Leather seats

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Yale
Posts: 825
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 4:56 pm
Location: New York City

Leather seats

Post by Yale »

Hi folks my aforementioned two year restoration of my car made my orange seats pretty dry and then the mechanic whose ship they are at sat on them during a test drive and the drivers side cracked in the bottom part. I have another set of very dry untreated for many years seats that is probably too far gone to use to replace thus seat bottom do I'm at a quandary what to do as I have tried to my 12 years of ownership to keep the orginal interior. Thoughts? Tia.
Ex - 1964 330GT #6097
1963 Abarth Monomille
1970 Porsche 911S
1974 BMW 2002turbo
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Yale
Posts: 825
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 4:56 pm
Location: New York City

Re: Leather seats

Post by Yale »

Damn that post could use a little editing!
Ex - 1964 330GT #6097
1963 Abarth Monomille
1970 Porsche 911S
1974 BMW 2002turbo
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TOMKIZER
Posts: 412
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:51 pm
Location: Québec City

Re: Leather seats

Post by TOMKIZER »

Yale, when I restored my '69 Queen I saved all the old leather. I changed all the leather one year after having carefully stripped and redyed the original leather. It was always #3218 Pelle Beige (or as you said, "Orange"). I replaced it because the driver's seat was too cracked to repair. However, all the rest is in pretty good shape; the passenger seat, both backs, and especially the rear seats and panels. If you want it, it's yours for just the shipping. Maybe you can use it to selectively repair yours. Much of it was disassembled (unsewn) to make patterns for the new leather - I did not use a kit.

If you want, I can take it out of the boxes, lay it out and photograph it for you to help you decide if it's worth the effort.

Tom Kizer
So many sidewalk cafés - so little time left.
1969 365 GT 2+2 S/N 12293 (Gone but not forgotten)
1967 230 SL 4-spd (Currently on CPR)
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TOMKIZER
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Location: Québec City

Re: Leather seats

Post by TOMKIZER »

Here what it looked like just before I had it replaced. You can see that the driver's seat was not perfectly repaired. That's why I kept it in plastic bags in a box on the shelf. One never knows when someone else might need some old leather. Shaughnessy isn't the only serving his fellow man.

Tom Kizer
Attachments
Rear Seats.jpg
Rear Seats.jpg (99.16 KiB) Viewed 12235 times
Pass Seat.jpg
Pass Seat.jpg (99.16 KiB) Viewed 12235 times
Driver`s seat.jpg
Driver`s seat.jpg (87.71 KiB) Viewed 12235 times
So many sidewalk cafés - so little time left.
1969 365 GT 2+2 S/N 12293 (Gone but not forgotten)
1967 230 SL 4-spd (Currently on CPR)
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tyang
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Re: Leather seats

Post by tyang »

Yale's seats are orange:
Image
Not beige.

Tom
'63 330 America #5053
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TOMKIZER
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Location: Québec City

Re: Leather seats

Post by TOMKIZER »

Sorry, I thought "Orange" was what he called the most common Ferrari leather color, Pelle Beige 3218. WOW! Those really are ORANGE, like an almost too-ripe pumpkin.

Anyway, I`ll keep my old leather in the plastic bag, in the box, on the shelf. Someday, it will perhaps be needed to repair an "original" car.

Tom Kizer
So many sidewalk cafés - so little time left.
1969 365 GT 2+2 S/N 12293 (Gone but not forgotten)
1967 230 SL 4-spd (Currently on CPR)
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Yale
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Location: New York City

Re: Leather seats

Post by Yale »

Thanks for posting that Tom (Y) nd actually thank you too Tom (K). I wonder if I could dye on of the bottoms of Tom K's seats...??
Ex - 1964 330GT #6097
1963 Abarth Monomille
1970 Porsche 911S
1974 BMW 2002turbo
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sam231
Posts: 374
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:25 pm
Location: Providence, RI

Re: Leather seats

Post by sam231 »

Yale,

What about leaving it alone and covering the seat with an old towel with some expletive printed on it?


Sam :)
'72 365 GTC/4 # 14953; ex-owner 330 GT 2+2 # 8025 :>(
Jim Wickstead
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Re: Leather seats

Post by Jim Wickstead »

Yale,

That's a pretty kind offer from Tom K. His seats sure look useable. Why not have a good leather shop piece the better parts together. After all these years, the major problem you will have if you just use a conditioner, is the stitching will be weakened and break. A good shop will match panels, restitch by hand using the original stitching holes and also restuff the seats. I think they can redye to match all panels to the original color and also condition the leather. Tom Y should be able to comment on this with some authority.

Just think..... if you wait until winter to do this, you may be able to park the car at a shop, free of rent, for about 4 months while the job is being done. Almost pays for itself, until you find the exhaust has rusted away!

Isn't a Porsche boring by comparison?

Jim
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TOMKIZER
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Location: Québec City

Re: Leather seats

Post by TOMKIZER »

I took the leather out of the box yesterday afternoon and realize that it really was disassembled. Most of it is in carefully unsewn pieces for making patterns for the reupholstery. That`s probably good, because the thread was original and probably half rotten anyway. With the stitching holes all there, they could be either machine restitched or hand restitched "after" reconditioning and redying so that they would look better than a typical redye job. In a few hours, I`ll lay out all the pieces and photograph them with high resolution.
Tom Kizer
So many sidewalk cafés - so little time left.
1969 365 GT 2+2 S/N 12293 (Gone but not forgotten)
1967 230 SL 4-spd (Currently on CPR)
mdempsey
Posts: 183
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Location: Huntingtown, MD

Re: Leather seats

Post by mdempsey »

Damn Kizer have you been drinking too much Canada Beer??

Or as the french might say:

Merde Kizer vous êtes un vieux fou sans aucun sens du tout!
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TOMKIZER
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Location: Québec City

Re: Leather seats

Post by TOMKIZER »

Mon Dieu! Il est encore en vie après tout!
Au sujet du cuir, qu'est-ce que j'aurais dû faire? Le cuir ne marche pas dans la Pagode, et je n'aime pas gaspiller les objets rare.

My God! He`s still alive after all!
Regarding the leather, what should I have done? The leather doesn`t work in the Pagoda, and I don`t like to waste rare parts.

By the way, I still miss my queen. I`m not sure I would have sold it had I known it was going to be hoarded and disappear from the vintage scene. I don`t even know who the end buyer was/is.

When are we going to see your queen following her facelift and makeover?

Tom Kizer
So many sidewalk cafés - so little time left.
1969 365 GT 2+2 S/N 12293 (Gone but not forgotten)
1967 230 SL 4-spd (Currently on CPR)
kare
Posts: 547
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2002 11:34 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland, Europe

Re: Leather seats

Post by kare »

I recently had a close call with my perfectly patinated leather seats. Stored while out of the car, the front seats had gone real hard real fast. Luckily I had pre-thinked the possiblility and first felt the leather with the tip of my finger. Knock, knock, knock - not good. I corrected the situation by acquiring the best leather conditioner I could find and after applieing it very carefully the leather became soft and rich in color again. The lesson learned: in a dry storage the crackeled parts of patinated leather can turn rock hard in a year's time.

Further advice:
- Never leave anything on leather seats when storing the car. When the leather hardens it will leave marks and eventually crack.
- When taking the car out of storage always feel the leather before sitting on it. You can't "unsit" after it cracks.
- Never lean on leather with your elbow. The old stiches will break. Don't ask how I know (it was another classic), my Ferrari seats have the same damage from earlier life, but now I know how to repair it to perfection.
250 GT 2+2 3197/GT
giovanni44
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2003 2:06 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Leather seats

Post by giovanni44 »

The best leather conditioner you could find....what brand would that be? There are many types and brands available here in the USA. certainly some are better than others. I would think a paste would be better than a liquid. Am I correct in my thinking?

John Viereg
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tyang
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Re: Leather seats

Post by tyang »

I have great results with Leatherique.

Tom
'63 330 America #5053
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