Seats restored.....

[TristanC]

I had a local leather restorer sort my seats out and I’ve just picked them up.
I’m really rather pleased with the results.

I could have recovered them, but I really wanted to keep as many original parts from 1982 as possible.


So for £150, here are some shots of the before and after.......

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Tris

[theningiachicken]

They look very nice Tris. Not a bad price for a restoration seeing as though new covers from DMC Houston are £500 each.

[TristanC]

Yep, I’m pretty pleased with these.
Looking forward to getting them back in the car this weekend

[Chris P]

They look brilliant Tris, definitely worth hanging on to the originals.

[TristanC]

Cheers Chris.

I’ll get more pics on once they are back in 11477 this weekend.
(Along with my new idle ecu )

[SpudMurphy]

Nice one Tris.
Mine had two small tears to the vinyl and one tear in the driver seat -back rest.

I fixed the tears using a backing piece of material and "Wurth Bond" (!!!!!) because it stick just about anything to anything and remains flexible.

Followed that up with Connolly Hide Food. Jobs a good 'un.

[TristanC]

Cheers Kev,

A local chap sorted these for me. I’m quite pleased.... but now they’re in, I feel he needs to come and go over whole interior with the same dye....

Sorry I’ve not popped up..... but the weekend I was was going to arrange it, my D was acting up with the over revving
Still trying to sort it too

[TristanC]

Well, the cheap resto on these seats didn’t last long.

A brand new tear right across the bolster on the driver seat occurred a few weeks ago.
Plus the colour never really did look right in the car. It was more of a sea grey (more blue)

So my advice...... stick with the unrestored seats or get them recovered professionally......
Guess what? That’s what I’ve done !!!

Tomorrow evening I should have brand spanking newly covered seats back from Lee Pattison.
New OE covers fitted by Lee and he’s tidied up the black metal fixings and repainted the rear seat cover too.

I’ll update the thread with pics soon!!!

[Chris P]

    I'm sure Lee will do a first class job Tris and this is the way I would have gone too.   But, being a natural material,  many 'dried out' leather seats CAN be restored by many frequent applications of a good quality leather cream such as Glipstone, which I have used for years.

  My late business partner, Frank Cholerton, once bought a 100 year old full length, Chauffeurs brown leather coat, which actually looked like it was made out of very tough cardboard!  It literarily stood up on its own!  Frank spent many happy hours/ weeks/ months, slowly bringing it back to life and used to wear it when driving his 1922 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost around Derby.

[TristanC]

These aren’t the best pics due to limited garage space...... but wow. 
Just wow....

[SpudMurphy]

Wow - new seat covers huh?

that was an interesting story regarding the old leather coat that stood up!

A very good friend of mine owned a leather n Luggage business in Cardiff. I used to hang around there a lot - my wife hated it when I got home as I stank from all the dyes n stuff he used. Alas he suffered a stroke and had to give it up.

by far THE best stuff I've seen for old leather is Connolly Leather Hide food - he used to apply it and let some warmth soak in - unbelievable - it's about 16 -18 quid for a small jar. I've used it on a leather coat for the last 25 years - un frigging believable !!!

[TristanC]

Yep, had to be done.
Lee in Kent has the NOS material to make new covers and also the vinyl backing.
The leather fronts smell gorgeous and the vinyl backs he dyed to match.

Absolutely smashing job.
Can’t wait to get them back in.

[Chris P]

Very interesting chaps, I love the look of Lee's covers.....he's the Chris N of car trimmers!

I have a large quantity of 'part' seat cover bits,  various stitched vinyl pieces. (they came with a load of new seat covers I bought years ago from a firm in Nottingham, who bought a job lot of DeLorean seats, covers and other bit and bobs)  I'll contact Lee and see if he can make use of them.

 Regarding the resurrection of old leather stuff, I think Frank used 'Neatsfoot oil'?   I know it smelled foul, but it did the job.    I like the cleaner / food I use because  for me, its mostly about scrubbing the muck out of the leather, rather than resurrecting  very dry stuff.

(I don't want to highjack your thread, but I still have a complete set of beige Rover 75 saloon seats in stock...that were absolutally filthy and after a few days work, are now almost like new...if anyone want them, get in touch. They stand be at about £250. I also have a set of Rover75 Crown Alloys with as new Michelin all weather tyres for similar money.)

[TristanC]

I said the very same thing CP - Lee is most definately the Chris N of upholsterers !

[TristanC]

Here they are all neatly installed and looking AWESOME!:



And a comparison with my original seat covers
(Before the redying)


Lee is a perfectionist and is the best value for money when getting your seats done. Honestly, do not go anywhere else, don’t try to restore, just get it done right the first time.

Lee even cleaned up the black metal components for me and redyed the vinyl seat backs to match.