Did you treat the leather after install and all that jazz?
Newest recommendations for seat reupholstering
- Thread starter mjeckell
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its always a good idea to treat the leather with a good conditioner. It never really hurts. just like with boots.
wanted to add a recent, firsthand data point to this thread—not to argue with anyone’s experience, but to give some balance for folks researching.Any update, @FitzyPDX ?It's between these and LCH leathers. I need to replace my sh!tty LSEATS :\
I recently installed Land Cruiser Heaven leather covers on my 100-series and had a very positive experience end-to-end. The product quality, pattern accuracy, and finished look are outstanding—very OEM-correct in both grain and fit. After seeing them installed, I ordered the rear covers as well.
One thing that’s important context: these are made-to-order, not shelf inventory. Frank has a perfected pattern, but the leather is sourced and sewn by artisans in Argentina. That means lead time is part of the process, similar to any small-batch upholstery work or classic restoration shop. If someone expects Amazon/Katzkin timelines, that’s probably where frustration comes from.
I called Frank directly before ordering and found communication to be clear and straightforward. Once expectations were aligned, everything went smoothly.
Bottom line: this isn’t a mass-market seat cover kit. It’s a low-volume, pattern-correct solution for people who care about OEM appearance. In my case, the result speaks for itself. Just sharing another real-world outcome for anyone weighing options.
What was the lead time ?
Ordered 9/4 and received them first week of October 2025 - worth the wait. Just ordered the middle row and he emailed me today telling be they are arriving late January early February. Holiday delay to be expected.
That's not too bad. My bumpers was 7 months....my Gobi rack was 4.
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Quick follow-up. I now have the seats back and a few observations:
- The kit comes with enough leather to do the center console and arm rests (maybe enough for door cards too - didn't want to touch those
- The second row does have replacement carpet in the bottom. It is color matched to the seats (lighter than OEM). While they are basically never tumbled forward I should have asked the guy to keep the OEM so I at least had a choice
- first impression is I like the quality of the kit / leather etc. install quality really depends on the shop. I'd say mi e is about 8/10. I'll hit the seats w a steamer to tighten the fit in a few place
- Splurge for new OEM seat cushions.
- I also had seat heaters installed. When I've finished the rest of the interior, I'll figure out what to wire them to.
Before and after
I looked into doing it myself and simply decided I lacked both the room and the experience. I think it is doable and perhaps easier with all new seat foam from Toyota. Then I got some local quotes for two rows plus arm rests and I think they came in at $600+/-. I also looked up the Katzkin installers nearby and many of them were "you buy the kit" bring it to us and we will tell you the price. One was the area custom shop with a great reputation.
The Katzkin rep seemed to have other ideas. After noting the had a number of installers, they pointed me towards two area installers. I read the reviews picked Paymer and Phillips. Katzkin took it from there. The guy running our install had been doing this work for 27 years. I can't replicate a tiny fraction of that. I provided badly needed new bottom foam, the installer re-built the side bolsters and back without my asking. I installed the Toyota seat heaters as the truck was pre-wired, they placed and connected the pads.
I am thinking they do the leather in a three row kit, to the break for one row only is not much. We did not do our third row because they have been carefully stored and unused. They offered the third row at an installing only charge.
It has been a year and no complaints
Nice.
Thank for the insight.
Experience means a lot and I need to factor that in. I certainly don't want it to look crappy.
It's not too hard to install new covers. Lots of good information on the forum.
If you look back at the photos of our install, note they were taken when we picked up the car. True to their word, by the time we handed it to my daughter in July the leather had smoothed out completely. Given what we had spent on the mechanicals, I was not a fan of adding the interior. Others overruled me, and the interior really made the difference in the end.
Does anyone make a "Factory looking Material" replacement for the FJ80? All I can find is Leather.
I think what came on our '94 was leather. What I could not find was the pebbled grain pattern of what came from the factory, and I looked extensively. FWIW, Katzkin appears to have its production facilities in Brazil and the factory (Dourly?) is an OE provider to the automotive industry globally.
The cloth is an entirely different story and people I know cherish the durability of that cloth.
Sorry, I should have stated for a 1991 3FE 80 series
Check with @Meshal. The GCC trucks had a different cloth interior than ours, and I think someone (or several someones) over there may be whipping up replacements. Their stock interiors were closer to the 1st gen US cloth interiors.
I know the make custom cargo area covers and rear seat slipcovers that are really sharp.
I just heard back from Katzkin.
They quoted 2K ($2,095) installed for "matched two-tone" front seats and center console. Sounds high but I have no frame of reference.
More than I'm probably willing to spend.
Working on getting my 80 ready for sale. Front seats are the main "bad" part of the interior. Overall it's in good shape. The leather is all intact but super stiff and the seat has split at the seam in the middle of the seat.
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Trying to look into "restoring/re-hydrating the leather".
Getting harder to search online. So many results of sites using a lot of words to say really nothing useful. lol
I suspect the difference in our price is explained by the two tone. Yes, this is not a cheap step and I was inclined to pass but we are really happy it was done well.
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I think you've got your answer but I like to wrench on the truck, but doing this kind of work doesn't interest me and I think is specialized enough that you want someone who does this for a living.
Overall found the experience to be reasonable - I bought the kit, they shipped it to a recommended installer I dropped the truck off and they replaced everything including the foam.
If you enjoy this kind of work, give it a try. But for the extra cost it was worth it for me.