japlaza787

Hi. I have been looking for leather seat cover kits to replace my original factory leather upholstery. So far, what I have seen mostly is leather cover kits to replace factory cloth upholstery. Not sure if it is related to the plastics that our seats have in the upper portion of the back of the front seats. I think these are part of the air bag security system.


Anyway, contacted leatherseats.com and their pattern is for swaping from cloth to leather. Also awaiting some leather samples from lseat.com, but have not asked if their kits will replace factory leather, and still pending to contact autoseatskins for the katzin kit, although I have their leather samples portfolio.


Have anyone replaced their factory leather using any of these kits?
Also, for those that have DIY, can you comment on any major complexity encountered. My plan is to DIY.


Also, I'm surprised there is no threads related to the interiors upholstery, or maybe I have not searched enough. It will be nice to see works done with some of these kits.

BigBadChris

iTrader: (4)

You can find people doing interior part outs on ebay. I have seen folks sell the whole set, seat covers and door panels. Thats how I got my steering wheel replaced

zendrums

iTrader: (2)

This. I changed my entire interior from cloth to leather and added heated seats for a total of $400, and everything is in amazing condition. I bought the front seats separate from the rest of the interior. Back + doors cost $100 and I paid $300 for the front seats at a local auto recycler.

Check out car-part.com and see if there are any local to you. Check em out before you buy em though.

japlaza787

Thanks. I will check ebay again but I do prefer a new kit.


What I see is that it appears the available kits are replacements when changing from factory cloth to leather. What happens when replacing factory leather with leather? Does the covers pattern change that much? or is something related to the seats? Are there any kits to replace factory leather?

Nisaja

I've seen kits on eBay. No idea about the fit and finish though. Do you really need real leather? Synthetic leather will be a lot cheaper.

New Yorker

Not to sidetrack the conversation, but this discussion reminded me; I, for one, have always thought of my 8 as a semi-exotic car at a bargain basement price. So the idea of spending serious coin here and there to plus the car really appeals to me. Our cars, like all cars, were built to a price point which, for sports cars, was relatively low. I like the idea of upgrading the interior (and other parts) to make the car more closely resemble what it would have been had it sold for, say $40 or 50K instead of 30. Just think of what you could do with the leather, carpeting, sound system, noise insulation, paint job, etc. And after you do all that, you still have a relatively inexpensive semi-exotic sports car!

(Oh, and if you don't think the 8 is semi-exotic - or even fully exotic - get it detailed one day, pull into a mall or restaurant parking lot, and just wait. Strangers will come up to you and ask what kind of car it is. And how come they've never heard of or seen one before. Then ask them to guess how much it cost new.)

japlaza787

Well, between synthetic and real leather, I prefer real. Anyway, I my 8 has oem leather (synthetic or real?, I think mostly synthetic). What I'm trying to figure out is that the replacement leather kits I have seen are to replace factory cloth. When it comes to replace factory leather, there is no kit available. Wondering why is that and if there is any other suppliers I don't know about or if I'm limited to a local shop.

japlaza787

I agree, that's what I like from my 8. It has already 11 years and still you see people taking a look while you are driving or stop at any place.