How-to: Installing Aftermarket Leather

[Altimat]

I'll post a detailed how-to later. The colors actually match exactly, but the digicam flash makes them look like a different shade of grey! The door panel inserts aren't done yet.


Rear:

[Altimat]

It was a solid 10 hours of brutal labor.

[Altimat]

Here's the how to:

Needed: Hog Ring Pliers, Hog Rings, BIG sidecutters, 3/8" Metric socket set and 3" extension, #2 Phillips, #11 X-acto knife, drill and bits.

Should also have(I didn't): Gloves, some thin white upholstery foam (tearable kind) to add material where needed, eight additional push-in retainers for back of rear seats.

Front seats:

Remove seats. On power seat pay special attention to the wire connector locations and wire routing. Remove the rear bolts first so that the seats are rearward on their tracks when removed.
Remove the 4 bolts holding on the lower cushion. Remove the side trim pieces. Remove the switch buttons and the switch bezel by prying them off if you have a power seat. Remove the perimeter of the cover retained by a grooved channel. Cut the hog rings at the center seams. Install new cover, using one additional hog ring between each of the factory hog ring notches for a better fit. Use the velcro center seam to locate the cover properly before ringing it on. The front lower part of the seat could use some additional foam for a snug fit. Reattach the perimeter channels (This is where I lost blood so beware!). Now trim around the switches using the old cover as a guide until you can fit the trim bezel and buttons back on.

Remove the seat backs (map pockets) by prying out the clips. These are snug, but won't be reused if you break a clip. Remove the lumbar lever, it has a small clip on it. Separate the interlocking channels at the bottom. Pull up the cover. Cut off the nylon webbing over the airbags if you have them. Cut the rings. Remove the headrest holders by squeezing them together at the bottom, and pushing up. Take off the cover. Cut the headrest holes. Mine measured 2 1/2" forward of the top seam, and 3" out from the center seam. Slip on just the very top (inside-out) Reinstall the headrest holders. Ring on the top horizontal seam. Now you will note the new cover is one wrap-around piece and doesn't have an open back. Leatherseats.com installed an elastic cord in the side seams (sides of the center rectangular inserts) instead of the hard plastic used to ring on the other side seams in the kit. I assumed this was because it would be difficult to hog ring on the sock-like cover, but I did it any way by installing it inside-out and slowly pulling it down as I went. Tie the elastic cord up over the seat back and to the wire across the upper back first. If you ring on the vertical (side) seams pull down as you go or you'll find yourself short when you go to ring on the lower horizontal seam (Found this out the hard way and did it twice). When you get to the bottom tie the other end of the elastic cord around back to the large diameter rod. I added some 1/2" foam in front of the lumbar support for additional support. This way I can add even more lumbar support than I am accustomed to if I want. A zipper closes the bottom. Reinstall the trim pieces, the lumbar lever, and the seat bottom.

Back Seat:

Pull the release rings hidden under the front edge of both sides of the seat bottom (Very nice touch!) to release it. Cut all the rings and remove the cover. Ring on the new cover adding additional rings between each of the factory ring locations again to get a smoother look on the recessed seams around the inserts. Ring on the edge. The front lower part of the seat could use some additional foam for a snug fit.
Now remove the two bolts and one center nut holding on the lower seat back. Flip down the seats and remove two bolts on each latch. Remove seat back assembly. Remove pivot bolt on outer pivot of both sides, then remove backs and pivot bracket.
Remove seat belt guides, then cut rings and remove the covers from the outer sides. The new covers fit somewhat loose. You could a layer of foam here. Ring them on. The rings fasten into hard plastic so you have to drill out the old holes to get your rings to grab into them. Cut the access hole for the pivot bolt head and the hole for the shoulder of the bolt.
Separate the locking channel from the lower backs. Pull up the back material and remove the push-in retainers. This is where you may want to drill holes and add one clip between each for a better fit when you install the new cover. Remove the two nuts holding on the armrest pivot bracket. Remove the retainers on the cardboard cover behind the armrest and remove it and the armrest. Remove the pivot bushing. Cut the rings on the front seams and remove the cover.
Remove the cupholder and the armrest cover. Recover the armrest.
Ring on and install the new seat back upholstery. Add an additional layer of foam to front of headrest as the cover fits loose here also. Cut the holes for the retainers. Install them, and close up the back. Cut the hole for the pivot bolt, and the pivot bushing. Reinstall bushing. Reassemble and reinstall seat back, then reinstall lower seat cushion.
Note that I didn't add any additional foam or retainers, but if I had to do it over again I would do so.

[Altimat]

Front:

[Scobes]

Isn't the underlying cushioning different between the cloth and the factor leather seats? I've sat in both, and the cloth seats feel like big spongy foam, but the factory leather has much more compact, tight cushioning. (The difference in the legroom between the cloth and leather for the back seat is dramatic). So aren't you just throwing the aftermarket leather over the spongy foam, resulting in a totally different seat feel than with the factory leather?

[Altimat]

The aftermarket leather does have a heavy foam backing that the cloth did not have.

[Altimat]

Tools needed:
#2 Phillips
stubby Phillips (optional)
very small screwdriver
cheap soldering iron
Dremel with cylindrical bit and smooth end (cuts only on side of bit)
2” masking tape
small putty knife
cup of water
Spray adhesive and vinyl or leather (from leather seats kit)
single edge razor blades
scissors

Remove the plastic screw covers over the screws in the door pull, and behind the door release handle. Remove the screws behind them. To remove the insert with the switches, pull out slightly on the door pull, then wrestle it out. Prying carefully under the middle will help, but the trick is to get the backside to release. The rear will come up first, and the very front has a snap in clip that pulls out last. Unplug the wire connectors by releasing the clip with the small screwdriver then pull (they’re tight). Underneath the switch panel is one more screw. Remove it. On the front doors, remove the courtesy light by pulling out on the bottom edge, then unplug it. Now grab the door panel around the lower edges and pull. The clips will pop loose. There is one clip behind the triangular piece of plastic behind the mirror also. Grab your #2 stubby Phillips (the rear door panels need the stubby more than the fronts), then lift the door panel off of the top edge of the door. While holding it in one hand, remove the 4 screws from the back of the door panel that hold on the handle/lock assembly. Now make sure that all of the clips are still in the panel. If not, remove them from the door and reinstall them in the door panel.

Place the panel face down on a your soft, flat work surface. Leatherseats recommends covering the insert by tucking the new vinyl or leather in around the edges. I had no luck getting a decent fit with this method. The spray adhesive is totally dry before you can get it tucked in (which is nearly impossible it is SOOO tight), and it ends up very uneven, etc. So here’s how I did it.

First remove the window felts by straightening the folded over tabs and pulling them off. Now examine the molten blobs of plastic (ala shift boot) that resemble rivet heads and hold the upper and lower panels together. You need to grind their diameter down to about 1/4 “. Do not reduce their height. Some are black plastic, and some are white plastic. Do only the ones holding the upper panel to the lower. I left the small panel at the rear edge of the upper panel attached to the upper panel. You could remove that panel also. After grinding pry carefully and they will pop loose. Some may need to be ground more than others. Remove the upper panel.

HKNinja completely his leather install with a DKSchweitzer leather kit and has provided the remainder of these pics detailing the door panel insert recovery portion of the leather install. These first two illustrate the molten blobs of plastic that weld the panels together:





Here is the weld ground off. I left a little more material in the middle when I did mine:



Now mask off the small trim panel behind the insert (unless you removed it) and spray both the original cloth insert material and the back of the new material with spray adhesive.



After a few minutes dry time, place the new material over the cloth so that about ¾” of material hangs off of the back edge (If you are working with the small panel still attached). Take care not to apply any concentrated local pressure as this will compress the glue into the nap of the cloth and make your finished product “lumpy.” Working from the center out, lift it up again and stretch it just slightly in every direction to get a smooth surface. Press the edges down tight.



(If you removed the small panel at the rear of the door insert, ignore this next step) Now you need to trim the rear edge so that just ¼” of material tucks underneath the original cloth (between the insert and the rear plastic trim panel). This is all that will fit. If you trim it too short, pull the whole piece off, move it back, and start over. There is plenty of excess, so you can screw up a few times on the first one. Start at the center of the top radius with your small screwdriver tucking it in slowly and carefully, then work around to flat portion where it tucks in much nicer with a putty knife. The last step is to trim the remainder of the excess to exactly match the original cloth trim line with a razor blade and make a small vertical cut in each rectangular hole for the window felt tabs to pass through. Reinstall the window felt.

Now place the insert panel back over the plastic posts. With the hot soldering iron, melt the posts down and into the surrounding plastic to about 3/16” depth. Stir around and get a nice molten plastic area about ½” diameter by 3/16” deep. Now dip your finger in the water and press it into the molten plastic to smooth out the “weld”. Cuss about the pain and dip your finger back in the water to cool it again. When they're all "welded" back together, reinstall the door panel.




You should be able to do this in 4 hours, although it took me five because I wasted the first one trying to recover the panel without disassembling it first. Wish I could say this was a piece of cake like the spring install, but I just want everyone to know what they're getting themselves into before they tackle a project like this!

Many thanks to HKNinja for his contribution to this thread. Please check out his door insert installation thread here.


Last edited by Altimat on 05-06-2002 at 11:19 PM

[Altimat]

Originally posted by -=JRC=-


I read it too. The soldering iron part has me worried. Is there any other possible way to do it with out the soldering iron?

Because of the tightness of the gap between the lower door panel and the insert panel, the thick vinyl will not tuck in decent at all. My only other idea would be to trim off the original cloth just before it tucks into that gap before recovering. This should allow the new vinyl to tuck in fine, and the cut edge of the original cloth should compress and be invisible once covered if it is trimmed off just past the radius.

[Ry]

The aftermarket leather is from leatherseats.com. http://www.altimas.net/forum/showthr...threadid=27174