rufiorules

Hi Bay Area S2KI, I've got a new tear in my OEM seat. I searched through the forums and couldn't find recommendations. Has anyone had any experience or recommendations of a shop that will repair the tear and also recondition the leather / vinyl seats? There is also a little bit of cracking around the tear. Any suggestions and recommendations would be much appreciated. I was thinking of covering the seats with some Clazzio covers, but wanted to repair the original first. Or do y'all just leave the seat as is with the cover and deal with the tear in the future, like when you are going to sell the car?

Ineffableturbo

I'd be interested in this too, I have a tear from a shop that denied tearing it, but will not name names

darkfalcon

Interested as well. Have a tear on my passenger seat.

rufiorules

I work next to Val's Auto Upholstery and went in there to ask about it. They would do the work by replacing panels. It wouldn't be cheap and they don't think they can match the material. I also reached out to another mobile upholsterer based north of the city but does work in SF. I'll follow up here on their response. I also found this place "https://www.yelp.com/biz/vargas-auto-upholstery-sunnyvale?osq=auto+upholstery" which I am thinking about checking out this weekend.

I was thinking of getting the work done and then getting the Clazzio covers. But am now thinking that I should just get the covers and forget the seat conditions until for some reason I need to sell the car and go from there. Thoughts?

Jae2K

It’s definitely possible to only replace a small portion of the seat cover, rather than replacing the whole seat. The difference here is that, that sort of work isn’t profitable so most placed will only replace the entire cover. They’ll sell you on it by telling you that it won’t match and it won’t look good etc. but it’s definitely possible. My local guy does it for me all the time. Only downside is you gotta have a good eye for matching materials, textures, perforation ect. Good luck!

Chuck S

There are complete seat overs available for our car with good results noted here. Heck you can even change the seat colors this way.

-- Chuck

rufiorules

I contacted Vargas Auto Upholstery in Sunnyvale and asked them for a quote. They would reupholster the two seat bottoms and fix one panel on the driver side that was tearing for $1200. I almost pulled the trigger, but they called me and told me that for MY06, they could not find and match the black/graphite that the seat is made from. They searched their distributers across the country and couldn't find anyone that was still carrying it or had any in their stock. They could find the black perforated leather, but not the border piece that has a slight texture. The models before and after used a smoother material. So now I am thinking of just getting some Clazzio seat covers and dealing with the original cover later. Y'all might have better luck if you have a different model year, but for black '06, we are SOL.

Anyone have better luck than me?

rrounds

Why not cover the seats in some material that you like. Make the seats cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. We DD our S and the seats are not the best thing we like about the S, so when our seats need covering(most likely this winter) we will have our seats done so our long drives are more pleasurable on our backsides.

ROD

rufiorules

Rod, can you give a little more description on what you would cover it in the winter vs the summer? I'm torn because I want it to look good and have a good fit for the cover. I actually don't mind the OEM seats. And how are you getting 27 MPG that I noticed in your signature. I'm getting closer to 22/23 and was thinking that maybe its time for me to clean out my cold air intake filter.

Billy

rrounds

I drove truck for 23 years with a little over two million miles driven and I like cloth seats. They are warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, even black cloth. I'll talk with my upholstery shop to get the best wearing cloth and how much or where to use cloth. I think the sides and bolster will be leather and the middle will be cloth, but that might change after we discuss the options.

As for my mileage, the last 10 tanks I got 24.9 and that is with 100's of miles at speed over 85. Cruising at 90 is a lot easier on gas mileage than getting to 90 multiple times. We might drive fast on our multiple state drives but when DD our S we drive well within the speed limit. And yes we do drive our S to sight see and to do that we very seldom go faster than 50, sometimes much slower than that. Even when we go through Yosemite(at night, all night) with a full moon we drive slow and get 28 to 33 mpg.
Most National Parks are crowded as hell during the day but at night they empty out. If you haven't driven a N/P at night I highly recommend doing that, with a full moon you can see very well.
Here are smoe pic's of one of our night drives through Yosemite, it was very smokey that night because of a fire in the park. We drove through the fire to get to Glacer Point and had to go back the same way. First fire I've drove through and I hope it's the last one to.
Yosemite At Night by Rod Rounds Photobucket

ROD