The Leather givith away!

[TurboDuane]

Its been a long time coming. I've tried to delay it by keeping leather moisturizer on it. But alas, the side bolster on the drivers side is now sporting a small hole (where I rub it getting in/out of the car). What to do? I'm thinking about possibly getting a replacement seat from Miata Heaven, or possibly attempting to patch it.

However, patching will probably not last long, as it's a high wear place. I'm thinking one day It'll rip right off making a bigger mess.

Can passenger seats be used on the Drivers side? Can the railing on the bottom of the seats be swapped between Driver and Passenger seats?

I've got Tan Leather, and I don't want it to look bad, but want a CB option

[Dave04]

I don't think you can swap the seats side to side... I remember reading something on the Pointy Board to that affect...

You might check out some of the local auto upholstery shops in mansfield... you might find that fixing your current seat isn't as bad as you thought. There's a plance here in Plano I'd recommend (Dee's Trim Shop), but that's a long drive for you.

[Miatamoto]

Duane,
Come by some time and check out the seats I took out of my car. They are in good shape. We could work out a trade plus a little money.

[Tim the Teacher]

You can sit on one of these for a CB option

[trickyrix]

+1 on getting it fixed. I've had a bolster done on a car before and it only cost me about $75 from what I remember - and it looked good as new.

[MiataMike]

Concidering where you live I would try Mazda Heaven first. I am pretty sure that Gary has some seats. But hes on vacation.

[trickyrix]

Concidering where you live I would try Mazda Heaven first. I am pretty sure that Gary has some seats. But hes on vacation.

BTW, Mazda Heaven had a decent looking pair of cloth seats when I was out there the other day.

[TurboDuane]

Duane,
Come by some time and check out the seats I took out of my car. They are in good shape. We could work out a trade plus a little money.

Hmmm. OK when?

on getting it fixed. I've had a bolster done on a car before and it only cost me about $75 from what I remember - and it looked good as new.

Well thats not bad at all. I'll have to get some quotes.

Tim, you missed "I want them to look good" and I want to stick with leather. I don't want my ass to look like the bottom of an milk crate when I go to work.

[Miatamoto]

Hmmm. OK when?



Well thats not bad at all. I'll have to get some quotes.

Tim, you missed "I want them to look good" and I want to stick with leather. I don't want my ass to look like the bottom of an milk crate when I go to work.

Just give me a call, you know where I live. PM me if you don't have my phone number.

[black roadster]

I have wear in my seat too. I found this place. Look at the how to guides. They make it look easy.

Here are before and after shots.

[cwisenheimer]

I would be real wary of refinishing leather like that. I had a Lexus with tan leather seats. They were a bit worn and creased, no holes or deep cracks. I had a local leather refinisher do them and they looked absolutely fantastic. However, they felt horrible and aged much more rapidly after that. The refinishing "sealed" the leather and it no longer breathed at all. If you want to make a car look good to sell, it's not a bad idea. If you want to restore a valuable classic and it's important to keep the original leather, have somebody *real* expensive do it right. If you want to make the car nice to enjoy it again, get some good quality replacement covers. Per the discussion in another thread right now though, personally I'd look into something not leather but that's a personal preference / taste thing.

[Black_devil_miata]

There are a bunch of sites around the net that sell used leather seats but they all go for around $150...which is way to expensive to me for an old miata seat. I had a post up awhile back looking for some seats, I called Gary out at Mazda heaven but he didnt have any leather seats and I didnt ask about cloth, but thats more likely. Although I remember last time I was out there the cloth seats where just sitting out in the elements. I finally found somebody with some for $50 for the pair, but they were less than perfect (ie already had wear, but better than my current setup.

Also the seats are not interchangeable like I once thought, to bad since passenger seats are always nice. You can swap over all the old stuff to your new seats. you can technically take off the covers and switch them with slight modification, esp. if your going to take some padding out of the seats. I'm 6'1 so that helped ALOT, plus they feel a lot more like bucket seats and hold me in better.

[MiataMike]

i like to be held too

[trickyrix]

Another option, which I've thought about and still might do, is to go down to Tandy Leather when they have their big sales - you can buy a whole freakin cowhide for $75-100 if you catch them at the right time. So you do that, tool on down to your upholstery shop, and have them recover your seats. I think my guy would probably charge about $200-300 to recover them if you brought your own materials in - he's redone a pair of buckets for me for $300 including materials (of course, they were vinyl).

[Radio-Active]

Another option, which I've thought about and still might do, is to go down to Tandy Leather when they have their big sales - you can buy a whole freakin cowhide for $75-100 if you catch them at the right time. So you do that, tool on down to your upholstery shop, and have them recover your seats. I think my guy would probably charge about $200-300 to recover them if you brought your own materials in - he's redone a pair of buckets for me for $300 including materials (of course, they were vinyl).

You ought to be ashamed! Do you know how many Naugas it takes to make a seat cover?!?


I might have to talk to that guy!

[aalvarez04]

BTW, Mazda Heaven had a decent looking pair of cloth seats when I was out there the other day.

what color and year were they? i'm looking for some cloth seats...

[trickyrix]

what color and year were they? i'm looking for some cloth seats...

Looked like they were out of an NA (they weren't high-backs like NB seats), and they were black. Kinda dirty but not ripped or anything.