If it aint broke, take it apart...

[edh]

I hope he's getting them re-connolised by the people who did Stuart Cookson-Smith's 968 - I think they were in Warrington. Stuart's seats came back looking new - almost too good for the rest of the car

http://www.leathercaredirect.com/renovation.php

 

[appletonn]

ORIGINAL: sawood12

Nick,

What does the refurb involve? Are you getting your seat's re-covered?

Those boys in Warrington intensively clean the seats, stripping off as much of the coatings etc as possible, then treat it with oils etc and the colour and lacquer to virtually return it to 'as new' condition - although you still have the nice patina of creases etc but none of the cracks and dark lines in the cracks of the old surface. I have seen a couple of 'before & afters', customer cars at Unit 11 around the corner - one of them, an 80's 3.2 Carrera had been restored out of all recognition.

When I dropped the seats off, they were working on a gorgeous 70's Aston and a lovely old 60's Bentley, so these guys know their stuff.

 

[MarkK]

Can't wait to see some after pics,will be awsome!!!

 

[Hilux]

youll have lost closer to 100 kilogrammes

A very general rule of thumb is that 50 kg`s equates to about 10 bhp so thats already a 20bhp increase [8D]

 

[944 man]

Braking and handling benefit too, probably more. My G-Tech thinks that my old series one has 186bhp at the wheels; although I may have used a slightly incorrect weight there too...

 

[appletonn]

Got the seats back from leathercare-renovations, so here are a few 'after' pics.

Very happy with what they've achieved and the seats feel soft to the touch. They were telling me how the quality of the leather seats in current Porsches, isn't a patch on that fitted to cars from our era.

 

[Diver944]

Looking very nice [] It will be interesting to see how they bear up under use.

Are they normal bolsters or Sports? (difficult to be sure form this angle but I think non-sports)

 

[Lemon]

They look good Nick.

What sort of cost is involved in doing the seats as I think I will get mine done.

What was the turn around time wise?

Cheers

Lee

 

[ikillcopiers]

I got my seats done by a local guy about a year and a half ago.
"SmartFix" was his name, it's a franchise, maybe it's in England too?

€650 (about £500 at the time, give or take), and he did do a fair job
of them. Took him about a week.

He did a repair on some of the stitching, but it's kind of reverted
to it's old state, not as bad as before but none the less...
He did an excellent repair on the rear bench, which had a rip
on top. Surprised he was able to fix that!!
Some of the spray has worn slightly (I do have sports seats, so
the bolsters get punishment when you're getting in and out)

For what I paid, it was a decent service, it's held up reasonably well,
but looking back, €650 would have gotten me a third of the way towards
a new seat of leather covers for the seats front & rear, and that would be
like new seats..... But then again, if we all had money to spare?

8000 miles on, nobody else really notices the slight wear in the last year,
everyone remarks on how good the car is inside, but I notice!!

 

[appletonn]

ORIGINAL: Diver944

Looking very nice [] It will be interesting to see how they bear up under use.

Are they normal bolsters or Sports? (difficult to be sure form this angle but I think non-sports)

Normal bolsters - I've seen their work after 12 months on daily drivers and, provided you look after them as all leather seats, they keep their looks.

 

[appletonn]

ORIGINAL: Lemon

They look good Nick.

What sort of cost is involved in doing the seats as I think I will get mine done.

What was the turn around time wise?

Cheers

Lee

These guys used to hold the Connolly's franchise/licence for the North from 1988 up until Connolly went bust in 2002 - they are very, very good at what they do - nice guys too and explain everything in fine detail.

They turned mine round in 4 working days.

Lee, I have PM'd you on the costs - very reasonable indeed!