Car seat leather repair.

I have a tear in my leather seat in my car. It is about one inch long. It is a nice clean tear as if it were cut with a knife. I've been looking online for a repair kit and was wondering if anyone has had any success in repairing leather seats.

Thanks.

 

Leather is a remarkably wear resistant substance for upholstery, and my experience is limited to trying to find a seamstress who would/could tackle just replacing the stitching in my car's Driver Seat where the leather was fine (no cuts) but the non-leather thread was giving way . . . . the leather itself was still good.

Along the way, I tried several methods or substances for gluing the leather but none of them lasted very long, and I never found or saw any "kits" for repairing a cut such as you're describing. You may find that you'll be best served by finding an identical seat with the same leather cover at a junkyard (or on eBay and buying that seat just to obtain the leather cover.

My own experience came to a conclusion when the electric heating element failed in that very same seat and I replaced the cushion and heating element as described in the following thread:

Seat heater quit--is there a common cause?

While the leather cover was off the seat cushion, I personally stitched up the seams that were giving way to wear . . . . and I didn't even need an awl because I was able to use the existing seam's thread holes for my new stitches. I never found a seamstress or upholsterer who was knowledgeable in disassembling my seat in order to make this kind of repair, or was willing to commit to doing it.

If you can find someone who can repair leather, you'll probably still be required to remove the leather cover from the seat and present it to the repair person separate from the car. Sensitive airbags become quite an issue in making this removal.

It may take a while, but I suspect that finding a used seat/leather cover will be your best solution. Good Luck !

 

The only repairs I have done that lasted was to sew the tear. If it's a high wear area a backing patch helps a lot though it may require removing the cover from the seat frame. If just stitching the tear then it can be done from above with a heavy duty curved needle. Nylon thread seems to hold up well as does polyester and I would avoid cotton.

 

Thanks for all the info. I was hoping one of those leather repair kits actually worked. I'll have to do some thinking on this. My concern with sewing is how will it look. Won't you see the stitches? ANd will the stitches tear the leather?

Thanks again.

 

would probably opt for atleast giving one of the repair kits a try and see how it works for you.

 

This is a DIY site so we're going to steer you that way when we can. Leather repair is not one of those kinds of issues; it's generally best to hire a pro for this.