Seat repair options

[rjkoop]

Guys,
I'm wondering what options I have for the seats in my 1981 Fiat Spider. Here's a pic.



For some reason the PO used the wrong color leather to repair the driver's seat. There is also a rip in the middle of the seat as well. Can this rip be repaired? I'm just getting the car and don't want to spend my entire budget on the seats alone.

After I get the seats out I'm going to clean them up and use mink oil on them (based on posts that I've seen here). Hopefully this will spruce them up a bit.

Richard

[wikkid]

You may want to investigate the Leatherique line of cleaner/conditioner, and dye. You can clean out years of nasty dirtiness that is so into the seats that you barely see it; then condition the leather to re-soften it and keep it from drying out and getting brittle (leads to cracking). You can also get a dye to restore the seat color and make that off-panel blend in.
Link: http://www.leatherique.com/do_it_your_self_instruction/
Stuff is also available thru autopia or autogeek, if you are getting other detailing supplies as well.

For the ripped seam, it looks like you could get it re-sewn once the seat cover taken off. For any rip in leather that is not on the seam, you can use contact cement to glue a patch of leather to the back side of the rip as reinforcement, then Leatherique makes a crack filler material that you would use to fill it prior to re-dying.

Hope that helps. There is a lot of good leather care info and how-to's on the Leatherique site that will give you a lot of knowledge about how to care for and fix leather upholstery. And no, I have no stake in the company

[Exit98]

RJ,

Are the seat covers actually leather?

Earilier Spiders are vinyl. I thought only the very last ones came with leather, but what do I know?

In any case, seams can be repaired. Sometimes though once you pull the covers off you find the foam cushion is pretty deteriorated. Wikkid's good advice is on the mark.

In any case, leather and vinyl dyes work great. Get the rips fixed, clean everything up, then you can spray the whole interior a matching shade of tan.

[rjkoop]

Yep. I'm not sure they are leather. I'll have a closer look. Sounds stupid but what's the easiest way to tell? Should be obvious no?

[Danno]

those look like my stock vinyl seats. clean the stuff with leather cleaner anyway. get a vinyl repair/patch kit and some SEM spray to fix the mismatched piece on the driver's side. The seats otherwise look fairly good for a driver!

[RRoller123]

If you can look at the back of a section, the vinyl will show a clear fabric woven substrate.

[wikkid]

Yeah, sorry - I was referencing my '84 seats, that have leather panels on the top surfaces, and vinyl on the sides and rear of seat and headrest.
Whatever you do, use the best cleaner you can get before you start working on them.

[davidhodowany]

Check out convertibletopguys.com. You can get a brand new interior both front and back seats for under $400.00