[RPM]

The driver's seat is holding up OK, but I am just about sick of the cracks. I want to fix it before it tears and the foam bolsters get damaged. Would like to just do the one seat but suspect that is not going to work. It would never look right and the chances of matching leather down the road would be slim. I would like to go full leather as long as I'm at it.



Who has done this and what was the experience and cost?

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[94SilverCab]

I used leather mender and dye from www.leatherworld.com



Everyone who has seen it agrees that it is a vast improvement over my old torn and cracked seats (or at least half-vast... <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> )



Regards,



Jay

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[flash]

$500 a seat for complete leather reupholstery is the going rate here

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[mitch968]

Jay, are you sure that's the website? Doesn't look like a real site. Do you have any photos of your repair? I might want to go the cheap route for my bolster for now.

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[Darryl]

I'm going to be trying this in the next few weeks.



http://www.leatherworldtech.com/



They have Porsche colors listed and it looks fairly straightforward, but I'm banking on digging deep into my arts and crafts abilities...nothing's easy!



I think Jay may be referring to this site as well...



- Darryl

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[flash]

something to remember - from talking with upholsterer's and restoration guys, all dyes topically applied tend to harden or stiffen the leather - if your leather is already dry and/or cracking or stiff, this, nor any other similar product will last long or work well - you can try removing the leather and vat dying it, but at that point, you may as well just replace it



sorry to be the bearer of bad news - i've tried most of the products out there at one time or another, in a desperate attempt to avoid paying for new upholstery, and they are all pretty much the same - they can work ok as long as the leather is in good condition to begin with, but once it's dry, it's over



the moral of this story is "keep your leather in good shape, and don't let it dry out"



so far, the best product i've seen for this is Leather CPR - based on every car i've seen it on, it appears to work better than saddle soap, brooke's proofide, lederpfledge, blue magic, neatsfoot oil, glove oil, connoly, and meguiere's - it can be found at restoration hardware and bed, bath and beyond, for about 10 bucks a jar - apply at about once a month

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[94SilverCab]

Thank you Darryl, you are correct. Cost me about $85 in materials, 4 days worth of labor



Before and after pic...I actually fixeed it again to corect even better, but you get the idea, Next time I will go to the local interior guy and have him piece in the bolster before reshooting.



Jay

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[Darryl]

Jay - that's the correct website that you were referring to, but this is the one that I was thinking of ordering from:



http://www.leatherrepairkits.com/



I'm guessing they are basically the same, so I'll post the after pics too. Yours looks pretty decent...how long has the repair been and how is it holding up?



4 days of labor??? Holy crap...I was thinking one day for the repair and overnight to dry prior to use. The site has downloadable instructions...I was having trouble posting the PDF here.



- Darryl

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[flash]

hmmm - bondo and paint for leather - i've seen the results of some of those kits and they were always pretty stiff, and didn't take long to discolor



jay - how long ago did you do yours? how is it holding up? (sorry, i didn't really look that closely when i was there) just how flexible is that when it's done? does it feel like nice soft leather?



85 bucks and 4 days???? for one seat? ouch that seems like a lot of money to me



if it takes that long, i'm thinking new upholstery is looking better and better, at a grand for 2 brand new seats

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[94SilverCab]

We did this in September/October



Yes to the bondo part, not stiff, but clearly a patch...leather is dyed anytway so the "painted" part is not an accurate portayal (my friend "discovered" leather dye when he wanted a particular color of docksidrs and someone ponted him in that direction, no difference), this is the same stuff used by manufacturers.



The repair glue seems to be working pretty well, hard to tell how it will hold up, I try to never touch the bolsters and the car does not get the use that it used to.



Actually 4 days of draping to avoid overspray and 30 minutes to airbrush the seats, door panels, dash, storage compartment covers, etc. Draping one way for gray and the other for black (remember, I have deviating interioir)



We airbrushed every part of the interior. We left the console cover for last so we could exactly color match every other part first.

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[flash]

ah - now i understand



i took a pretty good look at the rest of the interior, and that looked pretty darned good

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[Darryl]

Wow, Jay, that was indeed a helluva project. I can see where the light gray would get dirty much like the tan and cashmere. I only have that area on the driver's bolster to actually "repair", so I'm looking for more of a temporary fix to prevent more damage. I also have dark blue and so far some good cleaning has made it significantly more "blue", so I can tell how dirty the leather actually was. I've been using the Meguire's cleaner/conditioner and have been pretty happy so far...more to do a little at a time! Your airbrushing the whole interior really spruced it up nice.



- Darryl

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[94SilverCab]

Thanks folks, I'm much happier with the interior now, it was a bit of an embarrassment at last years Celebration.



I use Lexol now to keep the leather lustrous and soft.

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[jeff968]

I went the repair and re-dye route and found it to be a complete waste of time and money. It didn't hold up at all. My thoughts, once the leather underneath is worn out you really have no choice but to replace it. I spent $1400 doing mine. I used the guys who advertise in pano in CA. I can't remember their names. They did a nice job on the covers. I couldn't get the original cover material in vinyl any longer so i went with full leather. The covers cost $1000. Then, i made another mistake. I should have sent my seats to them and had them do the install. Would have been a pain and I would have had to ship the seats with additional expense but I had a local guy do them and I wasn't happy with his work. Still it is done and it looks much better then the original worn seats. Now i'll keep them treated and they should hold up. Here's a photo link:



http://pages.cthome.net/jeff968/968newintr.jpg





BTW, I added the pipeing. Porsche got $1400 for the pipeing as a factory option. The cost for having it done to my new covers, zero!!! Much better price and i like the look.

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