Seat Dilema - Recover or Replace

[brcorp]

So here is the problem:







So the options are: leave them as is, reupholster in leather, reupholster in cloth (similar to RSAmerica), or replace with Sparco, Corbeau.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Those are mid year sports seats.....get rid of them quickly!... to me and for cheap!

Don't know what you are doing with the car? Daily driver, restoring it, etc. If it were mine, no question I'd recover them and it would be vinyl in my car (cause thats what I can afford). If I could afford more I'd put them back in leather if thats what they are now. I really would love to have those in my middy coupe!

[jhubs]

IMO, recover with leather. They will last longer and look better. MAKE SURE you have the foam in the seat bottoms relpaced. If the outside looks like that, imagine what the foam looks like. Comfortable leather seats are the bomb!

[Bobboloo]

Recover them in leather they'll look much better and should resale time come your car will be worth substantially more with the original seats.

[Laneco]

#1 on the leather recover. Those seats are probably my favorite of any car as long as they are recovered in leather. I had a set in fabric and sold them one ebay. They were very difficult to get in and out of!

Leather is IT!
angela

[DavErb]

Since I like doing things the hard way I'm doing all of them. The leather seats in my SC were toast when I bought it so I picked up a pair of Carrera seats so I could keep my butt off the floor. Managed to buy a set of domestic vinyl seatcovers real cheap on eBay . Once I've had a practise run covering the SC seats useing the vinyl I figure on picking up some of our hosts nice leather covers and redoing the seats again. Should be interseting

[jtfreels]

yours are worse than mine! I sure would like to hear about your recover of the SC seats, difficulty, etc. How about the covers? I've seen a couple on ebay wondering about quality.

Thanks

Jay

[MOMO3.2]

brcorp:

Are those manual Sport Seats? To me, they look like the optional Sport Seats that came in Carrera 3.2's. I was under the impression they were power seats and heavy. The mid-year Sport Seats have square side bolsters and are manual (at least mine are).

My point is, if they are powered and weight is not an issue for your car, re-upholster. If you want something lighter for the street, you may want to replace your seats with much lighter manual Sport Seats. I have mid-year manual factory Sport Seats and I LOVE them. They are amazing in every way.

You may want to contact Pelican member Jason Cullen. He often has used Sport Seats and he also re-covers Sport Seats. Jason has posted pictures of seats he has re-upholstered and they are of the highest quality.

Mike

[MOMO3.2]

Bill:

I just noticed by your sig that you have a 1987 (G50) Carrera. Like me, if you switch to the mid-year seats, you will have to relocate your seat belt anchor to the seat rails with an RS America part available through Pelican or anchor them to the tunnel somehow. The mid-year seats did not have seat belt anchors on the seat.

Mike

[sean m]

Hey Bill,
Go with the leather!! I did mine this past winter in leather for about $100.00 more than the vinyl. Ordered leather seat covers form leatherseats.com (great folks to deal with, great price too) Got a local shop to put them on for $75.00.

Smells and feels great!

Here's a couple pics.....

[brcorp]

Originally Posted by jtfreels

yours are worse than mine!

That make me feel much better....The more I look at them the worse they get!

These results really surprise me. I thought everyone would opt for a set of lighter aftermarket seats.

Thanks for the input.

[Zef]

Please recover...!

[Mysterytrain]

Sean please don't be offended but one of the things I've noticed with lots of recovered seats [that have used replacement covers] is that there are 'ripples' in the leather. I'm not sure if this is a result of poor installation [not pulling the hide tighter ] or because the foam padding was not built up or replaced. Anyone have any thoughts on that?