Seat back vinyl repair

[GrouchyTech]

My seat back has a tear from the previous owner and I may want to address this soon. The price of a used seat back is still more than I’d like to spend, so I’m looking into doing a vinyl repair… which I’ve never done before. I’ve seen a few vinyl or leather repairs on here that looked nice. What say the people?

(USB-C for scale)

 

[doru]

I've done smaller under 1" repairs nothing like this long.
The best repair is done by removing the cover, but that may not be so easy to do. I've removed them on other cars but never on 200's.
Either way you'll need some reinforcement for that hole. Use a piece of leather or vinyl to glue it in the back. Before that see if there is any missing pieces or if the edges need to be cleaned/trimmed depending on the damage (hard to tell from pic). The goal is that after you glue the patch on the back the edges should be flat and clean even if there are gaps.
Leave enough time for the glue to cure.
In the meantime, get a vinyl repair kit. I only use the kind of repair kit that comes with a heating electrical iron. Those repairs are long lasting. The ones that relay only on airdry/cure are fragile.
I do not like to paint the repair after. I prefer the repair to have the right or close enough color. Some kits come with different colors that you can mix to get close. I recommend you do some testing including heat curing to see what mix gives the right color.
To repair it, you fill in the holes in the vinyl to make it as flat as possible. Then you use the iron and the right texture paper (they come with the kit) to cure and give texture to your repair.
For such a big tear I would work on sections. That will also give you more practice to improve your technique.

It is not rocket science and you will quickly learn what to do to get a good-looking repair. It will still be visible when inspecting it closely (mostly because of color and shine) but not many people will notice it in that location. The repairs are long lasting and that's what is most important.

 

[TimCFJ40]

It wasn't perfect, but I used a sticky leather patch from amazon for one on the seat back on my prior truck. (Think Duct Tape, but looks like leather). It was Ok, probably better than the hole that was under it.

Other than that fix, I think you're removing the seat cover to get behind it. The leather tape on the back side and some hand stitching could make a very functional repair, and since it's black maybe not that noticeable.