Seat Upholstery Options?

The time has come to replace the upholstery in my 88 XJ. I'm not looking for seat covers, but would rather redo the upholstery. OEM seat covers are not available any more, and like many other have found, used upholstery may be pretty deteriorated itself. Has anyone re-upholstered ther older XJ seats with either cloth or leather seats? If so, at what cost and results? Did you order online or go local?

I've been looking at the possibility of leather (yes, I know about the hot/cold drawbacks) simply due to the onliune availability. New upholsterey also gives me the option of redoing the interior in a different color. Has anyone tried Katzkin or other interiors?

Any experiences appreciated.

I got my upholstery from www.nwautoleather.com .This is what they turned out like.



Ended up costing me $800 altogether, but I'm real happy with mine.

I went to a local upholstery shop in allentown, they repaired my drivers seat, removed it, stripped it, rewelded and reinforced it with welded gussets, put new foam in which was much better than stock, reinstalled everything, total cost was $50 cash. I asked them what it would cost to have my whole interior done and he quoted with 'standard quality material which was what was in there from the factory, $450, with leather panels, $600 and full leather depending on grade anywhere from $900-1500. Small shop, lot of custom hotrods and restoration cars were being done there including an auburn roadster.

$50? damn....did you know the guy Rich? did they redo your actual seat material? or did they reuse the old material?

i'm in need of some redone seats myself. maroon interior, and red xj seats...lol

uvaldetxj said:

$50? damn....did you know the guy Rich? did they redo your actual seat material? or did they reuse the old material?

i'm in need of some redone seats myself. maroon interior, and red xj seats...lol

Click to expand...

Nope, did not know them, they reused my seat material, just replaced the foam with stuff that was more comfortable, cushy in some spots, firm in others.