Reconditioning leather for partial recovery

[Batan]

I was wondering if anybody has a recommendation for a product to use to recondition leather that has shrunk. What I'm planning on doing is replacing the middle of the seats with fabric of some sort or perhaps suede. The stitching has come apart due to leather drying up and shrinking so I need to condition it before I can start going at it(attending an upholstery course soon and these will be a perfect project).
Here's one of the seats in question:



And this is sort of an idea what will be replaced, pardon the crude photoshop:


Any input would be appreciated, thanks in advance!
P.S. The seats are not going back in 911 but in a VW Bus instead.

[Rot 911]

The leather didn't shrink, the stitching just broke from old age. I and others on here use Leatherique with good results.

[Batan]

Originally Posted by Kurt V

The leather didn't shrink, the stitching just broke from old age. I and others on here use Leatherique with good results.

Yes, the stitching did brake but it appears that the leather on the bolsters has shrunk somewhat as I can't pull it tight enough to come close to touching the middle piece - if that makes sense. I think it's missing a bit of 'give'.

[zippy_gg]

I had bought some Skidmore's leather cream for my custom motorcycle seats and used it also with great success on a set of used seats I bought for my 86 cab.
You can use you hands to apply the cream, it is actually good for your skin and nails.
See their web site here.
Their 6oz jar lasts a long time and covers a lot of leather.

[DanielDudley]

If the leather shrunk, the only way I know to actually stretch it would be to wet it with water until saturated, and pull it with some kind of stretcher slowly, while keeping it wet. I haven't done this in years, and never on a porsche seat, but leather can be stretched in this way quite a bit. You would let it dry on the stretcher, and you then put the cream or conditioner on it.

I would guess that you would pull the leather from the seat to do this, and of course the center panel would be the easiest to make a stretcher for. It can shrink a lot.

[Batan]

Originally Posted by DanielDudley

If the leather shrunk, the only way I know to actually stretch it would be to wet it with water until saturated, and pull it with some kind of stretcher slowly, while keeping it wet. I haven't done this in years, and never on a porsche seat, but leather can be stretched in this way quite a bit. You would let it dry on the stretcher, and you then put the cream or conditioner on it.

I would guess that you would pull the leather from the seat to do this, and of course the center panel would be the easiest to make a stretcher for. It can shrink a lot.

Thanks for the input guys.
I'm not stretching the middle part though, I am replacing it with fabric. So, I need to stretch the sides a bit to get them to the stitching line.

[chuckr]

Neatsfoot oil....lots of it