Seats hard as a rock

Winterhawk

Winterhawk

New Member
I'm possibly going to buy a '66 2000TC that is actually a decent car except the seats are very hard and have never been conditioned over the years. I'd prefer to keep the original seats and bring them back to life, but after watching the video of the gentlemen who did his P4 I honestly don't think I have the patience to do that. On top of that I question if it's worth the time and effort to save them or if I should just factor in a complete redo of the interior with new material into the price. From the research I've been doing it doesn't look like seat and door panel kits are available for the P6. Too bad because the alternative is to trust a trimmer to do a good job. What have others done? I'm not looking to do a show car, but rather a nice driver quality, and as much as I'd like to have it look original, I'm okay with it being a different colour or material. I'll post some pictures if we can come to an agreement on the price.
 
A full interior retrim will cost 2k+. It's a lot of labour more than anything. It depends whether you can recolour your leather or whether it need replacement

Door panel kits are available from several places Wins and JR Wadhams for starters. I think they are £60ish each. Seat covers from Wadhams too. They aren't a perfect match to the original, the leather grain is the more modern embossed style for a start and the vinyl isn't genuine ambla.

What you can do that costs very little is simply clean and apply conditioner repeatedly to the seat until it softens. Usually the next option is find good secondhand. This is rare and fetches good prices but rotten cars with good trim do get broken from time to time.

In general saving the original is very worthwhile....
 
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i am currently restoring my P5b interior and use "furniture clinic" products.
they have a product called "leather revive" and this make hard leather soft again. With patience and time you can restore the rover interiors very well.

One of the front seats before

CIMG3902.jpg


And the same seat after restoration

CIMG3979.jpg


You are right that it takes a lot of time but the result is worth it. You can also paint the vinyl very well and if you paint both the leather and vinyl, you will have the same color which will not always be so if new leather and new vinyl is used for an interior

CIMG4144.jpg
 
I used "Liquidleather" products about 11months ago
Gliptone Leathercare: Leather Care
https://www.liquidleather.com/

which included cleaner, conditioner and dye. They were not able to mail their solvent to Australia because it is a hazardous chemical, but obviously you could get it in the UK.
Their instructions (Video vs written) contain some contradictions but their response to questions is immediate and service excellent (even from so far away)
They have most original colours for British cars and the "Buckskin" supplied was an excellent match for our 1970 P6B.
I'd happily recommend them and am really happy with the result. However, be aware that the "dye" is more of a paint than a dye i.e. it adheres to the surface rather than penetrating.
 
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