I know some of you will consider this heresy, but I have two worn and dirty front seats from a 1993 lexus es300. I rescued these from a body shop that replaced them with a used pair. Unfortunately the body shop manager is a bit of a slacker, and he left then in the outside to absorb rain from the Seattle area over
4 months. Soo... I got these seats with the thought of making one or two nice office chairs. Since I had nothing to loose I started with a inspection.... some of the threads are wearing out, but I can restitch these with a half round needle.... What the real problems i noticed, was when comparing the headrest leather to the seat leather, the head rest was supple and like new. the seat area (where the butt sits) was hard and not supple at all. I noticed that the head breast did need a bit of cleaning, but other than that it was the best leather on the seat. Then my other half (she cooks as well) said... "I bet it has to do with the oils from the hair...." and I think she was right..... the use of the car and its headrest was always getting a natural oil job... Soooooo I decided I had nothing to loose and everything to gain.... I tried simply rubbing some oil.... No special oil, just an oil that would not decay... Mineral oil has a poor scent and I didn't want to smell up the house with it. Soo I tried Canola oil. It does not "go bad" (Or at least I have never known it to) it does not smell. and after three of four coats of this rubbed into the seat, the leather has a rejuvenated feel to it. I don't suggest you do this with your new seats, but if you have a pair of seats that are beyond your means to replace, and are indeed cracking and showing signs of hardening, you can try and give them a rub down of oil. It seems to be working for me. I let the seats absorb the oil after wiping them for a few days.... but other than that, it seems to have worked for me as well as my bud down the street does.... And he spent hundreds of dollars with all kinds of "snake oil" salespeople.BTW if you use a half round needle to restitch a leather seat, make sure you use a good quality thread. I recommend a heavy gauge "Teralene" thread. And the stitch I use is a "Baseball" stitch. most seats simply need to be re-stitched. the leather in most cases is still ok. the needle does not have to make new holes normally, so you have only to re-thread them. it takes about an hour to stitch 12 inches (I am not great at it, and prefer to restitch while watching something on the boob tube.) So I am sure if you are adept you can restitch most within 30 mins or so.
My next step might be to re dye these with a new colour....
They make nice office chairs..... Might need to add some elbow rests........
BTW I have a small motorcycle battery I plan to mount on the office chairs 5 leg swivel, so I can use the adjustments of the seat.
Anyone got a printout of the electrical connections under the seat? Where do I attached the 12 volt pos neg?
Mike....