97 Limited - Reupholster the seats or replace them?

[AK974runner]

My 97 4runner has tan leather seats that are very worn, cracked, and in some areas torn. The driver seat cover for the seat controls broke off which led to the breaking of the seat control motor that is mounted to the frame by a couple screws. Is it worth it to reupholster the seats, or to just replace them with aftermarket or salvaged seats? I really don't care for leather due to the work involved in keeping them nice.

 

[JayRolla]

My 97 4runner has tan leather seats that are very worn, cracked, and in some areas torn. The driver seat cover for the seat controls broke off which led to the breaking of the seat control motor that is mounted to the frame by a couple screws. Is it worth it to reupholster the seats, or to just replace them with aftermarket or salvaged seats? I really don't care for leather due to the work involved in keeping them nice.

I have some messed up seats too. LOL. My driver side front left bolt tore out from the floor pan on a crazy offroad adventure. I had to drill and install a bolt/washer to fix it. Later I parked on a rock and putting weight on my seat it broke the right side hinge on the back so it sits crooked.

After being quoted almost $600 or more to fix and cover the seats I just went with some synthetic covers. THey look good, cost me $179 shipped, here is the thread I made, was going to post some better pictures here soon one I cleaned the truck. Also about to buy a new carpet for the floor pan here soon.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...-synthetic-leather-seat-covers-installed.html

 

[RJ MacReady]

personally, just get some replacements. Local junkyards in SoCal have them all the time for like ~$200/front set.

 

[wc11]

I love my 3rd gen and will spend the money.
I'm going to order these:
1998 1999 Toyota 4Runner Tan Leather Seat Covers 2 Back Rest and 2 Bottoms | eBay

 

[DK974RUNNER]

Reupholster or Replace?

I'm in the same boat - I have a 97 4Runner Limited with tan interior and am willing to pay the money too........ I am clueless in this area - any suggestions?

 

[Brian.]

I'm in the same boat - I have a 97 4Runner Limited with tan interior and am willing to pay the money too........ I am clueless in this area - any suggestions?

The recover will make them look nice. If the foam is shot (and 24 years since new, it's trash), then you'd be into the stock seats for about a grand. Maybe that's worth the cost, maybe you just go pull a couple Much newer/nicer seats for a hundred apiece from the lock pick-n-pull and spend a little time figuring out the swap.

It's 100% personal. I went with power, heated BMW seats. The newly recovered stock seats looked fine, but were a pain to sit in for more than about 12 seconds.

 

[NoVA_T4R]

Long post for those looking for a long-term solution

OP did not have pics of the worn seats or what the timeframe for ownership would be, so my comments are for the long-term timeframe.

If you go to a salvage yard, most of the good seats gets snatched up quick, so what's usually available by the time you get there is just as or more worn out than what you've got already.
OEM cloth and leather seat covers were available a couple years back through Camelback or Conicelli Toyota online parts order. But at least for the oak color, it looks like they are discontinued.
However, the cushion foam is still available for both the seat and the seat back at Camelback, Conicelli and Sheehy Toyota of Fredericksburg.
Seat Cushion Pad - Toyota (71511-35050)
Seat Back Pad - Toyota (71551-35050)
If your passenger or back seats are still good, switch between sitting between the driver seat and those other seats and decide for yourself the age of your seat foam.

If your time horizon for ownership is "till the wheels fall off," something to consider is buying the OEM cushion foam, then buying an aftermarket seat cover in the fabric/color of your choice. You can use the search function to look up seat cover recommendations in this sub-forum. Also, there are numerous vendors on eBay.

If you have an auto upholstery shop near to you, find out how much they would charge for just the labor if you provide the foam and covers.
There are a couple of YouTube videos that show you how to DIY, but when I had an auto upholstery shop do it, it took them 2 hours. So, I decided paying was worth the time savings of me trying to DIY.

All total, I paid around $750 for new OEM foam (seat & back), new leather covers (from eBay; seat and back), and the labor to replace them. For me, it was worth it to get a brand new driver seat!

 

[2021nightshade4x4]

OP did not have pics of the worn seats or what the timeframe for ownership would be, so my comments are for the long-term timeframe.

If you go to a salvage yard, most of the good seats gets snatched up quick, so what's usually available by the time you get there is just as or more worn out than what you've got already.
OEM cloth and leather seat covers were available a couple years back through Camelback or Conicelli Toyota online parts order. But at least for the oak color, it looks like they are discontinued.
However, the cushion foam is still available for both the seat and the seat back at Camelback, Conicelli and Sheehy Toyota of Fredericksburg.
Seat Cushion Pad - Toyota (71511-35050)
Seat Back Pad - Toyota (71551-35050)
If your passenger or back seats are still good, switch between sitting between the driver seat and those other seats and decide for yourself the age of your seat foam.

If your time horizon for ownership is "till the wheels fall off," something to consider is buying the OEM cushion foam, then buying an aftermarket seat cover in the fabric/color of your choice. You can use the search function to look up seat cover recommendations in this sub-forum. Also, there are numerous vendors on eBay.

If you have an auto upholstery shop near to you, find out how much they would charge for just the labor if you provide the foam and covers.
There are a couple of YouTube videos that show you how to DIY, but when I had an auto upholstery shop do it, it took them 2 hours. So, I decided paying was worth the time savings of me trying to DIY.

All total, I paid around $750 for new OEM foam (seat & back), new leather covers (from eBay; seat and back), and the labor to replace them. For me, it was worth it to get a brand new driver seat!

Sounds like you found the winning combination! All, we can compare this to Katzkin aftermarket leather at $1800 for a three row vehicle! That’s just the cover, same old foam! Ugh!

 

[jgue467]

In central texas area, I found some folks willing to do both front lower/upper seats with new 'pleather' and new foam. The did a 2 stage foam, where the lower portion is firmer and the upper is softer.

Nothing could have improved the ride, comfort and feel like new foam, no suspension could have equaled this improvement. Cost about $700 and well worth it to me.

 

[phattyduck]

If you are really pinching pennies and your foam is semi-decent, swap the seat bottom foam left to right. You'll get a much fresher driver's seat for free...

-Charlie

 

[Eric_K]

The original owner of my '02 SR5 was clearly a very very heavy man. I weigh 250 and could never crater a driver's seat like that guy did. The springs and the foam are completely toast. I have to have the seat adjuster (whatever that is called) all the way up just to make it reasonable and it is still a super-hard driving experience. There is also a small stress tear in the fabric that is almost certainly from having a rather portly guy driving for all those years.

So I ordered a new spring, new foam and found a perfect condition matching used OEM fabric set to restore the driver's seat. My question is where the heck do I go to have that work done? I have no interest in doing it myself.

Will an upholsterer take apart and rebuild the entire thing?

 

[phattyduck]

It really isn't a hard project to DIY - you don't really need special tools if you are careful - but any auto upholstery shop should be able to do it. Your best bet is to remove the seat bottom and bring it to the shop, but I'm sure they could do the seat removal and install too.

-Charlie

 

[TheSaturnV]

I went with US Auto genuine leather replacements, both upper and lower for the front seats in Oak. My back seats are in terrific shape. They also sold me new foam lowers for both seats. I carefully pulled the occupancy sensor off the passenger side and used contact cement to apply it to the new foam. While I was in there, I added a seat heater kit from Amazon.

This is probably the best money I've ever spent on my 4runner. I want to keep it mostly OEM so it was worth every dime. US Auto's Oak leather is a spot on match to the original color, even though it looks too tan/yellowish in all their product shots.

It's a little labor intensive, but easily a DIY project. The new foam in the lowers makes all the difference in the world. So much so, that if they ever start offering the uppers, I will consider tearing the tops back apart and installing the new foam.

As someone said, rebuilding these seats makes the truck ride like a new one again. You'll laugh the first time you climb in and realize how much of a lowrider you've been all these years. :car:

Here's where I got mine, pics of my install to follow.

For 1996-2002 Toyota 4runner Driver-Passenger Bottom Leather Seat cover Tan | usautoseatcover

 

[toyotaspeed90]

We did Lseat covers (not a perfect match in color but I've grown to actually prefer how they stand out) and added aftermarket dual temp long seat heaters. Better than any stock heaters I've ever had. We had a set from our SR5 and lower mileage limited - so made a best set of manual seats to go into the limited.

We did the work and all in all cost around $400.

 

[sharkytrav]

In central texas area, I found some folks willing to do both front lower/upper seats with new 'pleather' and new foam. The did a 2 stage foam, where the lower portion is firmer and the upper is softer.

Nothing could have improved the ride, comfort and feel like new foam, no suspension could have equaled this improvement. Cost about $700 and well worth it to me.

Hey fellow Austinite, who are these folks? My seats are just about to need a major overhaul.

 

[zedjr]

id say find some good ones in jy and replace it on the cheap

 

[melodist]

Re-upholstery was harder than it looked

I just reupholstered the seat bottoms of the two front seats in my 98 LTD. (Really, my dad did most of it.) It wasn't terribly difficult, although the YouTube videos we watched cut out the most annoying parts.

The thing that sucks is that the seat foam pieces, and the "leather" covers, are not the same size. I got them both off eBay (not the same manufacturer - definitely a mistake), and now the covers are just a little.. floppy. Not terrible, totally functional, but I would have felt better paying more money to have an actual upholsterer do a better job.

 

[Bad Luck]

I just reupholstered the seat bottoms of the two front seats in my 98 LTD. (Really, my dad did most of it.) It wasn't terribly difficult, although the YouTube videos we watched cut out the most annoying parts.

The thing that sucks is that the seat foam pieces, and the "leather" covers, are not the same size. I got them both off eBay (not the same manufacturer - definitely a mistake), and now the covers are just a little.. floppy. Not terrible, totally functional, but I would have felt better paying more money to have an actual upholsterer do a better job.

The covers will shrink/tighten up some as they get used and go through heat cycles.

 

[phattyduck]

The covers will shrink/tighten up some as they get used and go through heat cycles.

It could also be base model seat foam with Leather covers - which aren't compatible...

-Charlie