Leather S2 seats

[Benjy]

Ahoy All,

Been busy sewing up the seats for my S2. I wanted them in leather but it was very hard to find embossed leather to match the original basket weave design but I persevered and in the end I found some very lovely leather from a company called Prodital. They were able to emboss some of the hide (Cavalli) with what they call a 'mini basket' design which is very similar to the original. This is my first attempt at sewing car seats and all in all I am quite pleased with the end result. I added a bit of extra foam to the small seat cushion for added padding and of course I used new foam but otherwise I tried to keep the seats looking as original as I could. Next up are the door cards, also in leather. I'm hoping there will be enough leather left to bind the carpets and cover the centre consul too.

Cheers

Benjy 54/0949 France

[Fotog]

Looks great, Benjy.  Nice work.  How did you go about shaping the foam?

Vince

[TurboFource]

They look great!

[BDA]

Very nice!

[Benjy]

The bolster foam was all more or less alright once I peeled the old vinyl off it so luckily I didn't have to reconstruct it! I covered it all with an additional 3mm of scrim foam to help take out any wibbles before I fitted the leather. I unstitched the bolster panels and used them to make templates. I did the same with the seat cushions. Instead of the original hard board backing I used 3mm marine plywood and varnished it to keep the moisture out. The seat cushions are simply cut from 50mm thick foam, they needed no special treatment or shaping.

As car seats go, these are actually quite simple and straight forward. I picked up an old Pfaff sewing machine for 60€ in a second hand shop and used that. If I hadn't had the machine I would not have attempted this job but it sews so well it gave me the confidence to have a go. After all, what's the worst that can happen? 

[S2Zetec54]

Very impressive

[dakazman]

    Benjy,
     I love it when anyone excels at getting skilled down pat. Thank You for finding that site that produces that weave.
 a link to the vendor may be helpful. I could only get my wife to do after a list of honey do's.
    Dakazman
 

[Benjy]

https://www.prodital.it/eng/products

I used the mini weave pattern with black Cavalli leather. 1.1 mm

It's best to contact the company direct as not all their products are on their site. They were extremely helpful and sent me free samples.

Minimum order of one hide which is about 5 sq metres in area.

The embossed panels are made from the same leather and come in 90 x 130 cm panels. Min order: Two panels

I needed one full hide and two panels so it worked out well. Not cheap but of lovely quality.

[Bainford]

Those seats are gorgeous. Very nicely done.

When the day comes to redo my interior, I, too, want to do the seats and other bits in leather. Your results are very encouraging, though I will be getting someone else to do the actual upholstering. Thanks for the info on your leather supplier. That will come in handy.

[Bryan Boyle]

Very nice work!  That's how you redo a set of seats.