re-upolstoring the seats?

[hpmad]

Hello,

the seating part of both drivers and passanger seats are broken on my car

the standard upholstery kit is >$1000 PER SEAT!
however, at the cost of leather at the local tandy, it should only cost me in the $150 per seat...

any clue on how hard/easy it would be to redo the upholstery myself (rank 6 on the 0 (homer S) to 10 (MacGuiver) handyman scale)....

thanks, Cyrille
1980 SC targa

[jtratza]

Very easy. At least it was when I did it by finding a shop in Houston TX (where I was living then) that did upholstery. They bought original or close enough perforated leather used in Porsche seats and replaced just the seat bottom which was all that was needed. Cost was about $250 per seat but that was about 5 years ago.

[sc_rufctr]

To redo them yourself you'd need a good leather capable sewing machine and stepper foot. Large table plus Lots of time and patients.

You could use the existing covers as patterns... Take one apart so you can cut the new leather to the right shape.

It's doable but on a scale of 1 to 10 it's an 11...

Good upholsterers are artists... It really is more of a calling than a career choice.

[sjf911]

I bought a kit and got about half way through the first seat and realized that my hands were not going to survive so I took them to a shop in Garden City which charged about 100 per seat to complete. I wouldn't even consider trying again.

[SCWDP911]

i just picked mine up this afternoon. My driver's side turbo sport seat had some areas on the seat base that required new leather. They charged me $350 for the one seat. Looks great though and that is even with mismatched colors (grey and light brown)... hope to start redyeing seats and other parts this weekend.

[gtc]

You can get replacement vinyl upholstery on ebay for about $250 for two seats' worth. I believe some of these places will custom sew them out of leather for another few hundred.

Just putting new covers on is not terribly difficult, maybe a 5/10, but to actually cut and sew them yourself would be very hard I think.

[subwayrat356]

I did it a while back, with help from a co-worker. That made all the difference. I can run a sewing machine pretty well, but never would have been able to do it on my own. This is definitely an 11. They came out allright- 7 out of 10. (they look better in person)

New leather seats

[rrichar]

Tom,

Were you happy with your Houston upholstery shop? If so, do you remember who you used? I need to have work done on my wife's Mercedes.

[Rednine11]

I bought a set of the seat kits and did them myself. It took some time. I also added some foam since they were a little thin from years of wear. You can do them yourself if you're willing to do the work. A heat gun helps alot ..low heat though too much will ruin the cover.
I'd probably do them one at a time too in case you forget how something goes. I took pictures of mine as I disassembled them. My memory isnt that good anymore.