928 Leather Seat Refinishing- Slippery Slope Chapter MDCXXVI

[Rob Edwards]

I had the seats out of the GTS in order to deal with the A/C re-sealing project, and decided the seats needed help. They're not bad, but were dirty as hell and had some cracks forming even after a Leatherique soak and a good clean. I'd thought about ordering a Colorplus kit for the light gray seats, but have a receipt from the PO who had them resprayed before, and I was worried about the color match. That, and there were some cracks forming on the driver's side bolster. So I asked Mark A. about local refinishers. He referred me to Lee Mayer at Pioneer Leather here in SoCal, who made a house call today and worked for 4 hours on the seats. Basically, he stripped them, dried them, worked in a base pigment coat, did some filling and sanding on the bolster, sprayed another couple of light pigment coats, and then sprayed a clear with something he called 'touch agent', IIRC.

Some obligatory pics:

The starting point on the driver's side seat bottom. Lee pulled or taped off all the plastic, covers, and switches.



Closeup on the driver's side bolster- cracks and fraying on the piping:




Then he broke out the stripper and spent the next hour wiping the seats down to get all the old surface pigment off. Note how much duller the surface of the leather is compared to the previous pic- the older spray job was sort of like sitting on a your grandma's plastic sofa protector- kind of shiny and crinkly feeling. Note the old overspray on the seat hinge piece. Previously the seats were done in the car, there was gray paint on the seat rails and floor of the car under the carpet....



After some drying time he started in with his sprayer, laying down a base coat that he worked in with a foam brush:



The bolster then got some sort of filler, which he heated/dried and sanded:



Then there was a lot more spraying, drying, and clearing.

The finished work:

Passenger seat:



Driver's side bolster:



Lee and the seats:


He said that the seats could be put back in the car today and the surface will be fully cured in 3-4 days. I'm in no rush so I put them back in the house and will install later on. Total cost was $300- I'm really happy with the results. The pictures may make the 'before' pics look not so bad but the camera really can't capture how uneven the old surface was and how much better they look now.

Anyhoo, just a happy customer pointing out a good option for leather refurbishing in SoCal.

[Shark_Week]

wow Rob, what a difference! they look great. can he repair tears in the bolster area?

[IcemanG17]

WOW....looks great for a modest cost!!!! I think I paid over $600 back in 2006 to fix the seats in Sharky.....

[pcar928fan]

Rob,

Had nearly the exact same thing done to my '88 S4 just a few months ago. Stripped, fixed little cracks that were forming, sanded, base coats, top coat! REALLY made a nice difference to me...if you are like me you will probably want to do the rear seats now too...damn that slippery slope!

[Nicole]

Does he make house calls in Northern California as well?

He can come right by my house then...

[jpitman2]

The good leather guys can do amazing stuff! I had some terrible marks in my leather rear quarter panels (people letting the seat belt tang flop back on exit etc), as well as general wear and tear. I found a leather specialist guy and left the car with him for a full interior refurb of ALL the leather . Unless you know where to look, you wont see any of the old issues now. Cost a bit more than Rob's seat work, but now I can be REALLY proud of the whole car. Unless you are very careful on entry and exit, the driver's bolster can really take a beating - just watching my other half get in, her backside almost folds the edge of the bolster double , and enough of this can start cracking the leather. Most people just arent aware of whats going on here.
Strangely this guy makes most of his money from small jobs on ladies accessories, not car work. Mind you he did have a two tone 50's Corvette in that on my last visit.
jp 83 Euro S AT 52k

[FredR]

Originally Posted by Shark_Week

wow Rob, what a difference! they look great. can he repair tears in the bolster area?

Martin,

It is very easy to repair tears. They stick a patch of leather inside the seat and fix it with a special adhesive so that it closes the gap in the teat. They then use a special leather filler, sand it down and you literally cannot see the join. Then they complete the coloring process.

The driver's side bolster is particularly vulnerable to tearing- especially in hot climates like ours where the leather tends to dry out no matter how hard you try to keep it nourished.

The whole process is well suited to those of us who have light seat colours. A friend does mine for me in his refinishing shop and apparently the company he uses [European] have just introduced a new line of product that leaves the leather not only looking new but also feels new. We are going to re-do my seats shortly.

Regards

Fred R

[danglerb]

http://www.pioneerleather.com/

[NoVector]

Originally Posted by Nicole

Does he make house calls in Northern California as well?

Hell, I wonder if he can come to San Antonio. Those look fantastic!

[Marine Blue]

Rob that looks awesome, he did a great job!

Did he offer any special suggestions to care for the seats?

[SeanR]

Looks fantastic Rob, very impressive.

[JWise]

Wow, those look like new! (and I didn't know Tony Stewart did leather work in his spare time. )

[tlsmith1999]

James,
Do you have before/after pic of yours? And who did you have do them?

[Ducman82]

Looks real good. how does it feel to the touch?

[dr bob]

Rob--

Those are GREAT results!

The method you describe sounds similar to what I did a few years ago on my driver's seat bolsters. I didn't do the full strip and restore the base coat though. I sanded the area wher the cracks were, and used a foam frush without any spraying. Did he strip the whole bolster or just to the areas where there was surface cracking?