Subaru forester seat replacement or repair

[Maddog66]

I own a 99 subaru forester s and am in need of a solution to my worn out seats. I have the beige leather heated seats in the car and the front seats have cracking and tears in them. What can I do? I've seen leather repair kits but for the matching dye and everything it's 70+ dollars and I'm skeptical about the results. Is their any way I could get replacement oem seats for the car or is there any good aftermarket seats out there that would fit and match nicely? I'm not looking for race bucket seats just some comfortable daily driving seats. Any suggestions are appreciated

[Rooster2]

Suggest you do a Google search, "reupholster shop," or "upholstery repair" followed by the name of the city where you live in the google search line.

 

These shops do mainly home furniture reupholster work like couches and easy chairs. However, some do car seat repair. If a shop does not do car seats, ask for a referral. The upholster shops are generally small family owned businesses. Usually pretty easy to work with. Figure on removing the seat from your car, and dropping it off at the reupholster shop. They are not into doing the wrench work of unbolting the seat from your car. 

[Fairtax4me]

Plenty of auto upholstery repair places out there. Dealers often have seats repaired or have seats re-covered in leather or vinyl. Call your local dealer and ask where they have their upholstery work done.

 

If the foam in the seat is worn out a good upholstery shop can usually replace it, but not always.

 

Used seats are an option but can be kind of a crap-shoot.

 

I've not seen any company offer an aftermarket seat for these that is not for racing purposes.

[Maddog66]

Suggest you do a Google search, "reupholster shop," or "upholstery repair" followed by the name of the city where you live in the google search line.

 

These shops do mainly home furniture reupholster work like couches and easy chairs. However, some do car seat repair. If a shop does not do car seats, ask for a referral. The upholster shops are generally small family owned businesses. Usually pretty easy to work with. Figure on removing the seat from your car, and dropping it off at the reupholster shop. They are not into doing the wrench work of unbolting the seat from your car.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the upholstery shops around me are only open weekdays and close well before I get off work. Hopefully I can find some time to bring my seats by as the upholstery shop is a great idea. Any idea how much it would cost to have each seat fixed?

[Maddog66]

Plenty of auto upholstery repair places out there. Dealers often have seats repaired or have seats re-covered in leather or vinyl. Call your local dealer and ask where they have their upholstery work done.

 

If the foam in the seat is worn out a good upholstery shop can usually replace it, but not always.

 

Used seats are an option but can be kind of a crap-shoot.

 

I've not seen any company offer an aftermarket seat for these that is not for racing purposes.

the foam appears to be in good shape from what I can tell looking through the holes of the leather ???? so at least that won't be a problem. I'll try to bring my seats down to a shop soon. In the meantime do you have any idea how much it will cost to repair each seat?

[Fairtax4me]

Depends on several factors. How much of the seat needs to be re-covered, what materials you choose, and what the labor rates are in your area. You'll have to call around and ask. Last I had an entire seat re-upholstered in cloth was several years ago and that was just under $200.

 

For genuine leather you're going to pay much more than for cloth or vinyl.

There are leather alternatives that look and feel very similar to leather but cost much less. Those are worth looking into if cost if a factor.

A friend of mine had a side bolster repaired on her jeep recently. The cost for leather was over $150. She had it done in the fake leather stuff for about $90. That was for just one section on the seat. And the shop did remove and re-install the seat.