refinishing leather seats

[Craig Lebakken]

Roa, Greg writes:

"I have a set of leather seats from a 4kq that I want to put
into my car.
The problem is, they are starting to crack, and some of the
leather has worn
spots.  Has anyone had luck with redyeing seats, or have
some technique to
make them look nicer, and last a bit longer?"

A couple of years ago, I bought a mint 85 4KQ, only because
it was a steal. One owner, 100K mi, garaged its whole life,
complete dossier of records. It was red with a mocha leather
interior. My plan was to move all my performance stuff from
my 250K mi silver 4KQ to this newer red one, put the other
stuff back on my silver 4KQ, then sell the silver one.
Problem was, my silver one ran and drove better. But boy
that mocha leather was pretty...........

So I swapped interiors. Not a bad job, took about two days
to get the red one ready for sale. Sold it in two days for
$300 more than I paid for it, with the standard grey velour
from my silver one. The leather interior from the red one
was in pretty good shape, but not good enough for me. I had
to completely rebuild the left side bolsters (lap, and
shoulder) since the previous owner was a lady who weighed
250+. Did this, and brought the seats, and door panels to an
upholstery shop that specializes in leather
repair/restoration. Reshot the works for $220. In a slightly
darker mocha color that was my preference. It has held up
well. I do take care to not slide down the bolsters when I
get in/out. I also have a enough dye to reshoot both fronts
if I need to. I can do touchups with a Preval sprayer if
necessary. It has worked out well.

The bottom line is that the only way this is practical is if
you bring the components to the leather shop. The bill will
quadruple if they have to remove/reinstall.

HTH

Craig Lebakken
1986 4KQ Zermatt Silver/Mocha leather (but no htd seats!
damn!)