thanks for the review, those hides look nice and that’s a great color to brighten the interior.

I need to restore an early 80’s sport seat set I picked up. L Seat has what looks like a sport seat set listed that should work, but the website is a bit tough to navigate through the seat styles/years that are available.

I guess I will give them a try, I will put the money saved toward a pending engine rebuild (rather than dropping $1500 for a nice set) to go on my “non-collectible” high mile SC...

[Dan Owens]

You can also check with World Upholstery for seat covers. I used them when I did my interior.

[Quickstep192]

Wow! Really nice job. I had my seats recovered last year by a guy who made custom covers and mine didn't turn out as nicely as yours. If I thought they would have turned out as nicely as yours, I might have had a go at it.


Also, it's always nice when leather smells like leather...

[Aurel]

So, I am not done yet, and the backrests are a bit more difficult than the cushions. There is definitely a learning curve for doing those. In fact, I had a mishap happen while pulling the leather down, and ripped it pretty bad. Fortunately, I e-mailed the manufacturer and they will send me a replacement. Very happy with the customer service there. Being very careful with this issue, I used the second backrest cover and my learnings to install it. Not unhappy with the result. To be continued...

[rwest]

I bought leather covers and starting to try and do the install and because I had so many other things on my “plate”, decided to hire it out to a local upholstery shop. When I dropped them off, he was working on another 911 and was fighting to get it to look good because the old foam had compressed so much.

Your trouble may be because the foam is too old.

I bought new foam, but turned out it was too firm and the installer ripped a cover as well- he got the company to supply new foam and leather to replace the panel.

Good luck, I’m so glad I decided to send it out, although it has taken a long time and I still haven’t got them back.

[Robey5]

Nice work so far. That will look aces when you’re done.

Having worked in the automotive seating industry in my career, there are some tips in getting the leather to lay flat and against the foam, new or old (of course “new” foam helps because it will be a bit more squishy than what’s there - which has dried out and been packed down over the years).

The leather (where it looks a tiny bit baggy on the finished product) will get a little cleaner if you use a heat gun and a bit of massaging so that the seams will sit in the foam shapes. In the seating plants, they use a giant IR bulb, and also steam for cloth interior coverings. They also ‘warm’ the leather a bit to get it to shape up to the foam beneath. As always: be careful with a heat-gun. Don’t scorch that beautiful leather on install....


Keep going with pictures and progress. I enjoy someone who’s not shy about doing such a job.

[rbogh901]

Will that reduce the wrinkles in a tired seat?

[Harpo]

I dropped off my early sport seats yesterday @ classic 9

David

[4flyboy]

A lot depends on the condition of the foam rbough.

Plus + one on the quality of Lseat covers.

My seat guy is a Pelican who makes his own from scratch. He installed the L's for me on two sets of Sport Seats and was impressed with the cut and fitment.

Oh, and setting them out in the Florida sun for a few hours does wonders for wrinkles....

[Aurel]

I was not totally happy with wrinkles, so I redid the job with adding some foam in strategic spots and using a heat gun. I am happier with the result, not perfect yet but I am not chasing perfection either (and the lighting enhances every little wrinkle in the picture below).

[creaturecat]

looking good.

[Bill Douglas]

Yeah. looking good.

I'd good for a few long drives and let yer body iron out and wrinkles LOL

[Aurel]

First seat completed:

[dicklague]

I have a set of front seat covers on order at Lseat right now ........I hope my order takes 2 weeks. I am going to have an upholstery shop do the job of installation . want new foam, etc..

[Aurel]

By the way, Lseat is shipping from Texas, so I am assuming I will be sitting on murican cow .

[John W.]

Nice job. How many hours did you spend?

[Marwil]

Wondering how close the tan color is to the original cork color?

[Aurel]

Originally Posted by John W.

Nice job. How many hours did you spend?

I’d say about 4h for that seat. (1h removal, 3h install)
Now that I learned a few tricks, I can probably do the second seat in 2h total if it comes out nice at first try.

[Aurel]

Looks like it is going to be a few more hours: as I was reinstalling the backrest release cable, it snapped and I will need to put a new one in. My bad, it was worn and I should have replaced it while the seat covers were out. Now, I probably have to remove the backrest cover again to replace the cable. Unless someone tells me it can be done without removing the cover, which I doubt.
So this is why these projects always take more time...and are best done in the winter when the car isn’t in use anyways.
On the bright side, I may get rid the last wrinkles on the backrest if the third time is a charm.