New leather seats in my 2005 | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models
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New leather seats in my 2005

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rickyboy
  • Start date Start date
Rickyboy
Reaction score
14
Thunderbird Year
2005
Well, I took a chance and ordered replacement leather seat covers from Lseat.com.
My driver's seat has had cracking in the seat and back for a long time. This year the center panel on the back ripped and quickly got worse. Their website says they fit tight and if you can't DIY you can take it to an upholstery shop and have them install so I thought what the heck. Received the covers today and I am very impressed with the quality of the materials and stitching. They match the factory seats well. They do not have the embossed Thunderbird on the backs. I won't have time to install until next week but I was eager to try changing the headrests out. Within the first 15 minutes I thought I would never get the old one off much less get the new one on. But persistence paid off and I'm happy to say that I got the new ones on. The fit is perfect with no slack or alignment problems. I think the seats will actually be easier. Here are some pics and I will post the final job when I finish.

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I bought seat covers from L Seat a year ago, they fit great, and hold up very well. Before you install
them put in the sun to get warm, they handle and install better warm.
 
Rickyboy,

The headrest looks great. I'm looking forward to seeing the seats when you are finished.

Good Job.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue
 
Well, I took a chance and ordered replacement leather seat covers from Lseat.com.
My driver's seat has had cracking in the seat and back for a long time. This year the center panel on the back ripped and quickly got worse. Their website says they fit tight and if you can't DIY you can take it to an upholstery shop and have them install so I thought what the heck. Received the covers today and I am very impressed with the quality of the materials and stitching. They match the factory seats well. They do not have the embossed Thunderbird on the backs. I won't have time to install until next week but I was eager to try changing the headrests out. Within the first 15 minutes I thought I would never get the old one off much less get the new one on. But persistence paid off and I'm happy to say that I got the new ones on. The fit is perfect with no slack or alignment problems. I think the seats will actually be easier. Here are some pics and I will post the final job when I finish.
I re-covered the driver's seat and thought I'd post those pics. There's a lot more to it than just pulling the new covers on. I was surprised to find velcro strips in the foam seat deep crevices and covers. They have to be pulled on and carefully positioned inch by inch to get everything lined up properly. The new covers are not an exact match but I'm pleasantly surprised at how close they are. As I said before, they don't have the embossed thunderbird on the backs and there are no map pockets on the backs either. It's hard to compare new leather to old, but I think this leather might be better quality. I took the seat out and did my best to try to install the new without further disconnecting the seat frames from the base but it had to be at least loosened to get the seats stretched and connected underneath. The new leather looked a little dull compared to the old ones that had been conditioned several times and were shiny. So I went ahead and applied some Griot's leather conditioner to the new ones and that shined them up nicely. There are a couple of puckers that I hope will lay flat over time but I'll take that over the torn seats any day. All in all I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Now I wish I had put more thought into possibly going with a different color.
 
Here’s the pics of the new drivers seat
 

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Leather seats on my 2002 splitting. I have black with the red inserts. Are replacements still available or should I find a good upholstery person?
 
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