The leather on my 2002 car is starting to crack and peel. Short of having it redone professionally, what are my options? Can professionals fix the cracking without redoing the whole seat? Is there something I can to do repair it in the interim that won’t mess it up for professionals later on?
This may not fix the cracks, but spraying the seat with Lexolwill improve the leather’s condition considerably. If it’s bad enough to have cracks, spray it on and let it sit overnight (don’t spray and wipe).
A good trimmer at your local upholstery shop should be able to replace the panel on the seat that is damaged without recovering the whole seat. How close they can come to matching the original leather depends on the grain and stitching etc… You might also have an option of replacing the panel with faux leather. This option is generally much cheaper.
If you look at your seat you will be able to roughly see how much leather will need to be replaced by determining were the seams are. The cracked part will need to be replaced Sean to seam. I’ve had several seats repaired over the years. The last one I did was a seat from a 1988 Mazda rx7 convertible. I had the entire seating surface replaced (the side boosters were in good shape) with faux perforated leather. Each seat was around $160 to have done. While the match wasn’t perfect, it was close enough.