Car Seat Repair

Here are some pictures of my car.

You don’t need a paint job , especially one cheap one from Maaco of a different color . Maybe a good detail after a Paintless dent removal place has looked at it .

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the only real problem I see here is the rear passenger side door and quarter panel, the rest of the car is in decent shape or at least satisfies the “20-20” rule (“can not notice much trouble from 20 feet or when it goes above 20 miles an hour”)

you received some good advice on getting used seat[s] from PAP or LKQ - this will most likely save you some green

save your money on the painting and fix only rear/right door and quarter panel, do not spend much on these either as this car will not be with you forever

color-change job will reduce your car value, plus if your car is damaged in a collision, you will never get your money invested back from the insurance company

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I did some upholstery work on my pontoon boat this past summer. Not rocket surgery. It involved deconstructing the seat covers and using the damaged sections as templates to cut out replacement parts from marine vinyl. A standard sewing machine and UV-resistant thread put it all back together. The key for you would be finding matching leather.

If I had that problem and $350 would get the seat re-upholstered I just pay up and be happy the problem was fixed. If you want to save a little $$$ diy’er can do this sort of job themselves. So that’s another option. Go to your local public library and see if they have a book on auto-re-upholstery. There’s probably u-tube vdos on how to do this also. The proper way to do this job is to remove the seat from the car, strip the seat entirely back to the frame, and install everything new, new foam rubber, leather (or cloth).

Custom fit seat covers is what I would do, actually probably will do in my car. You can search for seat covers by vehicle, that is where I am going.

The OP does not sound like the type that wants to go to the effort of doing a professional job but at any rate, factory matching material is available on-line from Atrim out of Oklahoma. I’ve ordered headliner and other supplies from them. I have also gotten factory matching headliner from a wholesale supplier out of St. Paul. An upholstery shop had all the books with the factory fabrics in order to specify what what needed. Then the wholesaler just pulled it from stock. Any major city has these suppliers if you talk to a shop first. But gee for what the guy has in mind, just go to JoAnne Fabrics and pick something up to glue on.

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I found this on Amazon and have ordered it.

I will try it, and if it doesn’t work or looks ridiculous (I am particularly worried about its interaction with my heated seats - do you actually think it could pose a safety hazard??) then I will probably just go and get it done by the upholsterer. I figure, for $15, it is worth a shot! :slight_smile:

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I’m not a lawyer but just to avoid disappointment, I read the fine print. It says “leather repair patch”, not necessarily a patch made of leather. So a patch of who knows what to repair leather. But who knows, knock yourself out.

adhesive will not hold there, it must be attached with a strong thread

Any adhesive patch on a seat will roll the edges, exposing the clothes you wear to the adhesive and sticking. You will end up with a bigger mess than when you started. If you can get it repaired with real dyed leather that matches for $350, jump on it. BTW, you need more than just the leather sections, the underlayment needs to be replaced also or it will not be comfortable or look good.

Frankly, if I owned the upholstery repair shop and you drove in with that nonsense stuck on the seat, id raise the repair price to $500.

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If op took that approach, the car would be undrivable for weeks or months, while he acquired the tools and skills necessary to do t he job himself