Leather seats yey or ney?

[Sunline]

Just purchased 1971 #24871 great condition. With original passenger sea cover and a drivers side replacement. Both look really good , but the drivers  needs to foam. ... badly. I want to replace both seats with new foam and leather covers. Any objections to going with leather over the stock vinyl? Good idea or bad? 

[Patcon]

I like leather. If I can ever do it, I will go with leather. I wouldn't think it would affect the value except on a true survivor type car. Just keep the old covers...

[Stanley]

I had them done in leather. The PO had somehow made a big hole in the driver seat and had a big pillow stuffed in there, with some horrible velour seat cover to cover it up. The local shop owner had to rebuild the seats, made it a little more lumbar support than stock which is good on a long drive. He had some nice Japanese leather so he used that. A few hundred more than vinyl but worth it IMO.

[7tooZ]

I would do leather also you can always keep the originals in case you want to pass them on to next owner.


72
body with 71 interior, Eibach, Illumina, R180 CLSD, 83 close ratio, 3.90 gears, Zstory, SUs, BRE Libre wheels and front spoiler.

[w3wilkes]

I did leather in my early 1971 and would do it again. The other thing I did was change to 1977 seat frames. Along with springs instead of straps on the seat bottoms this added the ability to tilt the seat forward for access to the tool covers that are behind the seat on the early cars.

[AlbatrossCafe]

Do it! I'm about to add in fully adjustable electric leather seats with custom seat rails because my arse is about 4" too tall to fit in this car. I can't wait to have nice leather in there.

[wheee!]

I am planning on adding a set of 2010 370Z seats to my 76. A friend is going racing seats, so if I can get them to fit, I’ll have a set of leather, power, heated seats. From a Z!

[SoCalJim]

I'm going to be adding Miata seats to my '75 Z, and I'm going to have them reupholstered in cloth.  Cooler, and hopefully my skinny butt won't slide when I'm pushing through the twisties. ?

[Patcon]

8 hours ago, AlbatrossCafe said:

Do it! I'm about to add in fully adjustable electric leather seats with custom seat rails because my arse is about 4" too tall to fit in this car. I can't wait to have nice leather in there.

How tall are you? I am 6'5" and have never found it to be a problem fitting into an early Z. Now my wife's 350z is a different story...

I have a set of black BMW vader seats I am going to try to fit into a 240, maybe later this year

[87mj]

I'm a purist and have an early series 1 car that I plan to recover in the near future. I have the exact same dilemma.  On one hand, I want to return the car to as close to stock as I can. Stock was vinyl. On the other hand, those of us old enough to remember know that 240z seats were barely durable enough to last 50,000 miles so most nicer cars are not running the factory upholstery anyway.

I have a 60,000 mile car '71 that was reupholstered about 10,000 miles ago.  They still look good but I am beginning to see wear along the side bolsters where you enter/exit the car.  I don't think you would have that with leather.

If I could find leather that looks like the factory vinyl, that would be my preference.  The stitching on the sides would need to look original with the tube stitching and so on. Then I would have the factory look with the leather durability.

Has anyone seen leather like that?

[jeremy93ls]

I opted for manual cloth 350Z seats in my 78. While searching, leather seemed more popular, but I don't like sliding around on leather/vinyl. The cloth keeps me firmly planted and doesn't get so damn hot in the summer. With no A/C, that's worth considering.

My original worn out seats are in the basement for now. I'd like to make a pair of bar stool/chairs for the garage out of them someday.

[AlbatrossCafe]

On 8/3/2018 at 5:33 PM, Patcon said:

How tall are you? I am 6'5" and have never found it to be a problem fitting into an early Z. Now my wife's 350z is a different story...

I have a set of black BMW vader seats I am going to try to fit into a 240, maybe later this year

I have a '78 280z. Haha either you are 75% legs or your seat is sagged to the floor. I have a longer torso and neck. I have to tuck my tailbone forward and duck my head to ride in it. It gives me back pain but it is worth it every once in a while...