New seat covers in 911SC - Classic 9, Lakewell or ?

[REVerend]

Looking at redoing the sport seats in my ‘83 SC. My plan is to do all leather. A reputable local upholstery shop says they can make some from scratch or install prefab.

All in the it sounds like the price will be about the same and I’m leaning towards Classic 9 installed by my local shop. I have read in other threads they are easier just because they are located in the US.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[PeteKz]

Do not use Lakewell. I bought a set of door packets for my 1973, and they were total crap. They weren't even the right shape to fit against the armrests. If you have any problems, return shipping will eat you alive. Stick to US vendors.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by REVerend

Looking at redoing the sport seats in my ‘83 SC. My plan is to do all leather. A reputable local upholstery shop says they can make some from scratch or install prefab.

All in the it sounds like the price will be about the same and I’m leaning towards Classic 9 installed by my local shop. I have read in other threads they are easier just because they are located in the US.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I've purchased from both and in my mind you won't go wrong w/ either.

Last fall I purchased 2 x leather sport seats covers & foam from Lakewell, very nice pieces

a bunch of years ago a full 993RS carpet set from Lakewell, again very nice

before that some leather '76 interior pieces from Classi 9, also very nice

[Lyle O]

I have used Classic9 several times (steering wheel, seat covers, etc.). They do great work and are easy to deal with. One thing to note on seat covers: I replaced my bottoms, which needed the help (seat backs were fine). However, the new bottom leather was more grey than the deep black of the original seats, and did not exactly match the uppers. I therefore dyed the new bottoms, using the Porsche factory spec method (Color Plus Leather Restoration System). The match is perfect now. So just know that, unless you are getting bottoms and tops done, you will need to watch for matching colors, or do color match yourself (which was pretty easy to do).
Good luck.

[KNS]

I recently went through this with my '84 Sport Seats.

Not exactly an answer to your question but I went with World Upholstery. I brought the seats and leather covers to a very well known shop in Denver that does nothing but classics and high end vehicles. The owner of the shop said he deals with World often and said they provide a high quality leather (I thought so) but mine were cut a little "generous" and required extra trimming and fiddling.

He said that GAHH Upholstery is also a good supplier with comparable quality leather but their patterns are a little better fit than World. My biggest concern was color match (Burgundy). I thought World was pretty close.

In the end he stated it would have been a bit more expensive but he could have done a better job had they done the job themselves from scratch. Mine from World required a couple trips back to the shop to get the fit right but in the end I was pretty happy. They went the extra mile like padding the metal support that always wears away the fabric/leather over time on the bottom bolster on sport seats. They also gave me a bit more padding for my lower back which is a nice mod (you can't tell, looks like a regular sport seat...).

[jedoyle]

Anyone used CarBone before? They're stuff looks beautiful online but they're not US based so returns could be tough