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 Post subject: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:25 am 
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Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:51 am
Posts: 749
Location: Missouri
Year and Trim: 95 SSEi
05 GXP
Is it hard for an amateur to change the bottom leather skin on a seat and do
a good job. It appears you can buy the skins for $250 on ebay or $325 from
the dealer. The dealer also sells the foam underneath but I didn't ask the price.
Is new foam a good idea also?

If it's hard to get good results, or takes all weekend, there is a company in St. Louis
that does it, but they aren't cheap.

I'm just looking for input before I pull the trigger on a skin. My Tahoe and SSEi need it bad now, and I know the GXP suede will need it in the future.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:18 pm 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 12:56 pm
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Location: Puerto Rico
Year and Trim: 2001 Blue SLE - 2001 Black SSEI - 2005 Grey Aztek
It shouldnt be to hard, but you might have to remove the seat out of the car. That should be the hardest part. & if it has the bottom clips, then you have to buy the tool to remove them & install them.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Fri May 01, 2009 1:42 am 
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Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:35 pm
Posts: 3989
Location: Ames, Iowa
Year and Trim: 98 Caravan is the daily driver 215K
I buy seats from junkyards in good shape and swap out the parts. You will need a good pair of diagonal cutters (I use 8" Klein cutters) a pair of hog ring pliers and a good supply of hog rings to do the work. Go to a good upholstery shop; tell them what you are working on, and they will sell you the correct size tool and rings.

The work is tedious, and you must be reasonably careful, but the end result is worth it. I am doing the very same thing for an old Lexus I am restoring. I have done a lot of seats, and it took me maybe 40 minutes to remove the seat back leather that I will be swapping out.

A good junkyard seat is a much better value as it gives you OEM foam (and all the other parts too) that you may need to replace.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 7:00 am 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 6:50 am
Posts: 598
Location: Langhorne, Pa
Year and Trim: 2007 Impala SS
1997 LeSabre Limited
I was looking to put leather upholstry in my car. I have the cloth seats. If i understand this correctly, I can just call GM and purchase the leather skins? I might look for a junk yard too. That would be awesome because my seats are just burned from the former owners cigars.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 8:41 am 
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Location: Ames, Iowa
Year and Trim: 98 Caravan is the daily driver 215K
The typical price range for a junkyard seat in nice shape is $50 - $100. You should be able to get a better deal by offering to buy all the seats and door panels. Offer $200 for all and work your way up. There is very little market for the back seats. Obviously, the difficult seat to find in good condition is the driver's seat. But in a lot of cases, the skin(s) or covers from a good passenger seat can be interchanged. Typically, the seat back skins are identical but there may be some different cut-outs in the seat skin bottoms from left to right. Depending on the seat, these may be covered by the lower trim pieces on the seat. Seat frames left and right are typically not interchangeable.

Buying new seats from a dealer (if they are available at all) will be breathtakingly expensive.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:32 am 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 6:31 pm
Posts: 699
Location: West Lafayette, IN
Year and Trim: 2003 SLE || 51k miles
Haro has some charchol colored fronts.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=8319

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:45 am 
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Year and Trim: '17 Silverado 1500
They're 00+. He's referring to his 95.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:47 am 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 6:31 pm
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Location: West Lafayette, IN
Year and Trim: 2003 SLE || 51k miles
I didnt even notice that. haha
I guess it still applies to ptfair though.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:13 pm 
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Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 6:50 am
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Location: Langhorne, Pa
Year and Trim: 2007 Impala SS
1997 LeSabre Limited
ill look into the jy on monday.
and on the side..i totally missed the boat that he's referring to the 95...whoops.

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 Post subject: Re: Leather seat skins
PostPosted: Sun May 10, 2009 10:11 am 
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Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 10:36 pm
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Location: Auburn. AL - SEBF 08, 09, 10 Survivor
Year and Trim: 2012 Nissan Maxima SV Premium
If you're looking for new leather, check out katzkins. They call them seat covers but they're really premade leather skins that you install just like leather from the factory. You can customize them with various options (like different colored/textured inserts, stitching, bunched or flat leather inserts, etc) and it comes with an installation CD.

Reason I recommend them is I'm going this route for my S10. I don't want to buy leather seats from a junkyard because more than likely they will be bucket seats and not bench/bucket like my truck, and will have power crap that my truck does not and that I don't want to hook up.

They aren't cheap (my truck's was $400ish in the quote), but you get brand new custom fit leather in your style of choice.
.
.
.

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