After a lot of time and effort my old 2006 that I have owned since 2009 literally looks flawless following a detail, ppl and ceramic coating. I now can't help but notice how much the interior is letting the car down.

The car has just over 40k miles and I have been vigilant around using leatherique every 6 months and always putting up the sunshade to protect the interior.

The seats are starting to look like the leather is baggy. It is getting so bad that wrinkles in the leather are forming due to the excess leather. I don't think it's the seat cushion breaking down as the seat back is also baggy. Has anyone experienced or seen this as I would love to fix. Thanks!

 

The leather looks in great condition

There have been discussions on this before - applying mild heat via hair dryer can help shrink the leather - I'd be wanting to do some practice first por find someone who knows leather to assist you

possibly a you tube search

good luck

Graeme

 

Thanks Graeme, I should have mentioned that I did search and found many YouTube videos around using a hair dryer or heat gun.

I tried a hair dryer for a long period of time and saw no results. I might add my seats are saggier than those I saw in the videos and non of the videos were astons, although that last part should not matter.

The other reason I saw that was suggested was overweight people in the seat. I am 6' 3" and 180lbs so that can't be it. Car is garaged always.

 

As a matter of background, some years ago, I attended a tech session put on by a supplier of Jaguar interiors on how to do an installation of new leather seats. A demonstration was put on of how to use a heat gun- not a hair dryer - to take the wrinkles out of the new leather seats. I put this to use installing a new interior in my Jaguar E-Type. I kept several very wet towels close buy to quickly cool the seats as heat was applied to shrink the leather where it inevitably showed wrinkles after installation. It worked like a charm but it was a careful balance of using enough heat to shrink the leather and avoiding too much heat that will distort the leather, or worse yet, burn or discolor it.
It appears that some of your seat leather has stretched quite a bit. While a heat gun will shrink leather, from my experience, I don't believe it is capable of restoring your seats to their original shape. You may want to look for some other remedy.

 

Shooting from the hip it looks like your seats are stretched beyond repair.

How much to would it cost recover them? At least you have an easy color to match.

 

I don't think they need to be recovered, just stretched. The leather looks to be in really good shape. I would run them by a couple of auto upholstery places to get opinions. I bet it would be less than $500. If you were in Denver I could tell you exactly where you want to go.

 

Thanks for the input gents, good to hear stretching is an option. I'm assuming this route would be substantially less expensive than a new cover.

Leather is in good shape thanks to leatherique....but now I wonder if the application at least 1-2 times per year over last 9 years has actually aided in the stretching?

Does anyone have an older higher mileage vantage like me with great seats? Curious how you maintain

 

I've never had any of my Astons to 40K but I have had plenty of daily drivers with more mileage than that, and with near mint condition leather seats. I weigh over 200 lbs., so while I'm not saying mass isn't a factor in how fast your covers and foam degrade, I'm not a flyweight.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have posted numerous times on this subject in the past, and to the disagreement of many on this forum, but you did say you were curious, so here goes:

Leather care methods which are 'conventional' and generally accepted in the car community are actually detrimental to long term leather durability and appearance. Modern automotive leather wants regular dusting/vacuuming and gentle cleaning with a water based product for hydration. A water based protectant used sparingly will not hurt. The majority of oil based detailing products and gooey Leatherique will attract dirt and result in shiny, greasy, prematurely worn leather.

I'm not claiming that proper leather care will eliminate the stretching you have experienced, but I'm willing to bet that proper care, along with proper entry/exit technique from the vehicle, will fend it off a lot better than regular 'oiling'.

 

I have tried many leather conditioners and agree with you that the majority get shiny/greasy and attract dirt thus prematurely wearing out the leather. My experience for the uncoated leather seats in the Aston is that it absorbs the leatherique very well with zero of the shine or grease. My leather is extremely soft due to the care I have been taking and the wear is very minimal, especially for a car with over 40k miles on it. This is not the concern. I am beginning to think the constant conditioning has actually allowed the leather to expand a bit as even the armrest is a little loose. Typically leather drys out and tightens.

 

Has the 'sagging' / loosening of the covers occurred primarily since you acquired the car in 2009, or was it already an issue when you bought it?

In what sort of shape is the foam underneath? Is it deformed and is this contributing to the cover issue?

I understand the sagging issue is unlikely to be caused by whatever surface treatment is in use, but the only thing I would want my leather to "absorb" is a small amount of water, and the consistency of Leatherique has never reminded me of water. Their website makes all sorts of mention of "protein" in the product. I'm not sure how saturating urethane coated leather in protein has any benefit.

 

The leather was slightly lose when I bought her but has become much worse.

Not sure on the shape of the foam underneath. By feel over the cover it feels fine and not deformed. Would need to remove cover to be certain.

I'm not entirely certain if leatherique has any benefit either but I can say the leather itself is in at least as good of shape as when I purchased it with the exception of the sagging. Thinking I will try to find a local shop that will stretch the seats.

 

Leather conditioner in all likelihood had nothing to do with it. Looks like "normal" wear to me. Leather conditioner doesn't really "penetrate" modern leather as some would suggest. Modern leather is coated and nothing really penetrates it to effect its elasticity etc.

New leather hides are relatively inexpensive. Any competent upholstery shop can easily recover these for you for a couple grand and you'll have brand new seats for all practical purposes. Removing them is super easy.. I pull mine out just to gain easy access to the back seat area for cleaning the leather and windows.

My seats are at an upholstery shop right now having some custom diamond quilted pattern done.. The cost is really very nominal. I have plenty of leather (Obsidian black) around if you need some.. Please feel free to contact me.

Good luck!

 

You might try Leather Menders on Buell off Burnet Road (in Austin). I've used them to repair leather seats in a MINI and also headliner work on my Lotus.

 

What did the local AM dealer suggest? They sure have a Texas size showroom!

 

Do to an upholstery shop. If you are lucky they know a fix or can facelift it cheaply. They will be the ones who know about leather, how is sags and which chemicals do what.