Our custom car seat covers in Red Faux Leather with Quilted Diamond Pattern stitched throughout featured in the August issue of Max Power Magazine.
Prevent premature wear of the driver’s seat with a quality seat protector by Lucio Carpinato
A typical problem that keeps occurring even on nearly new cars is a stretched and creased patch left on the leather cover of the driver’s seat base which won’t give the owner much concern until slight signs of cracking start to appear.
The owner heads immediately to the car dealer in panic asking for help. The manager at the dealership admits that there is a problem and agrees to replace the leather seat cover under warranty. Unfortunately when the owner returns to collect the car, the outcome is not what he or she expected: the colour shade and finish of the replaced seat base do not match the rest of the interior.
Why has this happened? Car owners should bear in mind that the leather manufacturing process is quite complex. Because of its nature and complexity even a small change in the whole method may cause significant variations to the final product. This can be expected during the vehicle’s production lifetime as car manufacturers attempt cost reductions all the time by improving the efficiency of their processes. This doesn’t mean necessarily a lower quality product, in many instances it will be a better product indeed, however it will be a slightly different product for sure.
So replacing the original car seat cover is not always the best solution. An alternative may be an invisible repair carried out by a professional upholster. However take into account that an invisible repair is not long lasting therefore you may want to consider this option when selling the car on to minimize depreciation.
We believe that the most cost effective protection is to fit a seat protector in the first place. A seat protector needs to look good to reflect the quality of the car, easy to fit, and quick to remove when snobby passengers are on board or in special occasions, but it should be kept on when commuting to work or heading to the local DIY store.
Some car owners are still reluctant to use car seat covers due partially to the bad reputation earned by cheap, badly designed universal car seat covers, however we can reassure you that a quality, well designed protector won't cause you any problem as neither looks nor full control of the seat’s safety and comfort features will be affected.
Custom car seat covers - Don’t wait until your car seats need expensive repairs! by Lucio Carpinato
Some car owners believe that modern technology can cure their neglected upholstery without leaving a trace. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Invisible mending of burns, rips and other damage, although technically possible, is never long lasting and car owners will be presented with the same problem after a while.
The reason for this is quite simple: rips and similar unsightly damage always appear in areas where wear and tear is the greatest. So if the original unmarked and healthy material did not cope with the stress, why should a mended one?
In order for the mended material to regain the original strength the repair has also to be durable and hard wearing. Unfortunately in most cases this means a visible repair. Such a repair may not be a problem on patterned upholstery, but it may become pretty obvious on a plain or light pattern.
In the fortunate event that the damage is near to a seam, it is possible to hide the affected area within the seam, but if the fabric is thin and frayed then the repair will be quite large and therefore difficult to disguise. From an economic point of view, seat repairs of this kind are quite cost effective, although still more expensive than fitting tailor made seat covers in the first place, especially if rips have already spread.
It is possible for a professional upholsterer to carry out invisible repairs (a must on more expensive cars) by replacing the whole panel of the seat with a matching fabric. For obvious reasons this is going to be more expensive.
Things can get pretty complicated when you consider that even the original material may no longer be a good match as it may be coming from a different production batch. Also color and texture differences may be still noticeable due the ageing process.
Another technique is to create a new seam if the rip or burn is too far away from an existing seam, however this option brings in a new problem: both front seats need to match so a new seam is to be sewn on both driver and passenger seat.
