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.

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.