Seat Tear

[Kent McLean]

Eric Langheinrich wrote:
> My drivers side seat recently had a tear in the leather. Is there 
> a way to repair it? Is my only option to have the leather removed 
> and replaced? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I haven't seen a response to this, so I'll give you my 2 cents...  

If the tear is actually a split at the seam, which is quite common, 
you should be able to remove the seat, remove the leather covering,
restitch the seam (either with a shoe-type sewing machine, or by 
hand), and put it all back together.

If the tear is in the middle of the seat, and you just want patch 
it, you could try the following (no guarantees): remove the seat, 
and remove the leather covering.  Get a piece of strong fabric and 
glue it on the backside of the tear. When the glue has dried (24 
hours or more), put it all back together.

The fabric should be strong and thin. I'm thinking nylon. You don't 
want a thick fabric, as it will show as a bump under the tear.  The 
glue should dry flexible, so it will move with the flexing of the
leather/seat.

If you were careful closing the tear when applying the patch, you 
might be done.  If not, that leaves the "hole" where the tear was
that needs to be filled.  I don't know how to hide that, but you 
might consider a black caulk that dries flexibe to fill the hole; 
or it may make a mess -- your call.

But if you want it to look good, you might try contacting some of 
the used Audi parts vendor (Force 5, Shokan) to see if you can buy 
just the leather of the seat bottom/back. Also, see if a local 
upholsterer can replace the torn section.

-- 
Kent McLean
'94 100 S Avant, "Moody"
'89 200 TQ, "Bad Puppy" up in smoke