My LSEAT leather seat experience and install directions (12 Viewers)

[asutherland]

Hello all,

I know there are a few other threads out there on leather seat replacement, including in the FAQ - Thank you very much to everyone that contributed! I wanted a clean slate for posting my experience with the LSEAT product and my installation. It's also fresh in my head from doing it, and I wanted to post some directions while it's still available in my memory

Other threads I found which helped me do mine:
Installation of replacement leather
Seat Heater Installation

EDIT: Check recent thoughts on page 5/6. Not happy with how these have faired in only the last 3 years.

The LX450 I purchased last year was in really good shape with a solid rust free frame, straight body, clean interior and UNMODIFIED in every way. But it was high mileage and had areas that showed their typical wear. One of which were the front seats.

When I bought it, I was aware seat leather was available for purchase online, and ordered the LX450 covers in "Bisque", LSEAT S0014, with Bisque stitching, not long after the truck was in my posession. It was the closest match to the factory colour I could find from LSEAT. I chose LSEAT because of a combination of positive reviews (mostly on here) and the price.

EDIT: Check recent thoughts on page 5/6. Not happy with how these have faired in only the last 3 years.

 

[asutherland]

The rear seats are in half decent shape, no rips in the leather and minimal cracking. At this moment in time I have no desire to replace them, especially with 3 kids with car seats and a dog.

I paid online at Leather Seat Covers | Custom Leather Interior | Replacement Seat Covers | Lseat.com on July 28th, and I had heard it took a while for them to ship, so I patiently waited a month. A month to the date I was going to contact them and ask where my package was, but I got distracted, and hilariously the next day on Aug 29th they showed up

As a bonus, and I did not realize this until the LSEAT package, they included the centre console cover and the two front door arm rest covers. I am leaving my arm rest covers as is as their condition is fine, but the console cover was a huge bonus.

I started with THE CONSOLE COVER as I figured it would be the safest in my noob-ness. It was fairly straight forward, I did it on my lunch break at work. Remove the lid with 2 screws, remove the 4 screws holding the hinge and latch, and a half dozen or so really small screws to take the black plastic inside out.

While I was in there, I snuck a little easter egg in for - whomever, if anyone - ever opens it up again.

The most difficult part about this task was the leather they provided was VERY close to not being enough on the front end... the side with the latch. I struggled a bit getting it to properly cover.

No glue is needed, but you do need some 1/4 inch staples in a staple gun to keep the leather tight and in place. 1/4 inch staples are not too long.

 

[asutherland]

Next up, THE HEAD RESTS. These were quite easy. The most difficult part was figuring out how to "unlatch" the bottom of the leather from the channel. It's a sort of C groove channel that the other side folds over and tucks in to.

Best suggestion is to sit on a chair or your couch with the head rest in between your legs, and squeeze with your legs, then use a larger flat head screw driver to pry at the groove. Or, if they are really effed and you aren't going to keep them, just cut them off

 

[asutherland]

Next up I did my passenger seat. I figured I could LEARN on the passenger seat, bring it into my basement and figure out how to do it... and I wouldn't be without a vehicle. Once I had done it once, as many others have said, the next seat (drivers) would go a lot faster. My truck was only out of commission for 2 days, and no I did not use a milk crate as a seat (though the idea did cross my mind... )

I am going to give directions on how to do the DRIVER side, only because the passenger is identical EXCEPT for a few extra bits that the drivers side has such as the lumbar support knob.

Basic tools are needed, but there are a couple items you WILL WANT TO PURCHASE if you don't have them already. These are absolutely necessary unless you want to go insane

1. A GOOD PAIR of hog ring pliers. Not the cheap crap that they give you in a seat heater package. One with a proper groove and a spring to keep the ring in place.
2. A bag of DECENT QUALITY hog rings. I used more than I should have due to the learning curve, I would suggest a bag of 100, they are NOT expensive.
3. A GOOD PAIR of strong "dikes" or side cutters. You cut the old hog rings off, you don't save them. If the pair you have cannot cut a hog ring easily, go buy a new pair. Trust me!

SEAT PREP

• Take the 4 14mm seat bolts out and remove the seat. This should be obvious Bring it somewhere comfortable and clean as you'll be working at it for a while.

• The best place to work on this is at a table. Put a piece of cardboard on the table for protection, and a chair beside it.Remove the head rest and then flip the seat up side down, putting the top of the seat on the chair and the seat on the table.

• Remove 3 small phillips head screws from each plastic side cover that covers the hinges on either side. On each side, one of the small screws will be a slightly courser thread, take note of which goes where. ASSUMING YOUR SEAT IS UP SIDE DOWN CURRENTLY, the plastic covers are clamshell'd on, and have a single tab at the bottom. Pull DOWN so you don't break the tab.

• Remove the little control switch heads. Pry gently and they will pop off easily.

• Remove the plastic cover in behind the switch heads. BE CAREFUL, they have tabs and will break if you just pry at them. I've included a picture so you can see where the tabs are and in what direction. They are different for Driver/Passenger. The passenger side only has 3 and the driver's has 4. As you can see I broke one of the passenger side ones.

• Remove the lumbar support knob. It has a C-clip in behind you need to pop off, which can be difficult with the leather in the way. Since my driver's seat leather was ****ed, I simply cut around it and removed the leather with an exacto-knife which gave me better access to the C clip. There's also a tool you can buy. NOTE: When putting back together, just position the C clip in it's place and wack the knob on. It won't break.

 

[asutherland]

The order of doing SEAT or SEAT BACK is kind of up to you.

In either way, the seat back AND the seat bottom BOTH come off the "seat frame". You end up with 3 pieces. Both pieces are held to the seat frame by 4 "pointed nose" bolts that have a 12mm head. Don't lose them

SEAT BACK

• Remove the 2 phillips screws that hold the plastic "back" to the seat. Once out, CAREFULLY lean the plastic outward, so you can see inside the back of the seat, REACH IN with your hand and guide the two metal black "tabs" on the bottom off. That way you won't RIP them off the cardboard. I didn't have any issues with mine but I have heard of others having this issue.
• Remove (by gently prying) the two push pins that hold the draped piece of leather at the bottom/back of the seat. It's velcro'd around a bar and pinned in the other end. The LSEATs came with new pieces.

• CUT all of of the old hog rings off the back of the seat back. make sure to remove all the hog ring bits, they are SHARP and I wouldn't think too fun to sit on!

• Take note of the special "elastic" straps, all these do is pull down on the leather at the bottom of the seat back where you can't really fit hog rings in. To keep it tight.

 

[asutherland]

Obviously I have more to write, but I am out of time tonight. I will get back on this soon!

 

[Aloha Jen]

This is great, I will be doing the same thing soon and this thread will be very helpful.

 

[iCruiser]

I recently installed the Lseat in a LX450. Very happy with the quality and fit especially for the price point. No time to burn on a project so had front covers with head rests installed. I installed oem covers on our FJ60 and know some things might be worth paying. May have taken this on if I saw this post first. Well done on the tutorial.

 

[NCLX450]

I am looking to do this soon as well so definitely excited to follow this write up! Thanks

 

[bajaphile]

Nice writeup!

 

[asutherland]

Thanks guys, I'm not even half done yet though! Standby!

 

[cowboyjack]

Thanks for the guide! My Lseat covers “have shipped” and my all new OEM cushions are sitting in the shed awaiting installation.

 

[ThunderRolls]

Very timely for me!

 

[asutherland]

• Now that the seat back sides are loose, you can get at the bolts that hold it to the seat frame. There are two on each side, 12mm head. Remove them, and then slide the seat down (assuming your seat is still positioned upside down) and off the frame and hinges. On the driver's side you have to wiggle it past the shaft of the bolster support knob and there is a connector to undo for the lumbar support motor.

• Remove the head rest plastic channels by pulling or prying them out while using your hand and a flat head screw driver on the inside of the back of the seat. What I did was put a large wrench under the plastic head on the outside, had a friend hold pressure on it, and used my hand and flathead to poke the tabs on the inside. They are inside a metal tube and can be a bit sticky to get out sometimes.

• Peel the old leather back and cut the hog rings, starting on the horizontal bottom metal rod that has the rubber attached, then the sides, then the top horizontal. There should be 3 hog rings per metal bar in most cases. the bars are easily bent, and you will need to re-use them. If you bend them though they are also easily bent back into shape and don't have to be perfect. They just fit into the sleeves in the back of the leather and pull the leather down into the channels. There are also rods in the same positions INSIDE the seat foam channels. That's what the hog rings attach - metal rod in leather sleeve to metal rod in seam foam.

 

[asutherland]

SEAT BOTTOM

• Remove the 4 12mm head bolts holding the seat to the seat frame. There are two (on one each side) and two on the bottom.

• Disconnect any electrical connectors

• lift the seat frame away from the seat bottom and bottom frame

• Cut away all of the old hog rings. Make sure to take note of how the leather/cloth folds up and around, how it's placed.

 

[asutherland]

• Along the bottom, bend the metal tabs back to get the plastic edge/leather out. Watch out, they are SHARP!

• Take special note of how the leather is folded/attached in this area. Doesn't seem like much now, but when you go to put it back together days later, you can forget.

• Near the back of the bottom there are two small metal rods - don't forget about removing them from the old leather.

• Like the seat back, remove the hog rings (3 per channel) in the order of far back horizontal channel, sides, then front horizontal channel. You can see where the hog rings should be as the foam has a "opening" to allow easier access for the pliers.

 

[asutherland]

Once I had my seat bottom and seat back cushions out, I took a look at the foam condition. It wasn't bad, EXCEPT for the seat bottom bolster area - right side on passenger, left on drivers. Where you slide in and out of your vehicle all the time. The foam was right broken down.

I'd researched on here and other sources on replacing with new OEM foam, they are difficult to find, and the cost nearly prohibitive.

I went a different route, and took my seat bottom foams into the local upholstery shop, where they cut out the destroyed section and glued in new chunks of high density seat foam, then carved it with an electric foam knife. Artwork! It is awesome. They charged me 1 hour labour only. My seats are now so firm they feel brand new. Amazing!

 

[asutherland]

Before I continued, I also tried something I wasn't sure would work. Turned out it worked wonderfully. I'd heard that you could use a garment steamer to bring some life back to old foam. While it obviously couldn't restore the actual damaged foam, it was well worth the extra 15 minutes a seat to do. In some areas it actually raised the foam back into it's original shape by a few mm!

It didn't take more than a half hour for the foam to dry, and it didn't go back to it's old compressed shape - it stayed in the restored original shape.

I suggest full screening this video so you can see the detail better...

 

[asutherland]

PUTTING THE NEW LEATHER ON is basically the reverse of the above removal procedure, with a few small gotcha's.

• Straighten the metal rods as best you can by hand (it's not imperative they are perfectly straight) and put them into their corresponding sleeves in the back of the new leather.

• Position the rod/sleeve of the leather in the corresponding channel of the seat foam. In each of the 3 marked locations, attach hog rings from bar to bar.

• Place the ring in the pliers with the pokey sides facing outward, then push the ring and pliers into the channel, squeezing the two rods together like a stapler... then squeeze. The ring will puncture the sleeve, which is just fine, it's supposed to. As you squeeze, the ring will pull the two rods (one in sleeve, one in foam) together, pulling it into the channel.

GOTCHA #1 - The new LSEAT leather, along the bottom of the seat back, does not have two channels cut to access the screws that hold the plastic seat back on. I cut my channels carefully with a pair of scissors. This area is covered normally so you won't see it.

GOTCHA #2 - There's a couple spots where you need a small hole in the leather - in the example below, to allow one of the seat bar frame things through the leather. I used a simple paper hole punch which worked great.

GOTCHA #3 - There's no holes cut for the head rest posts!!! I saw some folks on here saying they measured, then cut, I didn't even dare try that. I installed the leather, and then used an exacto knife to make a small X over the hole (feeling the metal bar / hole with my finger thru the leather). I then cut the flaps of the X hole off using a pair of scissors. The plastic posts do cover the cut, but be careful, as it's a highly visible location. The only problem I had was with my first attempt - I cut the hole too small and got some of the flap caught into the head rest post.

 

[asutherland]

GOTCHA #4 - There's no holes in the LSEAT leather in the seat bottom leather where the bolts go in to attach to the seat frame (on the sides). This area is completely covered, and if you look at the factory leather there are LARGE cut-outs to accommodate the bolt holes.

As you put everything back together, don't attach the hog rings /bars on the sides of the seat back yet. You need to move them aside to re-install the 4 bolts to re-attach to the frame.

For some reason I didn't take any pictures of it, but I installed 2 seat heater kits from Dorman. So the seat bottoms and seat backs of both seats are heated. I routed the wire through what I believe is the factory location, and will be utilizing the oem seat heater switches from my HDJ81 in the dash to control the dorman heaters.