My factory red leather had a couple of tears when I bought it last May, and my 220 pounds made them worse. I'm tempted to blame the Texas weather for it, but it doesn't really matter now.

I ordered Katzkin seat covers a couple of weeks ago from leatherseats.com, and they arrived Friday. It was a busy weekend, so I didn't get started until last night. I got the back seats done, and hope to have the rest finished tonight.

The only problem so far is that in the 10+ write-ups I'd seen on removing the seats, no one included the step of pulling the release strap for the rear seat-backs. simple enough, but I'd never even tried to fold mine down, so it didn't even occur to me.

Here's the originals:









And the completed rear seat:





If anyone has some tips for the front seats, I'm all ears!

 

Looks a lot better. Only tip is take your time.

 

Finished up yesterday afternoon. I'm missing some skin on my fingers, but the finished product is definitely worth it. And as a bonus, my car smells like fresh leather every time I get in.

 

 

[QUOTE=Skeetch11;6588456]Finished up yesterday afternoon. I'm missing some skin on my fingers, but the finished product is definitely worth it. And as a bonus, my car smells like fresh leather every time I get in.

Nice job! I can relate to the missing skin on the fingers. Last month I replaced my son's cloth seats with a set of charcoal leather take-offs. Well worth the $300 spent on them.

 

Very nice. Old seats look like a rabid dog got to them.

 

Very nice. Looks better than factory

 

hmmm, a smooth grain padded leather armrest cover with red stitching would really set it off. seats look really nice and nice job on the install

 

Yes. I looked for some take-offs, but I saw the two tone and had to have it. These ran me $779, but i'm really happy with it.

Yeah, I have no idea what the previous owner did to get those started...I do know the current owner put on 30 pounds during a Texas summer...so that might have had something to do with the end result.

Thanks!

That is on the list...but first I need to reupholster the door panels.

 

I have an '06 GT 'vert with black leather that is showing it's age too.
I noticed your seats also have the side air bags. Is this any problem with the replacement seat skins? I would probably buy them and have them professionallly installed. I just didn't know if it was even possible to recover seats with airbags.

 

Looks fantastic, great job!

 

It sure is possible. My original cloth seats had the side seat airbags and were recovered to leather. No problem.

 

Nice work! My drivers seat split near the airbag tag too!

 

So, Katzkins has covers that are made for seats with side air bags?

 

Sure. They use a thread that is the same as factory on the side that holds the air bags. It's also stitched the same way as factory. When the airbag deploys, the seams tear like a piece of perforated paper.

They could face serious legal repercussions if they didn't. Disabling or prohibiting an airbag to deploy is against the law in the US.

Be sure to remind them that you have side airbags so they can accommodate them.

 

Thanks for the info.