Restoring leather car seats...

[Randall977]

It's not welding related but it's something which could be useful to those who like restoring cars....

I've just restored part of a leather seat from one of my restoration projects and I'm very pleased with the result. It was quite a bit of work, but then the seat I was working with was very badly damaged. The basic technique involves the removal of the original finish (the bit that gets damaged) and the application of the new finish. I used products from Furniture Clinic, other products are available...

Anyhow, it's just an encouragement that you don't necessarily have to pay large sums to have your seats recovered.

Before

After

 

[Jammy James]

Wow what a difference just how long did that take as i might do some old seats instead of buying new

 

[Randall977]

Thanks. It took quite a long time (maybe 25 hours) as I've never done it before and the seat was in really bad condition. The reason it worked so well was that the car is low milage and the structure of the seat is good. If you have a saggy seat it still won't look good after you have restored the leather. I estimate the total cost for redoing the seats will be around £800 (some new leather sections are required), a fraction of the £15K it would be to have it retrimmed!

 

[Jammy James]

what a saving

 

[CTB]

15 thousand to have leather seats re-trimmed

What is it, a maharajahs rolls royce?

 

[steveo3002]

nice job , ive done a few bits and its pretty easy to get great results with that stuff

 

[Randall977]

It's a Lagonda Rapide -basically a DB4 with a DB5 engine and five doors...and an ugly front end. Quite a few AM owners (non of whome have ever really worked on a car) all tell me that it can't be restored well for under £120K!

 

[malcolm]

They've got more money than sense on the Aston forum.

Can well believe the restoration costs. Shell restoration just takes a few sheets of steel and aluminium - couple of hundred quid worth. It's the few thousand hours of time that add to the cost when someone else does it.

Lovely job on the seats. What process did you need to go through?

 

[tux]

That's nothing short of spectacular! Well done indeed.

 

[piman]

Hello Randall,

excellent results and a very unusual car. Does the window lift motor work?

Yes, structurally they are fairly straightforward but the cost of Aston spares is high.
I bought and restored a DB5 about 20 years ago and ran it for quite a few years. I had a huge sheaf of bills from, mostly, Chapman Spooner. I never did add them all up.

Alec

 

[Fergus]

It's a Lagonda Rapide -basically a DB4 with a DB5 engine and five doors...and an ugly front end. Quite a few AM owners (non of whome have ever really worked on a car) all tell me that it can't be restored well for under £120K!

Is that the one that featured in Practical Classics recently?

 

[Randall977]

That's the one, needs a bit ot TLC!

 

[Fergus]

That's the one, needs a bit ot TLC!

Helluva find!

Are you running a comprehensive rebuild thread anywhere?

 

[Coo]

If thats your quality of work, then your gonna do a crackingjob on the rest of the car !

Well done

 

[JimM]

Would it seriously have cost £15k to have it retrimmed

How can they justify that sort of price, you've got the original seats to work from so patterns presumably wouldn't be a problem and would have thought an upholsterer could knock the seats together within a week easily. No idea how much hides cost but that still seems like one hell of a markup! Guess it just shows how out of touch I must be on what a skilled craftsman can charge these days.

Cheers

Jim

 

[Randall977]

Most Aston Martin people say £15K to reupholster, that might include the seat structure as well? I made a website for the Rapide, it's not great but it does show the restoration on the 'Rapide Restoration' page...

http://www.lagondarapide.com