These are the pics of my 2 front seats in my sedan(1996 platinum). I live in Alaska and got this car up here but it was from Texas as was the owner before me. He was good at keeping records of everything he did to the car but fell short on one area. He never closed the sun shade and the sun beat down on the leather and cracked it. I want to fix this but dont know what i should do. Do i have to spend lots of $$$ or is it too simple to be ture?

sry here are the pictures


local://upfiles/3376/CF2ABE1506B7402B95920CAC4088AD90.jpg

local://upfiles/3376/F665454180054B9C96198E8E204717EE.jpg

local://upfiles/3376/25A34D75B6F644C497608A403D816FDE.jpg

local://upfiles/3376/3EF3E90E9EC14266896E0365E1FC1C2A.jpg

I have seen people spray the seats with a thick dye and it filled most of the holes and looked pretty good.
Stop by a local dealer and ask if they know of anyone that does it.

i cando that but is that the only solution?

The other 3 are aftermarket seat covers,Junk Yard seats, Or $300.00 or more a peice for the leather covers from the Dealer.

ah

One other thought. Find a good trim shop and see if they can insert leather facing where yours are cracked and worn, using your old back and side pieces. Cheaper than recovering whole seat and looks ok. have done it on cars, and if the shopis good they can match leather real well. BJ

what do you mean by old?

I believe he means they will use your good peices and replace the peices that are worn bad.

That's almost exactly the situation I had. I used a leather restoration kit from leatherique.com and it did a heck of a job for about $100. You will have to put some elbow grease into it but I think you will be happy with the results for the money. The biggest pain is having to let the car sit for a couple of days when you redye the drivers seat! Here's some pics of my seats when I did this about a year ago...

Console Before:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b240/rp850/consolebefore.gif

Console After:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b240/rp850/DSC00001.jpg

Passenger Seat Before:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b240/rp850/passengerseatbefore.gif

Passenger Seat After:
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b240/rp850/passengerseatafter.gif

I'm pretty happy with the way they came out. I think you might have to do this every couple of years or so as I'm starting to get a few cracks again but nothing like what I had before. It's not as good as a professional upholsterer but I had a quote of about $1000 to fix the front seats and console. So I saved about $900. Let me know if you've got any questions.

Check this link! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda-626-Millenia-929-leather-SEATS-RESTORE-to-NEW_W0QQitemZ170038941426QQihZ007QQcategoryZ33701Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If it will do that it could help your seats!

Leather is essentially a cured preserved skin of an animal that usually has a special leather paint on it. This special paint is quite flexible and can bend where other paint would crack and peel off when flexed. The creases you see on leather are essentially areas of paint that has been stressed and bent. You then need to to condition it to keep it from drying and turning that crease into a crack.

In most parts of the leather of the pictures that you have posted, can be fixed with a matching paint job which essentially fill in most of the cracks. You can then minimise re-occurance by using a leather conditioner to keep it moist.

I believe the right edge of the drivers seat will need more severe repair. They would usually cut out bad part of the leather and replace it with good leather, then prime, repaint & buff, quite similar to body panel paint work.

Either way you really need to visit a leather repair professional because you want to get the colors properly matched.

Google a leather repair professional in your area. Look for pictures on the website for before and after pictures to gove you a good idea on whether they are up for the task.

ORIGINAL: poopbunny

Leather is essentially a cured preserved skin of an animal that usually has a special leather paint on it. This special paint is quite flexible and can bend where other paint would crack and peel off when flexed. The creases you see on leather are essentially areas of paint that has been stressed and bent. You then need to to condition it to keep it from drying and turning that crease into a crack.

In most parts of the leather of the pictures that you have posted, can be fixed with a matching paint job which essentially fill in most of the cracks. You can then minimise re-occurance by using a leather conditioner to keep it moist.

I believe the right edge of the drivers seat will need more severe repair. They would usually cut out bad part of the leather and replace it with good leather, then prime, repaint & buff, quite similar to body panel paint work.

Either way you really need to visit a leather repair professional because you want to get the colors properly matched.

Google a leather repair professional in your area. Look for pictures on the website for before and after pictures to gove you a good idea on whether they are up for the task.


Agreed

Here's my 2 cents worth. Most Volvos this age do have leather issues, mine aren't that bad yet, but here's what I'm planning to do. There is a local volvo shop that has a few donor cars on the lot. They all have near perfect rear seats, and there evidently is very low demand for the rear seats. So find you a wrecked volvo that has the same interior color and but the rear seats to be 'leather donors' for the front. The labor for someone to replace the worn panels shouldn't be astronomical if you deliver the removed seat and loose leather from the rears, and you'll have a good match. Most wrecked volvos still have relatively intact interiors as there is usually very little cabin incursion from the wreck.

ORIGINAL: jnduke

Here's my 2 cents worth. Most Volvos this age do have leather issues, mine aren't that bad yet, but here's what I'm planning to do. There is a local volvo shop that has a few donor cars on the lot. They all have near perfect rear seats, and there evidently is very low demand for the rear seats. So find you a wrecked volvo that has the same interior color and but the rear seats to be 'leather donors' for the front. The labor for someone to replace the worn panels shouldn't be astronomical if you deliver the removed seat and loose leather from the rears, and you'll have a good match. Most wrecked volvos still have relatively intact interiors as there is usually very little cabin incursion from the wreck.


So are you saying that this local Volvo shop sells second hand rear seats...and where is that local shop?

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