Following a previous thread that questions the type of leather used in an 09 V8V, I'm looking at possible options to rejuvenate the leather- predominately due to a combination of wear and tear in addition to lack of proper care by the previous owner.

The issues are cracks in the leather and worn colour dye on the drivers seat at the bolster.

My options are as follows:

1) Leatherique Rejuvenate and colour dye (which I will have to do myself as no "professionals" in Sydney seems to use this product)

2) Have a leather repairer fill the cracks and colour match dye done by eye using an unknown product. Apparently this isn't a permanent fix and will need to be redone in time.

3) Reupholster the driver and passenger seat (one of my concerns here is the quality of leather compared to factory).

Anyone gone through the process of repairing leather on these cars?

See image below of the seat in question

 

Trying to fix the bolster using any redye will not work. maybe for a day or two, but my experience has been what ever method I try to save the wear quickly returns.

For this reason I only consider redoing the panel with new leather. The problem is they cannot ever fully match the exact color and shade not only from aging, but even factory leather has slight differences depending upon hides, although Aston is likely to use same hide on each seat.

Aston's leather comes from:

SLG Technology
Renfrewshire, Scotland, PA11 3RL
A Scottish Leather Group Limited company

I would caution against getting leather elsewhere - it won't be the same no matter what the local interior experts tell you. because of changes in the dye color that cannot be avoided, you need to either redo the entire face (both sides of the bolster, headrests, etc. on both seats to mask dye color changes, or redo the entire seats (sides and rears can probably use existing leather).

Attached are the seats I redid (may as well do something special if your spending the dollars), which included making the bottoms software and far more comfortable. Note that you can see slight color differences because the shop did not change out the entire face of the leather, which was supposed to be the deal I paid for (another issue). And this is why I can give you that caution. When I first got the seats the dye (non-Aston leather) matched perfectly, but soon afterwards the shade changed as the dye set in age... you can't see the change in color from the picture below, but a month later it was obvious. This is what you need to do all or nothing.

 

I have redyed leather items on my previous Porsche, which was grey. I only did the steering wheel and shift boot. Both turned out really well. But the leather in a Porsche is a far cry from that in an Aston. Aston uses semi aniline dying (I think) and super premium soft full grain leather. There's no comparison in quality. Unfortunately the price paid for the softness is it wears easily. The Leatherique process involves wet sanding the leather to remove most of the original dye, which is hard to stomach at first, but it does work. I would also recommend spraying the new dye rather than blotting it.

I would at least give this a try, but would be ready to send your VIN to AM to have them make new seat covers. I will bet that is the route you end up going. I am going to budget for this myself 5 years down the road should I still own my car.

 

Only on the top of the range models like DBS and Vanquish.

 

Has anyone successfully fixed the saggy leather in the older seat styles? Every 2005-06 DB9 I look at has front seats with leather that looks like it was just loosely draped over the seat frame. It's the biggest reason why I want to wait until I can afford a 2007+

This is one of the worst I've seen:

 

Wow! How many miles are on that car? My 05 seats look perfect still with 28000 miles. That looks like a manufacturer defect issue.

 

^^^^ This is known as the Salvador Dali leather option.

 

That's great advice!! Thank you so very much.
Does SLG sell direct to the public? Went on their website to see their range but couldn't find what I was looking for.

 

They sell direct or to your installer, I was quoted four doors panels inserts and see faces about $750 for grey leather from them through my installer, rough price

 

Ok thanks. I know that my installer will mark it up significantly so I'll get it from them myself. Just seats though.
How do they sell it? On a per metre basis? Do you happen to have a link that shows their range?

 

I read somewhere that Aston will sell you covers for your specific car and that their prices aren't as bad as you might think. I would inquire.

 

I was quoted about 10,000AUD.

 

That's about $7k USD? That's just the seat cover and not the entire seats? That is a ton. I'm going to find the thread discussing this. May have been piston heads.

 

That'd be great. Thanks Deckman

Pretty good option if the price is right. Astonmartinbits quoted:
"The rear squabs are £1354.92 each and the lower squabs £925.98 each."

 

Thinking of going custom to achieve this end result: