Leather seat covers diy.

Hi Everyone, Just completed my DIY leather seat covers job, it's not for the faint hearted, all be it removing the seats from the car and removing the existing seat covers is relatively straight forward, but IMHO that is where it ends, the easy bit.

First of all you will make a mistake if you follow a "how to do it" from some one who has used leatherette, this stuff when warm stretches and real quality leather does not. The advice given the club link "how to do it" for the seats base was to apply the leather from the back of the seat and then work your way forward to the front attaching 17 cable ties to the support wires inside the leather, when you get to the front of the seat there is no way you can stretch the leather 3 inches to reach the edge retaining cleats under the front of the seat, i had to cut off all the cable ties and start again working from the front of the seat to the back, you must attach the leather at the front to the cleats and then use the power of the cable ties to stretch the leather and the termination under the back of the seat is much easier. The cable ties per seat is 50 off, 40 of these replace "hog rings", 8 mm hard steel rings, not easy to cut and pull out of the polyurethane mouldings.

The other major issue is just removing the head rests, easy once you know how, i tried brute force etc and eventually got info, not from the "how to do it" link which was incorrect, the plastic release button is not inside the seat upper area but instead it sits below the seat covering on the outside where the 10mm retaining rods enter the top of the seat, when you locate this stupid design completely hidden, then once pressed hard the head rest can be pulled clear, you press each side simultaneously.

The other issue is the poor quality and lack of strength in the zips which retain the seats upright back and the head rests, they will zip so far and when the full pull of the leather comes on the zips just burst open, i had to replace with tiny cable ties. The zips would hold out if you were using leatherette.

The quality of the leather itself and the workmanship is superb and £300, inc. duty and transport from the USA can't be bad, see pics.I have not put the pics in any progressive order, but you will see which pieces you want to look at when you attempt the job, eventually i may put them in a start to finish order, but low on patience having just completed the job, yes it has been worth it but frustrating and fiddly. herbiemercman.

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Interesting & useful write up. Where did you obtain the new covers?

Hi Tintin, I will PM you.

Looks like you have done a great job. Did you do the rear seats too as they seem to be the only negative with their kits imo such a tricky shape.

Fronts look very good though, and once they tighten up a bit will look even better.

Good job dude, looks great

Cheers guys and another thanks to the guys who put this supplier on the map for me, and gave me assurances when i thought the site was a scam due to the agents top flat in USA address and his payment e-mail was weird. Some tossers are cloning sites now and you get done, i used pay-pal as at least you have some recourse etc.

My brother just had his front seats done in leather here in the UK on his Toyota Amazon it cost him £1,500 and they look no better than mine do, the only thing is he drove in and drove out did not have hog rings and bits of everything all over his kitchen for two days. lol.

I thought that I read in the past that someone who fitted some covers including the nova-suede inserts had a problem with fading in sun light? I enquired with the company and was assured that they are fine, but the material manufactures site technical document seems vague to me. Does anyone know of such issues?

I never heared of the fading, but i cannot see it, especially when the majority of customers who have purchased these seat covers live in the USA where they have sun shine.

Hi Guys, Just adding some more pics for the driver's seat, this side is a little more difficult with all the electrics and the control knobs etc, especially the big circular knob for adjusting the height of the seat, you have to prize the plastic cowling away just enough to see the "U" clip which you push off with a screw driver, the other knobs just prize off.

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Forgot to mention the headrests, first thing to note is you have to actually shear the three plastic retainers which surround the but ends where the headrests enter the back of the seat, you discard these as they shear and cannot be reused. You use three tiny cable ties to replace the plastic retainers, also you have to carefully run a Marley knife along the rear sewn joint to cut the stitches, the cover can then be peeled off, bit like skinning a rabbit.

When you fit your new cover place a plastic bag over the headrest, this allows the cover to slip on easy and you just trim the bag before closing the cover off, to close the cover off you can use the tiny cable ties or use waxed cotton thread to replace the lower stitching, all this is completely hidden when the headrests are mounted on the seats.

If you are replacing your covers with a cloth or leatherette, this process is much easier as these materials have a lot of stretch, BUT with leather i had to use cable ties to pull the joint at the bottom together, it is impossible to close the plastic zip and they burst open when the leather is in full stretch, the ties look fine and are hidden when the headrest is mounted on the seat. The photo shows the underside of the headrest where you cut the sewn joint line and also show the original plastic retainers.

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