My LSEAT leather seat experience and install directions (2 Viewers)

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Anyone able to tell me how this clip goes onto the bottom of the seat? There is an inner and outer rail that it looks like it could press on to but I just cant get it slide on them.
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So is LSeat still the go to for low buck leather replacement?

Would like to do both of my front seats (only driver needs it, but I prefer they both match)

I was looking for a TLC kit on Amazon, but they appear to list the LX kits, so I went to their site

Are they still slow to respond for new orders?

Also, what would be the closest color to the factory Oak?

I see Tan, Lark, Beige, Ivory and Brown listed

 
Order a color swath (swatch?) And match the best color to your seats. Mine was bisque.

I dint think they answer any emails. They just send you a bunch of leather about 3 weeks after your order.

For the price, I'm still happy with mine almost 4 years later. I have seen some LCH seats up close though and they are without a doubt nicer than mine. They are also 3.5X more expensive.

My only regret is I didn't add heated seats when I had the chance. I like a warm tush in the winter. I miss that. 😢
 
Beige is what I got and it seems to match my second and third row. I put heaters in with mine. However. I wish i would have gotten cloth. Never been a fan of leather but mine have heldup since 2017. Maybe someone with good cloth will want to swap with me.
 
So this scared the crap out of me…. A big spider fell out while taking apart my drivers side seat :rofl::rofl:
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I also had to weld the lower seat frame together, seems it had failed. Surprised i didnt notice this while sitting in the seat, rewelded:
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Pass seat installed:
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I'll add my experience with the LSEAT covers as I recently completed installing them on the two front seats of my '96. My factory seats weren't too bad but the leather was tired and the foam on the sides of the seats next to the doors was a 'deflated'.
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I ordered the LSEAT sample swatch and while I was tempted to spice things up a bit with Burned Orange or Sapphire I decided to match the factory colors and chose 'Bisque'.


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I ordered the replacements for the two front seats and it also came with the the armrest leather for the doors and center consol which was nice. I also got the set of hog ring pliers which was essential to do the project. Once I got the leather in the mail I decided to see what it would cost to have an upholstery shop install these covers for me here in Seattle. I stopped by Rick's upholstery which has half a C2 Corvette embedded into their sign and they wanted $800...per seat. Well I got out of there as fast as possible resolved to save some money. I was already $350 in the hole for the covers and spending another $1600 seemed crazy. I need my money for real upgrades.

Removing the seats is fairly straightforward, just remember to disconnect the electrical connections. I also had a problem with my motorized seat gears that I replaced with the Gamiviti replacement parts. Unfortunately the threads for the outer caps were a bit stripped and thus would pop off when I moved the seat forward or backward I solved this by using some epoxy to hold them in place. I didn't go wild with it and hopefully it could be broken loose if necessary in the future.

The main thing that I wanted to share was how I ended up fixing the aging seat foam. I bought some high quality upholstery foam from my neighborhood fabrics store, foam adhesive, and an electric carving knife off amazon and cut out the chunk of bad foam.
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Here is the new foam in place and carved.

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While most may call this good I worried that repeatdly entering and exiting the truck would cause the new foam to be pulled away from the old foam and I thought this may be an issue for the long term. My solution was to take some old cheap soft flannel PJs that my ex gave me and create bandages that I glued to the foam using the foam adhesive. This way the border between the new and old foam would be bridged and would hopefully prevent the two from pulling apart in the future.
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While it doesn't look too pretty now this will obviously all be covered up with leather, and the soft thin flannel wont transfer through by sight or touch.

Another change that I made involved bolstering the bottom layer of the seat foam where it rests on the seat springs. The factory foam sits on a bed of consolidated fibers that provide a foundation to distribute the weight onto the springs. There isn't much in the way of support though and after 20+ years this foam could use all of the help it can get.

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I first went to the local sporting goods store and bought the cheapest foam yoga matt without any texture to the foam. I believe this was around $15. I then placed a layer of foam into the lowest areas (when seat is upside down) as shown above. There are areas of the seat frame that fit into these recessed but we won't prevent that by adding this foam.

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Next I basically covered the whole bottom with another layer of the yoga mat.

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Next I added a layer of recycled fiber moving blanket which is about 1/8" thick. I think this is available at uHaul. This provides a nice new foundation for our yoga mat before transitioning to the aging foam while helping to support our new foam patches. I thought that adding this may make it tougher to install the seat bottom leather but it didn't make the cover too tight. I probably could have added another layer without issue. Without it I'm afraid the leather would have been too loose on the old foam. Once its complete and you sit down for the first time your derrière will thank me...Iasda

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continued...
 
Appreciate the write up!

Finally got around to doing this last week on the driver and passenger seat.

Also added the OEM vertical heater switches, some seat heaters wired in-seat and replaced the broken track gears on both seats while I was in there.

Pretty straightforward and checked a few things off the to do list.

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The before was pretty rough!

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Funny this threads pops up today. Just finished mine this weekend after having the seat covers for over a year. Great write up, everything went fine but wow what a job. I bought new seat bottoms from land cruiser Heaven and some seat heaters too. It’s like a new truck. I wasn’t going to do the back seats but now they just look so bad next to the fronts. Thanks for the great write up.
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Funny this threads pops up today. Just finished mine this weekend after having the seat covers for over a year. Great write up, everything went fine but wow what a job. I bought new seat bottoms from land cruiser Heaven and some seat heaters too. It’s like a new truck. I wasn’t going to do the back seats but now they just look so bad next to the fronts. Thanks for the great write up.
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Good job. Does the 'grain' in the leather really show up that much....or it is the sunlight on the seats in that pic?
 
The grain does show a lot, It has a very matte finish compared to how shiny the old leather was. I also got perforated inserts as well which add to that effect. I am really happy with the quality of the leather, and it feels like a huge upgrade compared to what it was previously.
 
My 80 seats are like that. The 100 seats i did, was not nearly as grainy.
 

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