A Few INTERIOR Questions...

[JT95]

Got a few misc. questions about my Subaru's interior. ('95 LSi)

 

 

 

With the exception of a couple of flaws, the interior in this almost 10 year old wagon is fantastic. Here's the passanger side door panel featuring it's dimpled/wrinkled top. The rear door panel has the same thing happening--a bit more dimpled though. Is this sun damage or what? Anyone else had this same thing happen? The driver's side is fine

 

 

 

This is my first car with leather interior and I love it. With the exception of this damage, the leather in my Subie is in super great shape. This is the outer edge of the lower seat back on my driver's seat. I assume rubbed raw from all the entry/exit activity. Never dealt w/ leather car interior before--is there a way to "fix" this? Didn't know if there were any products that could be rubbed in and blend the color better. Something that wouldn't rub onto clothing later on. Anybody ever fooled with this?

 

 

And, finally....

 

Subaru has a comfotable and classy interior...all of which is cheapened by those hokey plastic warnings attached to the visors. I'm wanting to carefully cut them off. but I'm afraid it might look botchy and appear even worse than what's there. Anybody tried removing these boogers?

[coloradosubarules]

Fine cars are like people...they grow old gracefully. You should have used Oil of Olay (mothers products) to prevent fine lines and wrinkles.

 

Your car is getting old. those things happen. My car is 14 years old and it looks like ARSE! There was no growth hormone in the oil like there is in milk to make 14yr old girls look hot as sheeot. (jail bait) Just take care of the interior from now on. Maybe seat covers might help.

 

Ya feel me?

[JT95]

True analogy--like our bodies/skin, car interiors age largly based upon how well they are taken care of from the start. And, like a 50something-year-old seeking plastic surgery and liposuction, once gotten away from us our car's interior is expensive to remedy. I've always said major interior problems are more of a pain to fix properly than other car problems.

 

Well, like I said, the rest of the interior in my Legacy is in fantastic shape. Looking at the dash you'd think you were in a new car. I have thoroughly rubbed down and treated the interior since buying the car, so unless my kids do something to wreck it (at least the front section will stay nice), the interior should last a long time w/o any major problems.

 

I'm not really worried about the dimpled/wrinkled top of the two door panels--I was just curious if this was a common thing for Subarus of that generation. That bad spot on the leather is the only complaint about my seats and not worth buying a seat cover for--anything other than matching replacement leather would look ten times worse. I think my Legacy had only the driver in it for most of its life because the other seats are flawless.

 

Now--I do get annoyed by the plastic things on the visors and want to know if anyone else has tried to take them off.

[northguy]

As for the wrinkled plastic on the visor, buy another one and replace it, or neatly cut away the plastic.

[MG McAnick]

Oil of Olay, oil of delay, or Lexol. The latter is designed for leather. As far as fixing what you've got, There are two possibilities. It can be re-dyed. The dye is actually more like flexible paint. It will still show the deep wrinkles. As far as I know, only upholstery shops are equipped to do this sort of thing WELL. You can buy vinyl paint at Autozone and do it yourself, but the cure will be short lived, and the color match imperfect. Those that I have seen have re-dyed the entire seat for a good match.

 

Since there is damage to the seat, you might also consider having a shop sew in a new piece. They just put in the part that is damaged. Matching what you have will be difficult if not impossible UNLESS there is a piece of leather like a pouch on the back of the seat that you can cut out to use in place of the damaged bolster. I had that done on a Merkur once.

[ionic]

All three of our Legacies, '95, '95, and '96, have developed that wrinkling and puckering on the door panels, so I think it's common in this vintage. Ours has occurred mainly on the armrests in all three cars, though, so I wondered if it was related to having arms pressing on the padding beneath the gray vinyl that stretched or separated the vinyl from the padding

 

I think that the plastic on the sun visors is supposed to be storage pockets. Some people keep their registration and other information there so they can quickly hand it to the cop when he pulls them over. hehe My grandmother's old Ford LTD had something similar, and that's where she would put her list of errands so she would remember everything. It is flimsy, but it looks worse after someone has had a garage door opener remote attached to the visor that has crumpled the plastic as appears to be your case. Since the plastic is seamed into the visor, it's probably going to look worse if you try to remove it.

 

Andrew

[Setright]

Autoglym car care products are the absolute best. No question.

 

 

Well, I think they are! And Jaguar and Aston Martin agree with me :-)

 

Anyhoo, they make a "Leather Cream" which I bet would work a treat on your driver's seat. It can't make it turn back into one piece, but often leather will swell a bit when it's treated and this will make the cracks more narrow. Some of the colour might come back too. If you can get your hands on it, AutoGlym is the cats pyjamas!

 

www.autoglym.com