Tattered driver's seat (leather). Advice/suggestions needed

[Sullivan]

So, my 92T's driver's seat finally cracked the leather, right in the middle of where my back goes. It's not looking too bad yet but it clearly needs to be replaced.

I found this place: leatherseats.com . They will sell a complete set of leather seat covers (vinyl on the side trim, etc.) made to fit the car for $829. $50 extra to have the leather parts perforated.

This sounded like a decent deal, but I had them send me samples. Their leather has a very different appearance to Toyota's - it has a much deeper, more obvious grain while mine is more smooth. This isn't due to wear on mine, as mine show the same smoothness everywhere, even in places not normally sat on.

Also they say all of their perforation is to a "Ford pattern". They sent me a sample of that too. It's a little finer pitched (holes are closer together) than the Toyota.

The car has 160,000 miles on it, but the engine was rebuilt (short block on up) at 90,000 (BHG, of course). Except for the mostly-new engine, the stereo, and the usual replacement parts over time, it is factory stock.

A custom fabricated set of seat covers to get an exact match is out of the question.

I'm not looking to sell the car right now, but you never know - of course I don't want to hurt the resale value, but I don't like driving the car with the tattered leather driver's seat. Would these not-quite-looking-like-original seat covers be just horrible? Mind you, very few people outside of Supra enthusiasts would be able to tell the difference.

What would anyone else here do? Is there an alternative I haven't considered?

 

[fixitman04]

i have the leatherseats.com set in my car... very nice. did have to add a little foam on the front of the seat to get it to fit perfect... but id do it again if i had to... definitely the best option

 

[GrimJack]

Are you talking about the recovering option that they sell? If so, it's really nice quality, a bit of a bitch to install, but ok if you have a GOOD set of side cutters and buy a pair of hog ring pliers. And a bunch of hog rings, of course. I did mine, they came out pretty damn nice. I wouldn't be concerned with the slight differences between stock and this... among other things, stock seats are almost without exception in pretty sad shape by now, while these will look mint.

 

[pbsupra90]

A cheaper way to go might be going to a qualified auto interior restoration place. I had cloth seats in the front that were starting to wear out. I covered them with nice two tone neoprene seats. The interior of my '90 Turbo is dark blue, so they replaced the front and back with two tone dark/light blue neoprene seats. Looks great. Not as nice as leather, but will last a long time and does go well with rest of interior. A good reputable auto restoration place will charge about $300-400 for front and same amount for back. Just a thought. pbsupra90

 

[spinningheadboy]

Here is what I did...interior build thread.

http://www.supramania.com/forums/sh...-Leather-Heated-Seats-amp-Alcantara-Dashboard

 

[Enraged]

I talked to a local auto upholstery shop, and they said it would be about $300 per front seat, in vinyl. They order kits for the seats in leather, and would likely be around $1250.... I'll be going with leatherseats.com I think.

edit: I contacted leatherseats.com awhile ago, and if you only want the front seats, they sell them for $579. I don't have back seats anymore so I'm only planning to buy the fronts.