Leather Seat Restoration

Now that my car is all mechanically sorted, so fun to drive with no fear, it is time to move to the interior. I have savannah beige leather seats. One of the options my car came with was the Porsche logo embossed in the headrest, but it is tough to make out. However, the bolsters are really worn and the seats need treatment. One upholstery shop wants to replace the leather seats, but I would lose the embossed headrest. He said the bolsters are not worth repairing. However, I saw old threads about restoration products but nothing recent on the forum. Anyone have recent experience restoring the seats with a leatherworld product or others? Should I work to keep the embossed headrest since it was an option? I would appreciate any tips, advice or suggestions.

How about some photos of the seats?

The center parts which are torn will be replaced. It’s the bolsters I want to try and salvage.

The bolsters are definitely salvageable…I did mine which had a hole worn through it, and it came out great…there’s a thread with all the info & photos

Thank you. Might I ask for a link to the thread? I use the search feature and I end up with threads that are 10 years old…lol From YouTube videos they look salvageable but real world results vary....(ask me about the paint chip kit for my wife’s car…umm, results varied..lol). How long ago did you do it? Results held up? Is it worth restoring to save the embossed headrest?

You could salvage the bolsters but I'm not sure how they will look next to new center section. You might want to consider biting the bullet. If you do go with repairing them, I'm a fan of Leatherique products. The real trick will be color matching, but since you're sacrificing the center section it will be easy to send them a sample to match against. There may also be an outfit that specializes in Porsche colors and can just send you the right stuff. I'd love to hear about that myself if they exist, because I'm debating whether to refresh my Metropol Blue bolsters.

It is a bit of a dilemma. If I salvage the bolsters I keep the embossed headrest. How import from a resale perspective is it to keep as many of the factory options as possible? One other option I have is doing the center is a different, darker color to break up some of the savannah beige, so matching would not be an issue. However, I was not going to do the back seats of my cab, they are mint. Would that be a turn off for future buyers if the front seat centers do not match the rear? One thing I have learned with my 996 is you do one thing and it ends up affecting something else..lol

Subbing to this thread as I need both my front seats re-done. Leather is fine mostly just need new foam and a refresh.

Dporto, I saw an old thread of yours. Is the med sheen a better option to get so it’s not so flat?

It will be a mishmash of nonsense if you repair those, and if you have to pay someone to remove and replace the covers it may not be worth it. I just went through this with some used seat covers in this color. I used a seat bolster from one of the old seats and had it sewn onto the used replacements. Doesn�t match perfectly, and lots of work.

You don’t have to do any sewing etc. There are several ways you could go for the inserts. You could get the same color as original - the leather world product is extremely close if not exact. To answer the question on the flat/medium finish, the flat is perfect - it gets burnished very quickly and the color also “ages” quickly and matched perfectly… And yes, it holds up extremely well - I actually sold those seats and replaced them with 997 hard backed sport seats - which I refinished the center sections of to match the Savanna interior… You could also order the centers in fabric (Pepita ?) or a different/contrasting color leather…

Free labor or paid labor to do this? It may be the deciding factor.

I think I can tackle the restoration but the center I will have it professionally done.

Huston, Your seats feature the supple leather option. Also referred to as draped leather. This option is most noticeable in the seat bottoms and the center inserts on the backrests (what I'm calling the center insert is the part that is torn on your seat.) btw, your rear seats should also be supple leather too. If you need to replace any of the leather on those seats like that center backrest, you might keep this in mind as the look of the standard leather is noticeably different from supple leather.

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I just refreshed my 100K mile seats, including replacement of the driver's seat cushion foam. More information in my thread. Maybe it will be useful to you. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ver-targa.html

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Noice! Thanks

The seats have seen better days. Definitely need some TLC!

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I would love to hear where you go with your Metro Blue seats. I have a friend who does upholstery and he can't match mine. I currently have race seats in the car, and was considering recovering the original seats which have tears and holes in the center sections in case I ever sell the car, but apparently the aftermarket blue replacements are no where near Metropol Blue, and the factory covers are prohibitively expensive.

Go to Leatherworld.com or Seat Doctor or whoever. The paints/dyes are the right colors�

Try Colourlock I�ve had pretty good results with their dyes

I ordered my kit from leatherworld. I will document the process when I start. My son is really good with an airbrush so I will likely have him do the dye with it so I have a even coat.

There is a company call fibrenew. They can basically do it all. When they re dye They electronically scan a good surface so that the machine mixes your dye like a paint shop. Anyway they have independent contractors that cover different areas. Look them up. I seen some of their work supper. If you are in the Houston area pm me I�ll send you the contact.

Thanks I did reach out to fibernew but based on the pictures they declined to work on them. Which is what brings me to this thread and how I am going to tackle parts of it this week. I will post updates.

Ok, I received the kit from leatherworld and I have started the process. When I started with ethenseat prep and scuffing, the seats looked worse than I imagined and it appears this treatment had already been done. I then moved to the seat filled and I filled in the cracks. It was hot as can be in Texas and while I went find a hair dryer the filler cured so it is thick in some spots…not crazy about that. I moved to the dye and it is going to take lots and lots of coats to get it even but they do say it would take lots of very thin coats. I will post pictures a bit later, but the filler did work better than expected but just too fast.

Why did you need a hair dryer if it was so hot to begin with? I�d recommend sanding/scuffing back to where just the cracks are filled. If there�s too much filler on the seat you�re not going to be happy (& it will probably crack more in the future). When it comes to finishing anything, the key is always the prep. Screw it up, and the finish always looks bad�*don�t rush it👍

So far I am happy with the results. This is after about 4 coats of the dye. Learned a few things before I go to the other side. It was never going to be perfect but it looks much better. Leather Worlds customer service was really good btw. The only issue I have is that it is flat but posters have assured me the sheen will be there with use. Second, it is savanah beige but brand new in color savanah beige. It matches my dash and inserts but it highlights how dirty my seats are that I have not treated or cleaned. Now I need to clean the whole seat and hope I can get that to look like new again without having to dye those parts as well. here are some before and after/during pictures.

Hmm, that flat finish seems odd. I redyed some panels on a BMW seat and the dye had a sheen. Is there another step perhaps, some sort of 'clear coat'?

I wondered too, but it is what other posters recommended and even leather world said the same, it will sheen up with use. (Crossing my fingers) it does look much better, now I just need to clean the rest of the seats and see if the color comes back, plus I am going to try and repair the tear in the center. If it doesn’t turn out well, I will have those center parts replaced.

I think you did good . How soon can you apply leather conditioner ? Between cleaning the old and then conditioning all of it that may help blend them .

I was quoted 200-225.$ to replace the seat (bottom) foam in my 996 drivers seat. It looks like the replacement foam is like gold, and inflates over time. In 2009 - 996.521.525.00 Foam cushion part w/heating -- US MSRP $114.72. recent result - 996-521-525-00 - $226.64. some sites are even higher. Because of this, I was thinking of paying the auto upholsterer to swap passenger for driver foam. Maybe not such a good 'savings' as foam must lose 'foaminess' with time, in this case 22 years. But I am tempted. Perhaps I should not be a Porsche owner But I love my car so that's not an option.

I don’t have the instructions at my finger tips but there is some curing time for the dye. The kit did come with leather conditioner but I am saving it until I have the seat all done. I am moving to the center part next, deep cleaning and hoping it looks like the original savanah beige and repair the tear in the center section. I will keep you guys posted.

It�ll be fine. It�ll get �the sheen� and the color will age in, just like the rest of the interior. You can do the �protection cream� step as soon as the final coat of dye is dry. If you want to be safe, wait a day or 2� looks good! Good luck

Ok, I have completed repairing/restoring the drivers side seat with the leatherworld kit. It turned out pretty well. Once I did the bolster I decided to repair the tear in the center. That led to a whole bit of adventure that drove me nuts for a few hours. Thank you TexasSquirel/Bruce for talking me off the ledge and helping me think it through. I was getting frustrated and when you get frustrated you tend to do something dumb and on a Porsche doing something dumb means breaking something and making it worse..lol So, I found a few YouTube videos of how to remove the seats…the videos removed the passenger seat, the drivers seat depending on your options is trickier. First thing I had to order Torx sockets. It was really tough getting the leverage to get them off. Use a big socket wrench. You will have to slide the seat back and forth for better access. Be sure to disconnect your battery, if you don’t and undo the connections you may trigger an airbag warning that as I understood it, only the dealer can clear. If you have a cab, like me, have the top down it makes lifting the seat out easier. I get the bolts undone, tip it back and I see the connector I saw in the videos, it slides up and comes undone. I celebrate a small win until I noticed there were more wires going to the seat. WTH, this was not in the videos. It was the control box for the seat memory, forgive the non technical name..lol I could see the two wire sets going into the box but I could not access them. The box has a bit of play but it took some help to figure how to get access to the connections. With a bit of help, I removed the the torx screws, the box drops and you flip it over and can see the connectors. One was easy and straight forward to unclip, but the one above had me baffled. I took a break and started doing research and I found a picture in a thread, with a warning to be careful or else..lol But it didn’t say how. You have to carefully lift the black locking square…again forgive the non technical term. Once like this you pull it to the top and it will release. The process I described took a few hours, with lots of cursing, texting and google searches. On Saturday, I took the seat out and attempted to repair the center part that had a tear. You can see the tear and the damage to the bolster. I followed the instructions from Leatherworld. Here is a picture in progress. You can see where the tear was, it was big, now it looks like a scar. Here the finished seat, with dye applied to get it to look all the same. I let the dye cure 24 hours and I applied the conditioner. I am pretty happy with the results, it is not perfect but it is a significant improvement from where I was. I laughed as it took me 10 minutes to get it back in, wired up, and bolted down. My wife laughed. I plugged the battery back in, all the seat controls worked fine. I fired it up and I had no airbag warning light. All in all, it was a fairly easy DIY project.

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I�ll like to dye my drivers seat. I have no tears. Thanks as always Bruce is a hell of a guy.