Switch to leather

stanmckinney · Mar 1, 2007

I did a search and found little of real use. So I apologize if this has been asked many times before. I could not find the info.
I have cloth upholstery in my 2005 V6. I have seen many vendors offering take-off leather seat covers at a fairly reasonable price. Will these fit without any problem? Is this something a person could do or are you better off with a professional? What typically could you expect to pay a person to do this? Thanks.

bluecar · Mar 1, 2007

Replacing upholstery.....

The parts fella at my dealership said that If you change out your seatcovers they will not look like factory, for example the corners might stick out and/or be floppy. As far as doing it yourself, you might be opening up a can of worms. If it were me, I'd take it to a professional auto upholstery shop. Also, consider there may be some variation in seats although its the same design. A set of covers might be tight on one seat but loose on another. My guesstimate is it'll cost you a few hundred bucks to do.

nycstang37 · Mar 2, 2007

personally, i would do it custom, you can get any style, color and 2 tone job you want done professionaly and it would probably look nicer imo. granted it will cost a bit more but it would be unique to your car. also the factory leather isnt really leather except for the inserts, a good shop would offer you the real stuff.

bigcat · Mar 2, 2007

i have an in-house upholstry shop at work. it is time consuming, so you will pay for it. you can do it yourself if you are familiar with using hog rings. hog rings are the key to make them fit properly. a local ford dealership tried to install new covers on a new F150, but did not use hog rings. then they could not figure out why it did not fit, and sent it down to us.

i think shooterm1 did this himself. try PMing him or searching his posts.

stanmckinney · Mar 2, 2007

I've seen the custom leathers from various suppliers. Some look great. Any idea dollar wise what I am talking about professionally installed?

diamonded · Mar 3, 2007

I just bought some leather seat covers from newtakeoff, to replace the factory cloth seats on my '06 gt. I have only done the front passenger seat so far.
There are a few issues, but after i finished the seat it does have a factory look to it.
One issue I had was with a few of the factory fasteners that I had no choice in removing other than to break them off.
These resembled a type of plastic rivet i guess, that were not designed to be removed. I imagine an upholstery shop would have plenty of these. I wont say what i used in their place, other than it works and I didn't have to take it to a shop.
One thing that was nice , is that the seat back comes in one piece with the cover already over the foam backing, so it's really an entire seat back. The seat bottom is just the cover though and you have to use the factory bun.
The only other problem i have is with the seat stay strap, for lack of a better word. The cloth seat had a snap on the end of the strap that snaps on to a fixture on the plastic trim that runs along the base of the seat. The strap on the leather seat doesn't have the snap on it. So there is no way to attach it to the trim.
I have been meaning to go to the dealer to look at a car with the factory leather seats to see what kind of connector they have. It may be that the trim on the leather seat has a different type of connector. If I have to replace the trim it will be fine.
Other than that I havn't had much trouble with this yet. I can definitely say that the fit is tight and looks factory installed.
The only hog rings are on the seat bottom and attach to a metal rod that runs on top of the bun.
If you are mechanically inclined at all, you should not have a lot of trouble wih this.

stanmckinney · May 16, 2007

Anyone tried custom seats from TMI, Katzin or someone else? I'm wondering about colors (two-tone is what I want) with my windveil blue car with medium dove interior.

V. Barbarino · May 16, 2007

FYI, most people don't know, that Mustang seats are not leather. Only the middle is leather the rest of the seat is vinyl. It's hard to tell, you have to look real close.

stanmckinney · May 16, 2007

I know that. Even some of the custom leather seats on the market are leather only in the inserts.

discofan · May 20, 2007

stanmckinney said:
I know that. Even some of the custom leather seats on the market are leather only in the inserts.

I just got my interior redone and have the red leather seat covers for the front and rear seats including the headrests....

If your interested in the total red leather look, then PM me and I'll give you a great price on them...

Dave

stanmckinney · May 20, 2007

Red would not match my car. Anyone done TMI or Katzin?? Anyone??????

mikes06gt · May 20, 2007

my dad had the katzkins done on his f350 and they looked great..not cheap but worth the money....dont want to skimp when it comes to something that visible

LilBluPony · May 27, 2007

I switched out the cloth in my '05 V6 to leather last week. Mine were GT Takeoffs and I paid $295 shipped. Here's a couple of pics. Everyone loves them!

Before
View attachment 383914

After
View attachment 383915
View attachment 383916
View attachment 383917

stanmckinney · May 28, 2007

Looks great. I have a windveil blue with the same interior you had originally. I wondered what the dark graphite (black) would look like. I like it. I now really have some thinking to do since I get can get the take-off leather for about $350 verses about $800 for custom leather.
Where did you get yours by the way? Did you install it yourself? If you hired someone, what did you pay if you don't mind me asking?
It really looks good. I've just got to decide how much I want to invest. Custom color would be great but is it worth the price?
Thanks again. I needed to see this.

LilBluPony · May 28, 2007

I can give you the guy's information if you want. You can get the dark charcoal for $295 shipped to your door as well. Here's the link http://www.mustangcollective.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26, post what you want, and Paul will pm you. He has been selling them for $295 shipped to your door for everyone. Oh yeah, my husband and I installed ourselves. I was told by some other people that the tops of the pass/driver seats did not come with foam BUT mine and all that come from Paul, already have the foam in them. Makes that part much easier. The easiest part was the rear seats.

Marine One · May 28, 2007

LilBluPony said:
I can give you the guy's information if you want. You can get the dark charcoal for $295 shipped to your door as well. Here's the link http://www.mustangcollective.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26, post what you want, and Paul will pm you. He has been selling them for $295 shipped to your door for everyone. Oh yeah, my husband and I installed ourselves. I was told by some other people that the tops of the pass/driver seats did not come with foam BUT mine and all that come from Paul, already have the foam in them. Makes that part much easier. The easiest part was the rear seats.

FWIW, the leather on your seats looks like it fits better than the factory leather that came on my car. The cover on the lower cushion of the passengers side front bucket was so loose that the dealer replaced it. Then they did such a poor job that they ended up replacing the entire seat from a car on the lot to make it right.

LilBluPony · May 29, 2007

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised by the fit. I think it has a lot to do with all the velcro fittings in the seams of the seats. Made for a tight fit. I love them and get comps all the time now! Sorry to hear bout yours. That really sucks!

stanmckinney · May 29, 2007

I have left a message for the guy you mentioned and heard nothing so far. Is he a member of this site?

LilBluPony · May 29, 2007

No, he's a member of 4.0 Mustang Collective. I'll pm you his email.

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