Hey guys. As our trucks age, we're having to try to keep up on all sorts of repairs, and the Leather seats are no exception, and we all know how expensive it is to replace the leather. I've had seat covers on my leather seats for years, but they are getting cracked and the seat cushion feels a little worn out too. Anyhow, I came across this video and product when I googled Leather seat repair. It's just a quick easy fix to a torn and or worn out Leather seat until a guy can afford to replace the leather, and it actually looks pretty decent, so I thought I'd share it with you.
The site says it's temp out of stock, but I'm sure they're other company's out there that make a similar product.
On edit: Here's an outfit that sells Leather repair kits.
https://www.leathertouchupdye.com/

 

Ford leather is horrible. All my seats looked like a Lion decided to sharpen his claws on mine. The problem is all the Ford seats at the salvage yard are all torn also. The cloth ones are usually in better shape. Would like to know if GM or Dodge seats could be fitted

 

Just replace the leather and pads....It's SIMPLE! While you have the seats out clean carpet and headlines and you are ready for 16 more years. Oh yeah, tint the windows really dark and you may get 25 years out of the new leather.

 

Whitey, sounds like you done the job before. Do have any links, or can you tell me what kind of search terms to use to find the stuff needed to do it?

The seats in my truck (especially the drivers) are shot, and I'd love to redo the foam and covers, but I have no idea were to start with finding the needed items. Ive looked at having an upholstery shop do the job, but if I can do it myself and save a buck, I'm all for it.
Mine are cloth, and I'm fine with using cloth or vinyl, no need for full on leather, I'm just not sure where to start.

Thanks, Stephen.

 

We got everything at the link below. It was very easy to do.

https://www.theseatshop.com/

They may be able to assist you with cloth as well. But it is just as easy!

 

If you just change out the bottoms on the front seats do the cleaning procedure they recommend so the new leather/vinyl matches the old. We are REALLY glad we followed it exactly. They looked perfect when we were done. We have a crew cab and my son can pull all the seats in 15 minutes. You do need two people to remove back seat so you can be very careful not to hit anything. You will need that TP-55 torq bit to get seat bolts out. The normal 55 torq won't work. Get that ahead of time. We had bought the special pliers to do the seats, but they didn't come with our order. We were still able to do a clean install without them. You will be very happy when you are done.

We included a picture of our passenger side seat. We will change the backs in time, but they still look ok.

 

The Seat Shop is awesome! I did new leather on my fronts about three years ago... Backs and bottoms. Replaced the driver side cushion with new and "refreshed" the PS bottom with a garment steamer. The seats still look brand new and just like OEM. Stitching and fit is perfect.

 

I agree, it's great to be able to just replace the leather, but sometimes it's just not feasible for everyone to spend that kind of money.
If a guy does just the front seat leather because most our trucks just have the front seats worn out, plus the seat cushion's and both arm rest's is
$718 plus tax shipping and handling your in to $800.
What I posted was a quick fix and or repair to the existing leather to buy some time until a guy can afford to replace the leather. That was the intention of this post.
Here's the seat shop prices on a bucket seat configuration.

$229 ea Seat bottom Leather X 2 = $458
$259 for ea Seat back Leather X 2 = $518
$55 Arm Rest Leather X 2 = $110
$125 Seat Cushion X 2 = $150
*$1,236.00*
This isn't even figuring in the back seat!

 

Country, you make a good point. Your listed front row project scope, though, deserves a few comments.

1) The passenger side seat cushions are generally not available at all from anywhere except a junk yard, so a second $125 is not really an option.

2) Prices... they vary depending on the year model and interior trim choices (i.e. OEM Leather/Vinyl configuration is about $90 cheaper per seat than the complete leather option)

You also have a small typo for your seat cushion pricing calculation which led to a math error for the total cost of the front row.

Finally, and this comment has nothing to do with your post at all.... I'm shocked at the current pricing from The Seat Shop. When I did my front seats just 3 years ago, I got new covers for both front seat bottoms and backs and one new driver seat cushion. I skipped the arm rest covers because mine were fine and have been removed anyway due to the fact I've replaced my OEM center floor console with a larger one from a 2008 year model, and the arm rests just don't work with the higher and wider console top. My total cost 3 years ago (two bottoms, two backs, and one cushion) came to about $750, but again, that was for the OEM leather/vinyl configuration. Today it would be $971 plus S&H, and that's a price increase of about $250 or more. I honestly don't believe that the cost of the materials has gone up that much, and consequently suspect that the price increase is being driven by a growing realization on their part of how hard it is to get OEM quality replacements for our continually aging vehicles which are seeing only increasing DEMAND for this kind of work -- the old "supply & demand" principle is alive and kicking (hard)!

 

Customers only buy if they don't have a choice or feel they are being treated fairly. Either of those end up on the wrong side and a vendor risks alienating his potential client base.

Lower volume mfr usually ends up with higher production costs.

Work it wrong and you'll end up making the same per unit for a more expensive product, but kill your market, which further reduces your sales, increases your costs, until you end up unable to supply the product or keep your doors open. Neither is good for a business plan

Even worse could happen if you soil your reputation or get labeled as a "rip-off" which often rolls against your other markets.

But they are not alone. I've seen many (most?) of the products offered by sponsors and favorite vendors with prices shooting through the roof

There will soon come a breaking point...

 

Bite your damn tongue

 

Thanks Pete, that's the kind of feed back I was looking for. I posted up the pricing based off of my own Trucks configuration, plus the upgraded leather that I personally would go with as well. And I'm not surprised that my math was off, it was in 81 in HS as I had to repeat it because I sucked at math then, so not much has changed there.. LOL... I've had seat covers on my seat's since I bought it, but I'm starting to feel some sag in the DS cushions, and the leather is starting to separate, so I will be replacing both DS and Pass seat leather as well as arm rest's. I've wanted to do the 08 center console for some time, so that might be my route here shortly. I just went thru a new engine build, so the interior is gonna happen next.

 

When I spent my $750 several years ago, it was a lot of cash just for "butt comfort and appearance", but boy... I do not regret it for a minute! I also did a less costly approach with new bottom covers for my Excursion last summer before I sold it (usautonation on eBay), and I was not nearly as happy as with what I got from the Seat Shop. The cut and fitment was not nearly as precise, so the final appearance was really good, but not really "OEM".

I'll run out to the truck in a bit and snap a few shots of my '08 console and Seat Shop covers so you can see how it works out without the arm rests. Removing the arm rests will expose a large opening in the seat back's cover, but you can certainly minimize that with new back covers as you'll see in my pictures. Also, the pivot studs for the arm rests will still protrude through the seat back cover, but it can be covered up with some sort of plastic (or wood) trim piece and painted to match to minimize its ugliness (I've not gotten that far yet myself, as you will see).

EDIT... pictures below. I included a high resolution pic of the seat bottom so you can see how it's holding up. Keep in mind that what you see is a seat which has not been cleaned and is looking the way it does after about 40K miles of carrying my 260lb carcass over the past three years. You can see the pivot studs I referred to, and they don;t stick out very far, but you can also see that the full OEM arm rest would never fit between the seat back and the raised lid from the '08 console. You could always just leave the arm rests folding up, but that will limit how far you can open the console lid.

You can also see that the console lid height is PERFECT as an arm rest, the the top has a tactile feel to it and is in the condition you see after probably close to 100K miles of driving. I should pull it and paint it to match the interior, but if I end up selling the truck soon, I might just be moving it over to the new vehicle and would have to probably paint it all over again.

 

Wow, that looks very nice. Yeah, I would do as you did and just pull the arm rests, cap the ends and maybe pull some material over the caps and sew it up nice and tight. I can be pretty handy with a needle and thread. . Thank you for the pictures as well.

 

try e bay

I have found many seat skins for ford trucks advertised on e bay , all new

I'm not sure if they are oem or made by someone but from the listings they look like the factory ones

I've seen stuff for my 01 and up , including some harley truck skins

usually priced about $250 a section (back or bottom)

sorry I don't have a link off hand but if you can find the listings it's simple to ask the seller what you can get from them