jackreacher

Hello!

Finally purchased a 3rd gen TL - a model that I always thought is the best design for a full size sedan, ever. This is a 2007 with taupe interior. I do have a small issue though- while the leather in all the other areas are in excellent shape, the driver seat and the armrest is over-used as you can see from the attached picture. I guess this was not a family vehicle . It's not terrible for a car that has 105k miles, but my question is, what is the best way to fix that rip in the leather to prevent from further tear? And, as you can see from the picture, the leather is wearing out, cracks in several places that are probably susceptible to tears in the coming years, in fact some areas are already holding by small threads. Is there anything I can do to strengthen the leather in the overall seating area to prevent further tears? Any product that I can apply that has a real chance of helping?

I will also visit an upholstery shop this week, but I don't want to spend too much money on this project, unless there's no other way. I saw in the forum someone suggested buying the bottom seat leather for around $250 from autocustomleathers.com but I am not handy enough to disassemble and take out the seat and do a cover replacement myself, so I am afraid the labor cost of having someone do all that work would be even more expensive than the cover itself..

So, for a budget of around $300- $400 max, can I replace this seat cover and solve the problem once and for all? If that's not realistic, and if I don't want to spend close to a grand on this, then what would be my best bet to save this seat leather? I care about keeping the rest of the cracks turning into tears as much as I care about fixing the already torn area. So I am ok with a cosmetically "good enough" solution to the existing tear, as long as I can treat the rest and save the leather from further tears as well.

By the way, the leather on that armrest is in really bad shape too, if you know anything that can help make it look better / cleaner, I am all ears on that one too. Is it even possible to dye it to the same taupe color? I found this online, but I want to check if anyone had success with dyeing the interior leather of a car before doing something stupid..

Thanks in advance for any tips!

donkiboy

There is nothing you can do to save it. A cover replacement from sellers like the one you mentioned is your only option.
There are several vendors out there that sell replacement covers so I'd suggest shopping around for best price / reviews.
Around the same mileage I also had small cracks form on my driver's cushion which eventually turned into huge gaping tears.

csmeance

find an upholstery shop and they can put new foam in the center armrest and make it look like new. For the seat bottom you can buy the leather online and pay the labor at an upholstery shop for them to install properly. Plus they can add some foam to replace worn foam so the seat is nice and comfy like new!

jackreacher

Thank you for the replies. Just like you both mentioned, I found a local upholstery shop that -to my surprise- would install a seat cover for $50. I ordered the cover from the seat shop I ordered the armrest too. It will take a few weeks for them to make the cover, but I heard very good things about that company, including from the upholstery shop.

The seat shop did recommend cleaning the upper part of the seat with this product to make it look a better match (since the bottom part will be newer).

I will update here once the job is done, in case other users would benefit from the experience...