Cracked leather options

01KY4R

01KY4R

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Has anyone ever tried this?

96-02 toyota 4runner bottom leather seat cover tan - eBay (item 180622306084 end time Mar-08-11 10:19:20 PST)

I have a 2001 Limited with tan leather and the usual cracks on the left side of the drivers seat. A local upholstry shop wants $195 to replace the vinyl and one strip of leather that has a crack as well. $195 doesn't sound too bad, but if I can get him to install this all new leather cushion on the bottom for $40 then I feel I am getting a better deal.

My worries are color and quality. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks...
 
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Also, I messaged the seller on eBay to check color and if the whole thing is made of leather but I am still waiting on a reply. I'll let you guys know what he says.
 
If that doesn't work

I put on "these can't be leather" seat covers from Autoanything, they were about $500 for the whole truck, they look and feel great
 

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The front seats on 3GTRs are notorious for ripping on the outer sides of the seat. The leather Toyota uses is quite cheap. I had the leather on the side of my driver seat replaced because it started to rip. The leather guy that the Toyota dealerships use here is very good, and quite reasonable. But, now the entire seat bottom is all faded, wrinkley, and worn. It's time to have that part redone.
 
My message:
I'm happy to see that you are selling a replacement for my cracked leather seat bottom. Is the whole seat bottom made of leather or is it a combination of leather and vinyl like the factory one? Also, will this match my 2001 factory tan leather interior?

His reply:
Yea my cover will fit your 4 runner. Its a combo leather on all the seating surface and vinyl on the sides. Thanks bruce

I think I'm going to buy this depending on how much my upholstry guy wants to charge for install.
 
I've sent him a message and asked if he'd be willing to ship me a swatch of the material for color match purposes.
 
UPDATE: Ebay seller sent me a swatch. It was getting late this evening when I checked it out, but it looks to be a really good match. I'll compare in better daylight tomorrow, but if the color and texture is as close as I think it is, I will order tomorrow. Seller was quick to reply and very willing to send a sample.

More to come.
 
don't know if you're set on leather, but if you're not, why not spend a little more and get some Wet Okole Seat covers for both front seats? They stand up to anything and are custom fit for your seats. You get 2 for about 240.
 
Had Wet Okole's in a 93 Toyota pickup for as a few years. Great fit, but kind of a pain to keep looking like new. Probably just try to roll with leather on the Runner. Thanks for the idea though.
 
I apologize for not keeping up with this thread. I had the seat bottom installed yesterday by a local guy and the quality is great! I'll have to get some pics up later, but I would definitely recommend his product. The color is dead on, the pattern is exact, and the leather is soft as can be. The quality reminds me of my fiancee's parents Lincoln leather seats.

Definitely go this route if your front seat is cracked.

Because I can imagine someone asking, I paid $75 to have it installed. Expensive??? I have no idea, but it was worth knowing I wasn't going to ruin a nice seat bottom trying to install it myself.
 
Okay, the pics have arrived. I forgot to take a before picture, but you all know what cracked leather/vinyl looks like.

IMG_1662.jpg~original


IMG_1663.jpg~original


IMG_1664.jpg~original


Again, it's well worth his price. My upholstry guy said that he couldn't even come close to that price because of the volume of leather he would have to buy. Granted he could do three more seat bottoms, that that involves more labor costs too.
 
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If it ripped out on the outside behind the plastic trim, you might want to de-bur the metal edge under there that caused it to rip in the first place.

On my '97 with non-power leather seats, I just swapped seat bottms side-to-side and bandaid'd the rip with gorilla tape. The ghetto-mended rip now faces the center console on the passengers side and the driver is no longer sitting on 177k worn out foam.
 
They were and still are definitely worth it. I'd recommend them to anyone. If you didn't already... check out the pics I posted above.
 
Also, I just cleaned and conditioned the rest of my seats with Lexol leather treatment. It took out all the grime and gave them a soft feel. The rest of the seats match the new bottom better now.
 
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