Upholsterer to Avoid in Miami

[Discseven]

Brought original leather seats to Softside Trim upholstery in Miami. Job was to resew seams for strengthening and tighten loose leather in the driver's bottom area. $520. was the quote. While the leather here is not in the best condition, if taken care of... surly these seats have a few more years of service in them.

So here's what I got back after 4 weeks---pics below. When Joe, the owner of the business, and I looked at the seats together when I came to get them, I could not believe he said... "Looks like new." A joke?

EDIT: I'm wrong about resew not being done... at least concerning the bottom cushions at this moment. So everything I say following... I'll eat these words. See post #15 for correction & apology.) Resewing the seams was Joe's idea. He claimed that pulling the leather tighter and putting a new seam in virgin leather would strengthen the seats and provide greater durability. Great idea! Doing so was completely ignored as I see it. I questioned this and Joe assured me the "seams were resewn." I must have been wearing my idiot mask that day ... Look at the seam below and tell me if that's a new or old seam. Not only did Softside do a sh** job, but here's a company owner that flat out laid BS on a paying customer (who would have given him work upon work.) The opportunity to make this wrong into a right was offered and Joe walked away form it.

Bottom line. If your looking for a reliable, honest, consistently good upholsterer in Miami... that's not Softside Trim. Sadly it seems there are fewer & fewer craftsmen these days and more & more BS'rs to deal with.

Below, these should be "before" pics. Instead, they're after the job was done.






Check this supposedly resewn seam---below. The leather on both sides of the seam was to have been pulled together so the old seam would have been under the new seam. New seam or old?

[bobrestore]

it actually does look like he re stitched the seams on the lower bolster to lower seat cushion... the art of upholstery is to manipulate the padding and sub straight to give a smooth finish. also use heat and steam to smoothen the seams and material..... bob

[DRACO A5OG]

Geez Brother Karl, sorry to read this.

[RSTarga]

Trying to rework old leather is damn near impossible. He should not have accepted the job.
Easier to start with fresh stretchy leather.

[timchar]

Originally Posted by RSTarga

Trying to rework old leather is damn near impossible. He should not have accepted the job.
Easier to start with fresh stretchy leather.

Agreed. My seats were similar, shop told me it wasn't worth doing. I spent around 400.00 for new vinyl seat covers and 350.00 to install. Tim

[Discseven]

Originally Posted by RSTarga

Trying to rework old leather is damn near impossible. He should not have accepted the job.
Easier to start with fresh stretchy leather.

Agreed RS... Old leather can be troublesome. But if there's still life (connected fibers) in the leather, makes no sense to trash them IMHO. While these seats are dry, they're not dead. Been thinking about pulling the covers myself now and treating the interior & exterior sides... resewing seams... back-side supporting weak areas... adding more pull downs. More project right now than I was interested in diving into but am tempted. Taking some time to research bucket seats as an alternative direction.

Did try a number of sources for leather cover kits but the samples I'm getting are ALL plated/coated leather. I'm not a fan of coated leather and so the mission to save these particular seat covers. I think it can be done or I'd not be wasting my time on them.

If anyone knows a resource that provides UNcoated, black dyed cover kits... please post source.

[Discseven]

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

Geez Brother Karl, sorry to read this.

I still have your link saved for recovering Jim!

[Reiver]

Considering the look of the seats I suspect he did what he could. Most shops won't promise squat with leather that old let alone actually work with it.
He probably left the obvious inherent flex (lack of tautness) to keep the old leather from splitting if tight.

[pmax]

Besides the "Looks like new" comment which is like a mechanic saying the car runs perfect after service, to me the seats really looks OK from your pictures for worn 30 yr old leather.

How did they look before ?
Comparing the before and after pictures is a better way to judge whether your $$$ has been well spent.

[billh1963]

Originally Posted by pmax

Besides the "Looks like new" comment which is like a mechanic saying the car runs perfect after service, to me the seats really looks OK from your pictures for worn 30 yr old leather.

How did they look before ?
Comparing the before and after pictures is a better way to judge whether your $$$ has been well spent.

I agree. The seats look decent to me considering the age.

I think this is a matter of setting expectations. The OP was probably expecting/hoping the seats would look like new again. The upholsterer probably did the best he could and thought the seats were great.

IMHO, without further pictures it looks like a simple case of mismatched expectations on both ends. Bear in mind I'm not criticizing the OP or defending the upholsterer.....saying we don't know enough to really make a judgement call on this one.

[Discseven]

Originally Posted by pmax

Besides the "Looks like new" comment which is like a mechanic saying the car runs perfect after service, to me the seats really looks OK from your pictures for worn 30 yr old leather.

How did they look before ?
Comparing the before and after pictures is a better way to judge whether your $$$ has been well spent.

Before and after on the top sides are identical Pmax. More I think it over, the more I'm inclined to dive into salvaging this leather and making the bottoms look right. I'd take covers off and if I can rip them easily... that's that. After I post this, I'm putting seats up on table to ponder out a decision.

[Cairo94507]

With out before pictures.....tough to tell what was or was not done. The leather does look pretty old and fragile though.

[javadog]

I think the work looks terrible. Obviously the foam needs some work too, but the shop I use would never let that back out the door looking like that. For those that think seats that it's not unusual for seats that old to look like that, here's a set of seats from the same year:

[Discseven]

Java... those are worn but worn nicely. Even the driver's bolster is good. You obviously took care of them.

[Discseven]

Taking seats apart now. Will eat my words about resew not being done. It was. My bad (and my apology to Joe) in regard to this. Will edit OP.) Have looked at pull downs and wonder why, if he did the resew... why did he not straighten out the bottom cushion as I specifically asked be done? Am going ahead with sorting these seats out myself. First a leather check. Will start new thread if salvage proceeds.

Resew... Am having crow with morning coffee.




A view of pull downs. First pic is side pull. Second pic is pull that runs across bottom of cushion side-to-side. The plan is to correctly adjust these which means more tension on leather... will it hold up!? I may end up perf'ing new leather and replacing center of bottom cushion. Undecided at this moment.

[DRACO A5OG]

Yeah, but as you wrote the assembly was at best sloppy. He should be ashamed to even give the seats back like that.

How hard is it to follow simple requests or at least warn you that it may not look the same once skin comes off.

Take this time to consider rebuilding the foam with some denser foam especially at the bolsters or even seat warmers while you are there and go top down year round!

[Discseven]

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

Yeah, but as you wrote the assembly was at best sloppy. He should be ashamed to even give the seats back like that.

How hard is it to follow simple requests or at least warn you that it may not look the same once skin comes off.

Take this time to consider rebuilding the foam with some denser foam especially at the bolsters or even seat warmers while you are there and go top down year round!

Exactly the reason for my disappointment Jim. I'm sharing this with the Pelican hood for the sake of adding intel to primarily the Miami Porsche community. But surly others can glean from my experience. This was a cash-paid job with no record. And the company's owner's words when I expressed concern about this process... "Trust me." I'll take the blame for my f'ing up here and move on.

Jim... you know where this has gone. For others... Salvage Journey - Original 911 Leather Seats

[DaveMcKenz]

Hi Karl,
The other thing to do is to steam the foam rubber while it is apart. Lots of times the leather shrinks and squeezes the foam to a smaller size. The steam will restore some of that. My 84 seats responded very well to that. I have a small electric steamer that looks kind of like a watering can, and I steamed each cushion for 10-15 minutes, then dried in the sun.
Good luck,
Dave

[Discseven]

Originally Posted by DaveMcKenz

Hi Karl,
The other thing to do is to steam the foam rubber while it is apart. Lots of times the leather shrinks and squeezes the foam to a smaller size. The steam will restore some of that. My 84 seats responded very well to that. I have a small electric steamer that looks kind of like a watering can, and I steamed each cushion for 10-15 minutes, then dried in the sun.
Good luck,
Dave

This is a new one for me Dave --- Thanks!

[donagain1]

I just did a DIY replacement of my sport seats with a vinyl kit, but never mind about the material, I'm commenting on the amount of WORK it is to remove and replace the covers. I've never done it before, but after getting a quote of $150 bucks per skin (that's $300 bucks per seat, $600 for the pair), I had to try. The point is that this guy charged you a labor amount that darned near equals the cost of installing a whole new reupholstery kit (which Autoberry sells leather kits for around $700). Not trying to beat on you for a bad decision to pay so much for a re-stitch job, just expressing frustration over these guys taking advantage of a client. Some of them see a guy pull up in a Porsche and immediately they're hearing the "ching ching!" or cash register bells.