Replacement Leather seat covers

[MikeMelb]

about 25 years ago I acquired a couple of front seats, upholstered in vinyl (same pattern as the leather seats) with the idea of using them and preserving my original leather seats.
This never happened probably because they had sagged a bit, and I kept feeding and dying (actually painting) the originals.
Anyhow on searching the net I discovered Lseat.com who sell original pattern Rover P6 2000SC and 2000TC from 1968 through 73 (?) as these are the same as early P6Bs thought it was worth a go.
I knew they would not exactly match our Buckskin and they have embossed grain so I ordered front seats in Ivory with dark red piping on December 12 and they indicated manufacture took between 15 and 20 days and then shipping from US to Australia 7-10 days, so I was delighted when they arrived today (given that we had Christmas and New Year holidays in the time frame) Cost US$389 (would have been US$ 349 without the contrast piping) plus shipping to Oz US$59.

Only negatives : The headrest covers are for the full headrests, not the thin head restraints that our car has (but I assumed that going in.)
Despite asking about covering for the seat backing panel none was provided. I emailed them and got an immediate response to say they don't supply as the do not have a pattern, but offered to make them if I sent an original. The logistics are against that so I've asked if they can send some vinyl and piping.
Overall quality is excellent and the embossing is less prominent than I expected based on their website pictures.The leather is thinnish but backed by fabric and the fluting has foam sewn in in the same way as the original. It does seem to be better executed at the margins than the original.

Because the Dunlopillo in the secondhand seats had deteriorated I got some high density foam to replace it and at present those centre sections of the seats are sitting a little higher than the surrounds. The centre sections of the Backs are fine, but trial fitting the covers suggests that the surrounds need beefing up,

The covers come with gussets to go over the sides of the centre cushion sections, but without the extension fabric to clip to the underside of the frame the way the originals did.
Think I'm going to try and use velcro rather than clips to retain the covers.
Some initial pics:

 

[Mick Rae]

Red piping looks good from here, seems like a good deal all round, will be smart in red car. You will know this already, but just in case, if the covers are nice and tight to get over the foam, and this causes the foam to move a bit, I usually wrap the foam in cling film first, that lets the covers slip on better, and can be left in place or pulled out in bits if preferred.

 

[MikeMelb]

Thanks Mick. No problem getting covers over the foam as they basically sit on top and are then secured from the sides and back. Have put wadding backed calico over the foam.
If anything I have the opposite problem, air pockets under the seatback cover. This could be easily solved by gluing but am keen to avoid glue.

 

[PeterZRH]

They look pretty good. I guess the headrest covers are for "ET"s.

Now comes the tricky bit. You can remove some of the wrinkles with careful application of heat. If that doesn't work, you can use scrim foam.

 

[MikeMelb]

So working with my aged arthritic hands I have fitted the seat covers.
The quality of the leather, vinyl and stitching is excellent, I'd go so far as to say better than the original. The leather is supple with a fine aroma and is covered with a foam backed cloth. The vinyl is a thicker quality than the original.
This better quality caused some issues as the materials are a little less flexible and bunch in the curves when fitting to the groove in the seat base.
Also the sides of the seat backs were a few mm too short to be covered by the metal side plates (I cannibalised one headrest cover, which was beautifully made but the wrong shape for our head restraints, to get leather fillers)
The other issue was that the cloth pocket/gusset that envelopes the central cushions is not as long as the original shredded cotton which passed through retaining holes in the seat frames, so I had to sew strips of calico to them.

You will notice some "bubbles" in the covers but am sure this is because I did not want to use glue (original covers were glued to the cushion).
Very pleased with the result. Now do I order covers for the back.................?

 

[Mick Rae]

Looks really nice with the red piping, and a good job done. You'll be seeing the 'bubbles' because you have been staring at them, give it a few weeks, and the covers will have settled and you'll have forgotten them. The covers seem nice quality as you say.

 

[MikeMelb]

Thanks Mick

 

[Telford81]

Just came across this thread - that looks like a fantastic job! Looked at the website, £600 stg for a full set of nearly Buckskin covers in a slightly too coarse grained leather, delivered to the UK.
Very very attractive compared to the cost of a bespoke retrim.

 

[PeterZRH]

I think they are pretty impressive for the money. Realistically most of our cars aren't going to get £2.5K of retrimming which is what it would cost. Some scrim foam might give a slight improvement to "plump" them out a bit.

Modern leather is nothing like traditional leather. Most of the old tanning processes are illegal now and the grain is obviously stamped now and not natural.