Leather is expensive........ December 14, 2006, 05:52:10 PM So I got the total estimate to have my smoke gray leather interior redone: $2,200 :nkhk: ! That's for the front and rear seats. The leather is worn in the front but not bad in the back. Infact besides a few wear spots the back is fine. The front seats are bad though. The backs are worn and cracking and the previous owner replaced the lower seat covers with vinyl which isn't quite the right shade of gray (too light). At times like this I wish the car had cloth seats like 90% of the other fox T-birds out there. If it did I wouldn't have this problem. So does anyone else think I'm getting screwed? I only have 2 upholstery shops in my area. One closed because the guy retired and the other one is good but, as you can see, expensive. In fact the day I was in there he had a Bently in getting its interior redone. Someone have some nice smoke gray or Raven seats they want to sell me? Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #1 – December 14, 2006, 06:06:56 PM Thunderjet302, There is a place close to me in Lansing IL. It's called Vos upholstery. I went there to check them out, I didn't get a price because I didn't have my car with me. You don't have to replace your leather with leather. Get an estimate with it being done in the cloth. Just my .02John1BadBird Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #2 – December 14, 2006, 06:08:51 PM Hopefully Eric can chime in on this as he gets his car reupholstered like once a year Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #3 – December 14, 2006, 06:28:35 PM Sad but true, Brian. That's a very high price. It's sad when upholsterers--who should be in high demand because of all the car-related TV shows out there--retire from the business and are not replaced. That can only eliminate competition and force prices upward without regulation in the market.Let me re-share some of the information I have about these cars. They were listed as having "leather seating surfaces"...basically, where your back and butt go are real leather. The rest of the seat coverings (sides, headrest, back, etc.) are vinyl. So it's not like we had 100% leather coverings to begin with. Technically, that's how they should be recovered in order to be "correct". And that will save you some money on full recoverings.Now for real leather pieces, it's very difficult to get a coherent, unblemished piece of leather from one cow. They like to rub up against barbed-wire fences, which ruins hides pretty quickly. Plus you have your occasional mad cow disease breaking out. All those issues drive up prices. When I had my seats done in 2001, real leather was not that much more expensive than vinyl but the color I wanted wasn't available, so I went with vinyl anyway. Now in 2003, when I had the seats redone, that was after the anthrax scare and the price of vinyl was like 3x-5x more than vinyl. It's come down a little since then but it's still expensive compared to vinyl. Also, with all the exotic leathers (ostrich, snake, alligator, etc.) on the market now, leather now has competition--but since they're expensive, so becomes cowhide.I hate to tell anyone that real leather isn't the way to go. I'd love to have the real deal myself. But when it comes down to sheer economics, vinyl has it all over leather. Plus it lasts longer, is cheaper to repair, and comes in a much wider range of colors.Did you also get a quote for having the seats done in all vinyl? Or the partial vinyl/leather combo? Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #4 – December 14, 2006, 08:07:30 PM my friedn tony had his seats all redone, his hedliner done (not in leather) and visors done fro aorund 700, this was a few aears back, but he just got his blue TC done and he siad the price was the same and he said he knwo sthe guy so he got a deal on it, but 2200 is a lil but to expensive, IMO.has suede leatehr type stuff ever been done? is that mreo expensive or less???i want the seats in my TC redone so they can hold me in a lil better. im a skinny guy and when i go aroudn corners to fast i soemtimes slide in the seat even weith the seat belt fully tight, so a "bucket" seat mroe of abucket. sorry to go a lil off topic.............. Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #5 – December 14, 2006, 08:37:34 PM What about the upholstery that is sold for Mustang GT seats through the aftermarket?Wouldn't those fit?I see them in all of the Mustang mags. Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #6 – December 14, 2006, 09:31:09 PM Quote from: EricCoolCats;118376the price of vinyl was like 3x-5x more than vinyl.The Marglar, who are the marglar from marglar, that allowed the marglar from marglar to come to marglar to save them from marglar.Scott Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #7 – December 15, 2006, 12:04:35 AM Quote from: EricCoolCats;118376Sad but true, Brian. That's a very high price. It's sad when upholsterers--who should be in high demand because of all the car-related TV shows out there--retire from the business and are not replaced. That can only eliminate competition and force prices upward without regulation in the market.Let me re-share some of the information I have about these cars. They were listed as having "leather seating surfaces"...basically, where your back and butt go are real leather. The rest of the seat coverings (sides, headrest, back, etc.) are vinyl. So it's not like we had 100% leather coverings to begin with. Technically, that's how they should be recovered in order to be "correct". And that will save you some money on full recoverings.Now for real leather pieces, it's very difficult to get a coherent, unblemished piece of leather from one cow. They like to rub up against barbed-wire fences, which ruins hides pretty quickly. Plus you have your occasional mad cow disease breaking out. All those issues drive up prices. When I had my seats done in 2001, real leather was not that much more expensive than vinyl but the color I wanted wasn't available, so I went with vinyl anyway. Now in 2003, when I had the seats redone, that was after the anthrax scare and the price of vinyl was like 3x-5x more than vinyl. It's come down a little since then but it's still expensive compared to vinyl. Also, with all the exotic leathers (ostrich, snake, alligator, etc.) on the market now, leather now has competition--but since they're expensive, so becomes cowhide.I hate to tell anyone that real leather isn't the way to go. I'd love to have the real deal myself. But when it comes down to sheer economics, vinyl has it all over leather. Plus it lasts longer, is cheaper to repair, and comes in a much wider range of colors.Did you also get a quote for having the seats done in all vinyl? Or the partial vinyl/leather combo?The quote was to redo it factory specs. Still I'm getting royally screwed. All vinyl would be ~ $1,600 still pretty pricey. I think it's so high because the guy runs a rather large shop and also does the interiors of some rather nice, expensive, cars. They guy I was going to go with before quoted me $1,000 to do it (in leather/vinyl combo) but he had a small shop with one other employee and worked on one car at a time. Now he retired because his wife got sick so I'm stuck with the other guy. I'm not saying the other guy doesn't do good work it's just a bit pricey. You wouldn't happen to have a nice seat of seats sitting around in your pile of parts would ya Eric? :grinno: Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #8 – December 15, 2006, 09:31:03 AM I also hate to say this but...the guy could have seen that you were young, maybe he doesn't like to deal with younger people, and gave you a high price just so you'd go away. That is another sad reality of dealing with shops. But...if he was being straight up with you, apparently his leather is lined with gold. :rolleyes:I don't have any of the sport buckets laying around, sorry. The only seats I have left are the base 60/40 split seats out of the Blue Max.1BadBird seems to have another lead for you though. You're going to have to travel, but you WILL find someone that cares and that gives you a good price. If you can get them done for under $1200 you did great. Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #9 – December 15, 2006, 02:41:52 PM I'm going to try some farther away from me upholstery shops for quotes. Lansing, Il (the one that 1badbird mentioned) is about 40 minutes east of me so I'm going to try that shop. I'm also going to try some shops on the North side. I think at this point since the back seat is still good I'm just gong to try to get the front buckets done. Eric I have the 60/40 splits in the front right now. I'm going to hack the consolette off in the drivers seat and install a console (it's smoke gray too:cool: ) over the next week or two. I can't find good seats but I found that console at the wreakers over the summer. I would have taken the seats from the Cougar the console was in but they were trashed. Quote Selected
Leather is expensive........ Reply #10 – December 16, 2006, 09:52:48 PM Thunderjet302, I have a pair of buckets out of my 86' T/C if you don't really want to cut up the seats you have. Just come and pick them up and they're yours. They aren't all torn up. I think they're in pretty decent shape. I'm going with other seats and I don't want to throw them out. Email me if you're interested in them Quote Selected
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