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Upholsterer to Avoid in Miami
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? ![]()
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. Last edited by Discseven; 05-13-2016 at 06:39 AM.. Reason: I proved myself wrong in post #15. Edited here. |
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Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 347
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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
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Member 911 Anonymous
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Geez Brother Karl, sorry to read this.
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'85 Carrera Targa Factory Marble Grey/Black * Turbo Tail * 930 Steering Wheel* Sport Seats * 17" Fuchs (r) * 3.4 * 964 Cams * 915 * LSD * Factory SS * Turbo Tie Rods * Bilsteins * Euro Pre-Muff * SW Chip on 4K DME * NGK * Sienes GSK * Targa Body Brace PCA/POC |
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Join Date: Dec 2008
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Trying to rework old leather is damn near impossible. He should not have accepted the job.
Easier to start with fresh stretchy leather.
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1973 911S (since new) RS MFI specs 1991 C2 Turbo |
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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
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Quote:
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.
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. |
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I still have your link saved for recovering Jim!
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. |
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Join Date: Nov 2011
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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.
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De Oppresso Liber Strength and Honor 5th Legion |
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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. |
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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. |
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Quote:
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. |
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With out before pictures.....tough to tell what was or was not done. The leather does look pretty old and fragile though.
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'71 914-6 #0372 '17 Macan GTS |
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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:
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Java... those are worn but worn nicely. Even the driver's bolster is good. You obviously took care of them.
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. |
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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. ![]() ![]()
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. |
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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 ![]()
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'85 Carrera Targa Factory Marble Grey/Black * Turbo Tail * 930 Steering Wheel* Sport Seats * 17" Fuchs (r) * 3.4 * 964 Cams * 915 * LSD * Factory SS * Turbo Tie Rods * Bilsteins * Euro Pre-Muff * SW Chip on 4K DME * NGK * Sienes GSK * Targa Body Brace PCA/POC |
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Jim... you know where this has gone. For others... Salvage Journey - Original 911 Leather Seats
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. |
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Join Date: Jun 2013
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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
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Dave McKenzie 1984 Carrera 3.2 1984 928S Automatic 2001 996TT |
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Quote:
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Karl ~~~ Current: '80 Silver Targa w /'85 3.2. 964 cams, SSI, Dansk 2 in 1 out muf, custom fuel feed with spin on filter Prior: '77 Copper 924. '73 Black 914. '74 White Carrera. '79 Silver, Black, Anthracite 930s. |
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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.
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