Looking for rough estimates on having my stock Chevelle seats reupholstered in leather... I haven't decided who to go to yet (a few local shops I do not like), but I am debating buying the OPGI leather covers and doing it myself (I have done other Chevelle seats like this myself).
Thanks

Call OPGI before you buy those "leather" seats. I just found out they are not real leather and that is why they are so inexpensive. A bit of false advertising, in my opinion. I checked around locally and am getting material costs for real leather of $1,000 to $1500 without cutting, sewing, installing labor. Good luck.

Mike,
Good to know... Yeah, I assumed they were real leather (they even mention "leather seating areas with leatherette sides" , or something like that...

I want my Chevelle to look fairly "stock", but I don't want the hot-sticky black vinyl seats...

If you are wanting to get away from hot and sticky vynil,leather is not the way to go,as it is also hot and sticky in the summer that and it get hard and brittle after a few years.I have a 05 Towncar in here now that I am redoing the leather seat's in,they are wore out already and the car only has 30,000 miles on it.The car belongs to my in-laws,and they have been using this high dollar cleaner and cond.,that Linc.sales in the parts department,and it did a good job of keeping it from dring out as bad.
I guess my point is that the leather that is used today is not that good for the price you pay for it,we have a 79 T-Bird that has leather seat's in it and they are still ingreat shape and it has over 150,000 miles on it.In the last 10-15 years in the upholstery I have noticed that the quality of the leather is getting worse and the price is going up.
It's kind of a catch 22;damned if you do and damned if you don't.
If you are dead set on leather try a company called Katskin,they have a wide selection,and styles and the leather quality is good,but they are priced alot higher than OPGI and are better fitting covers.

I tried tweed matereial inserts and vinyl surrounds sewn in the stock pattern as an experiment. Looked great, looked almost stock, reasonalble price, and felt great in 100+ temperatures in Sacramento summers. Unfortunately, the material seams started to stretch (hold the fat comments, please) and that didn't look good. Now I'm leaning towards a quality leather seating and sides, with maybe a lesser grade on the backs and door panels. Stuff is expensive. I need to make a decision in the next month to finish the restoration.

I've had a couple of high-end modern cars with quality leather seating in Sacramento summers. First off, AC is a must. I use a towel to cover my seat while I'm away. When I come back to the car, the seat is not too bad (with the AC blasting, of course).

Again, the tweed was nice for hot weather comfort. If I can only find something more durable. I saw a 56 Chevy at GoodGuys this weekend that had leather seats with a large sized tweed for inserts. Looked outstanding. Also looked like it wasn't driven much.

Another thing I learned is to leave off the welts/ribbing. When you get in and out of your seat, that ribbing gets worn early. It's a subtle improvement to the stock seating, in my opinion.

I have never had any seams stretch on tweed before,I have done several seat's with tweed for fairly large people and have not had a problem.I did one for my ex-brother-in-law 5 years ago and he is 450+,and this is his daily driver and he has had no problems out of it,except for the foam breaking down!!!!

Good to hear it's possible to use tweed. What happened on mine is a white/gray colored material started showing at the seams. Could there have been some paper like material used to form the seams while sewing? The seams have stretched apart just enough to expose that white/gray material. I'll be taking the seats apart this weekend and maybe I'll get a better idea of the failure from looking at the underside. Any commets JJ ?

It could be paper or it might be the backing of the foam on the insert's.

JR have you noticed how even vinyl is nothing like it used to be long ago??? Except for HW Madrid grain available only in black in my sample book...In Tulsa we have a huge wholesale leathershop...I buy hides used for boot making...hahahha...super thick hard as heck to sew even with my Consew...but we are talking some serious longevity if one uses the right areas of the hide for the right areas of the seat...

Personally I think Katskins have went to crap the last couple of years...last three sets I have done had to be modified (one set extensively...just did an S10 set wednesday had to modify (remade panels so velcro was in the right spot, foam topper on bun cause covers were to 'fat', and changed the listings cause they were the wrong type...POS IMO) and they won't give the shop owner any money back on their crap...

I absolutely love tweed...super high tensile strenght...very very easy to work with and make look real nice...and you can wrap just about anything in tweed...

Leather Velle seats...with good frames (no spring work etc.) I'll do a set of buckets perfect show quality for you for $750...

Almost all 'leather' seats in modern cars have vinyl boxings and sometimes backs for two main reasons...1. believe it or not the sides of a seat is what is stressed more so than what you sit on and lean back against...2. cause it is a heckuva lot of money saved for the major automakers who are mass producing them...

Jeff,

Is there a particular brand or manufacturer of tweed that you prefer ?

Jeff,

Is there a particular brand or manufacturer of tweed that you prefer ?

I only glanced at your post earlier...now that I have reread it I can tell you this even without looking at that white or grey stuff you're refering to...it is not the tweed that is causing your problem...it is the stich used to seam together your covers...whoever did the seats used the old good loose stitch when putting them together...now that is fabulous when using vinyl and thick stuff...but a sewer has to pay attention to his materials and kinda tighten that stitch up a little more than normal and use more stitches per inch when using tweeds and some other woven fabrics...if you don't that crap is gonna start letting loose...and for welt cords if they are not cut diagonal to the lay of the weave then the cords are all wavy too...:yes:

Some upholstery secrets for you non upholstery dudes...hahahahha

You are not the only person that has said they had problems out of Katskin,but I have not had any on the 3 set's that Ihave installed.But then again they were in Ford Explorer's,but then again I try not to use leather that much do to the quailty issues.I have an 07 Chevy pickup in here now for a factory leather seat cover,and the bad thing is this is the third one I have put on this truck in 6 months.the first 2 pulled apart at the seam's,and the one on it now is already showing sign's of wear.The guy told me the next time he is gonna have me put tweed in instead of leather,because GM wont pay for another seat cover after this.

Outsourcing at it's finest gentlemen...GM is building those covers for pennies I bet...we citizens got to do something about this crap really but I guess that is another forum...hahhaha