Can these seats be saved?

[Cayman S]

These seats are from my 1988 911 cab....they are silver/grey...a custom color that is very hard to find...color code UD4....we have found marble grey which is close...

I can try to save them or use marble grey covers....

Can these be reconditioned and saved in their current state? There is one thin and very worn area on the driver's side bolster...can this be reinforced?

They are soft in some areas and semi supple in other areas....

Can anyone recommend a good thread to read?
Thanks

[sugarwood]

Have you tried the typical leather treatments?
Lexol, Leatherique, Obenaufs, etc ?

[Cayman S]

I have not....but I am reading a great thread on the Leatherique products....
Any suggestions are very welcome...
Thanks

[Puma]

The best thing for leather is Fliebings. Get the saddle soap and mink oil. You can find it at just about any farming store for cheap. Clean them with the saddle soap first and let dry. After you rub in the mink oil put them away from bright light and water for about a week.

Millions of cowboys can't be wrong.

[DaveMcKenz]

Hi,
It looks like you have a number of problems with the seat covers. I can't tell for sure but re-stitching may be possible on a couple of areas on the seat bottoms. Some of the creases and thin spots on the side bolsters can be repaired by stripping and re-dying.
Leatherique can supply a very good leather dye. It really is an extremely flexible and adherent water based paint. They can match any color sample you send them.
My guess is you will need a combination of repair and panel replacement with re-coloring of the entire seat to make the color consistant.
Good luck,
Dave

[Discseven]

Looks like your leather has dry rot in places. If there's some... there's more. I put off dealing with rotting seats by cutting and applying leather patches with epoxy gel. If patches are kept dark to match leather, doesn't look so bad. These patches have faded severely----was motivation to change covers.




Attempt was made to get full grain leather cover kit but full grain seems to be a thing of the past. Everything I found was plated leather. (No offense to plated leather... I prefer full grain.) One way is to pay through the nose and have full grain covers made. Alternative is make them yourself. I think I paid $600 for the full grain leather needed per seat---project was a while ago... memory fails. Think it took 80 hours on first seat. Maybe 20 hrs on second. That's rough estimate. (1st seat eats a great deal of time in figuring out how to do it.) Point is... making your own covers is a possible path.