Leather or cloth?

[Tadpole]

Hi everyone,

I know alot of you have changed your seats for newer ones. I was just wondering if you are glad you went with cloth or stayed with leather. If you changed seats again would you make a change. I'm looking at seats now and am curious. Thanks

[Deschodt]

I went with cloth each time I ever replaced seats - leather is hot in summer, cold in winter, and too slippery during cornering... But it looks stock so I left it alone on the oldies..

[ChkbookMechanic]

It depends on what the car is. If I'm gonna use it for daily driving or cruising around I like leather. If I'm going to drive it hard and track it, I'll go with a cloth.

[stormmaster]

I used vinyl on the bolsters and door panels....and heavy cloth on the inserts of mine.....I love the look....and its a lot cooler that my leather was.

[bkreigsr]

you can always go combo...
Bill K

[Reaper930]

Alcantara - leather is heavy but cloth is a "wear" item and if you go in and out a lot it wears quicker.

Depends on usage, but for me:

[VinceQN]

Alcantara wears faster and is more suitable to fade in the sun right? Im more into leather but with the lack of a/c in our cars and california weather I think that cloth is a better suit

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

I went with cloth each time I ever replaced seats - leather is hot in summer, cold in winter, and too slippery during cornering... But it looks stock so I left it alone on the oldies..

yup - I have cloth Recaro SEs.

Leather also gets sticky even if not "hot" - but it does not get dog or girlfriend hair embedded in it, even if you have a very shaggy gf....

Vinyl is the absolute worst of all materials.

[Miguel Antonett]

The best of both worlds

[mschwien]

I like the cloth over leather in terms of comfort and staying put in the seat.

[Scott Douglas]

So the leather doesn't breathe eh?
Well, just make it perforated leather on the bolsters with cloth inserts...
works for me

[gsjohnson]

I have Recaro SEs in cloth in my 72, but they look out of place in my early car. I love the seats, but I'm going to change them over to Vinyl or Leather to match the rest of the interior.

[jurhip]

mschwein - who did your seats (i am guessign they are not stock).
I have an '87 so a little different, but I really like that look.

I also lust for a set of euro carrera club sport seats with the white pinstriping.

BTW - I vote cloth with leather backs.

[Mike Moss]

On my brand "X" car I've got suede with perforations and thats what I'm going to have my Recaros done in when I reupholster them. They are not cold in the winter, not hot during the summer & hold you in place.

Mike

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Mike Moss

They are not cold in the winter...

Uh.... you live in Livermore, California. There is no winter there.



I agree that perforations help slightly with leather however.

[gtc]

Cloth.
On top of the hot/cold issues I hate having to clean and condition leather all the time.
From another thread, here are my 944 sport seats. I still can't figure out why 944s had more upholstery options than 911s.

[Reaper930]

Originally Posted by VinceQN

Alcantara wears faster and is more suitable to fade in the sun right? Im more into leather but with the lack of a/c in our cars and california weather I think that cloth is a better suit

It wears, yes, but it grips like no other, is lightweight and looks sweet Not for a DD though.

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by Mike Moss

On my brand "X" car I've got suede with perforations and thats what I'm going to have my Recaros done in when I reupholster them. They are not cold in the winter, not hot during the summer & hold you in place. Mike

Suede/alcantara is, to me, the ideal seat material. Very little wear, holds up for years, super easy maintenance, lots of grip, nice look, hell if I could I'd do my door panels (done), headliner (in progress), seats and dash with it ! But last I checked, quality reupholstering that does not look like a cheap seat cover is pretty damn expensive, to the point where I was better off buying new seats outright !

If I still had leather 911 seats, I'd consider the insert in alcantara though...

PS: just saw the above comment on wear... My mother has had alcantara seats in her Audi A3 for 10 years (yes there was an A3 back then in europe, and lots of german cars with suede seats), they looked new when she sold it this year ! And let me tell you that car's been used and abused and hardly ever washed... I think it depends what quality material you buy ! I got "sofa grade" alcantara for my experiments and it holds up very well...