Seat bottom leather and cushion replacement

[Jacket]

A few pics and some info on replacing your lower leather and cushion foam.

I finished replacing the bottom leather on the front seats in my 2013 with Ecru (125k miles). I ended up going with the usautoseatcover.com leather along with a new OEM cushion. IMO its definitely worth buying a new Lexus cushion - huge improvement in comfort!

GX Bob's video GX Bob's video does a pretty good job at describing the tear down procedure, so I won't cover that again. I'll share a few pics of the rebuild process, the hog rings, seat heater transfer, and some pics of the new leather vs. existing.

Starting point with the passenger seat (driver was dirtier and torn). The seat back is in good shape but the bottoms are beat.

Bottom removed with the harness that controls the heater and cooler detached. One thing to note is that the OEM seat bottom has provisions for existing wiring (plastic clip piece, hole and velcro loop) - the aftermarket has none of these, but they're not that important.

If you want to retain the OEM seat heaters, then you've go to dig in and get them removed from the existing seat. Here's a couple of pics of the hog rings, seat heater attachment (the orange stitches) and the old foam with markings where all the hog rings attached the leather to the foam - 5 along each side, two in the middle, and four along the back.

Orange markers for each hog ring attach point.

And the OEM seat heater stitched to the leather.

 

[Jacket]

You can see a close up of the orange "stitches" that attach the seat heater to the leather. Basically like those plastic strings that hold a 3 pack of socks together. I just used a razor blade to cut them loose and detach the heater cloth.

Here's a side by side of the old leather on the left with heater attached, and the new leather on the right. The new leather from this vendor uses wooden rods instead of the metal attach points for the hog rings. One on each side, one down the middle, and one on the back end. Different, but I can work with it.

Once I cut away all the orange plastic stitches, I centered on the heating element on the new leather and used fabric adhesive to glue it to the new piece of leather.

Then it was a matter of using hog ring pliers and new rings to mount the leather to the foam - starting with the middle section to get things centered and aligned, then doing the outsides and back. The new leather was missing a mount point on the middle, outer seams, so I improvised and used a zip tie and a hog ring clamped to the leather seam.

Once all the hog rings were attached it was a matter of stretching on the leather over the pad - massaging and working it so that the leather was stretched as far as possible without stressing the stitches. It takes a bit of effort to reattach the leather to the seat using the plastic J hooks sewn to the new leather - but everything was there to get it done on the new leather with a bit of patience.

I'm impressed with the color match. The outer (analine?) is darker, especially after 10 years of dirt and sun, but it matches very well with the middle leather and with the interior plastic pieces. It took about 4 hours for the pass side, and the around 2 hours to do the driver seat once I had everything figured out. Probably double that if you plan on doing the seat backs.

Driver side.

 

[Jacket]

New parts

Lexus cushion part numbers:
Driver upper cushion 71506-60130 Driver lower cushion 71502-60360
Pass upper cushion 71505-60130 Pass lower cushion 71501-60540

Leather bottoms I used:
Driver Passenger Bottom Leather seat cover TAN for 2010 to 2017 Lexus GX460 | usautoseatcover - https://www.usautoseatcover.com/product-page/driver-passenger-bottom-perforated-leather-seat-cover-tan-for-2010-2017-lexus-g

 

[r2m]

Wow! That looks great Jacket!
Everything works, e.g.: heater and cooler?
What about padding? Did they come with any cushion replacements?
Did you do both seats? My drivers side has a small split along the left most seam on the seat and looks much like your seats. The passenger looks much better. Would suggest doing both front seats to maintain continuity?
Also about how many bananas (difficulty) was that and how long?

 

[Jacket]

Yup - everything tested and working. I missed plugging back in a harness on the drivers side, which impacted the up/down adjustment of the drivers seat, but that was easy to figure out without too much disassembly.

Both seats were done. The passenger side leather was still ok, but I went ahead and did both seats so that they'd match each other. The driver seat cushion was toast, and the leather worn and torn. As noted, I bought new cushions from Lexus ($150 per - not too bad). The improvement is pretty dramatic on the drivers side - probably a better change than the leather itself.

It's a tedious, sh***ty job. Hog rings suck. Your hands will be sore, cut and bruised. Having done it before on other vehicles I knew what I was getting in to, so I was able to work pretty quickly. I probably would have included the tops as well, but mine are in pretty good shape and I'm a bit leary about the side airbag support with aftermarket leather.

 

[HVLA]

Very nice! Thanks!

 

[Jacket]

Couple more (better) pics in the direct sunlight. It’s a good match on the Ecru.

 

[sheptastic]

Looks great, and awesome write up for the procedure. I can see how tedious it could be and hope never to have to do it.

 

[MotoDave]

Nice job, I really wish they made those replacement covers in the 'Sepia' color. I've yet to find non OEM seat cover replacements for that color.

 

[r2m]

Couple more (better) pics in the direct sunlight. It’s a good match on the Ecru.
View attachment 3029028

View attachment 3029029

That looks STELLAR! Great job.

 

[LTSR]

Good work, the color matches well. if you eventually do the seat backs, it may be a good time to add a heated pad. As i recall, the seat backs don’t have heat in the gx

 

[Acrad]

Heaters on front back/seats....

and rear (if equipped)...

10-13 all had heated and ventilated on front.... back seats heated on base 10-16 with specific packages

 

[LTSR]

Heaters on front back/seats....



and rear (if equipped)...



10-13 all had heated and ventilated on front.... back seats heated on base 10-16 with specific packages

I stand corrected. My 2018 premium didn't have the backs heated, disappointing for a lexus at that price range.

 

[OllieChristopher]

Good on ya' my man!! What a rough job but the results look really good.

I personally would probably not tackle doing seat upholstery. I'm biased though as I have a longtime relationship with a local shop that does really good work for a lot cheaper than I could do myself.

At 125.00 per hour labor (current shop labor costs) I could see myself taking a whole weekend to do this. Whenever I do any kind of project I calculate labor and parts. So this job is cost prohibitive in terms of labor alone.

 

[OCGX]

Great job, it's good to know there are alternatives available.

 

[jeremy j]

Thanks to Jacket for writing this up. I have had a small tear in my lower drivers side seat for a year but I have a bad habit of pushing on the seat when I reach in to the car and it has gotten much worse. It was already showing plenty of wear. Decided it was time to do put in a new seat cover.

I only replaced the bottom and the entire thing took me 2-3 hours taking my time. Overall it is a good quality seat cover. I am sure I could have done a better job stretching out the leather but I think it will settle in over time. The only visible difference between OEM and this is that the outside rear is perforated on OEM and this is not, but no one would notice that unless they already knew. The color match looks great.

 

[r2m]

Thanks to Jacket for writing this up. I have had a small tear in my lower drivers side seat for a year but I have a bad habit of pushing on the seat when I reach in to the car and it has gotten much worse. It was already showing plenty of wear. Decided it was time to do put in a new seat cover.

I only replaced the bottom and the entire thing took me 2-3 hours taking my time. Overall it is a good quality seat cover. I am sure I could have done a better job stretching out the leather but I think it will settle in over time. The only visible difference between OEM and this is that the outside rear is perforated on OEM and this is not, but no one would notice that unless they already knew. The color match looks great.

Yep, one of the things on my short list for both front seats.

 

[jeremy j]

Yep, one of the things on my short list for both front seats.

Yeah it makes a big difference. Now I need to order the passenger seat lower cover. My uppers look pretty solid but my passenger lower is getting pretty faded and worn.

 

[SteadfastRocky]

Man makes a guy want to black swap the seats even it it miss matches the "sepia" interior. Hate that color

 

[Fractal]

Does lexus also sell the seat cover replacement? I have the aniline (not sure about the spelling) seats, planning on keeping my GX until it does (2023 model). Seeing this thread, I'm thinking it may be a good idea to order a set for the front. With my typically seats are the first to go when I keep a car until it dies.