Katzkin Leather (Self-installed)

[Leonardo]

Oh man, is this the most current thread on leather interior...

Anyway, I ordered from Canadaseatskins.com like mentioned in this thread three years ago. They still have the best price. I paid $590 shipped. I purchased an all black with black stitching BRZ kit. Personally, I can't wait to get rid of the red "wings" on the seats. It is getting delivered today. Pics to follow...



Irony: Red stitch came. I am sending it back. Just got off the phone. Really good customer service. I got an RMA and they are shipping out what I wanted.

[Leonardo]

Canadian Seat Skins.com has been great to deal with, and even though they sent me the wrong kit with red at first (ordered all black), I am very happy with their fast and friendly customer service.

So, after receiving the Base kit, I realized, two things:

1. I ordered a Pecca Kit not katzkin. Pecca is a major OEM supplier of interiors for:Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Suzuki, Subaru, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Isuzu.

2. I Should have ordered the 100% Leather kit.

They handled the return and upgrade quickly.

Here is a teaser pic of one of the 100% leather front seats. I will post pics (in a new Pecca Leather thread) of the install and final outcome. I am getting a friend that is a professional seat guy to help me. Hopefully this weekend!!

[exE36M3]

Bumping this thread. Just got the Katskins in the leather face front and vinyl backs. This gets you under $800 shipped. It sounds cheap but the reality is, you'd never notice and the vinyl is on the surfaces that get hit with the most UV or scuffing.

I decided to the install myself as the best quotes I got up in Norcal (SF Bay Area) is in the $600-$850 range.
After chatting with some of the guys in this thread, I decided to give it a try - after all, I've done engine swaps, put in a rear cam in the BRZ and even rebuilt about a dozen Mac laptops.

Got the tools off Amazon for about $30 (pliers and 500 hog rings).
The rears took about 4-5 hours taking my time. I did it in one Friday night and Saturday AM.

I'm tackling the front seats next. Only need there so far is just an e10 Torx socket to unbolt the seats from the frame. Will post update when done too. I went with the all black seats with red stitching.

Photos to come

[kmbkk]

This is probably my next big mod.

[exE36M3]

Checking in on this... the learning curve is a little brutal on the front seats.
I'll have to make a blog out of the how-to because A LOT of photos will need to go into this project.
But for now, here's the Cliff's notes...


1. Take camera phone photos of your old seat as you take it apart - especially how you removed the hog rings and in what order. It's EASY to forget what goes where.

2. On top of the hog ring pliers buy a pair of "electrical line-man pliers" Don't go cheap. Buy the Vise-Grip made in USA ones, blue handle. Simple cheap pliers won't cut the hog rings off.

3. The Katskins covers generally need to be installed from the middle outward. If you try to install from one end of the seat or the other, you WILL end up short by an inch or more. I pretty much installed the seat coverings TWICE for the top/back of the seat and the bottom cushion part.

4. Obviously take your seat OUT of the car to install the Katskins. I suggest doing the work on a carpeted floor. You'll do a lot of tugging and rotating and flipping over. So a softer floor will keep your coverings from getting scuffed up.

5. Also when removing the seats and putting them in the car - take off the headrest. You'll thank me for reminding you. (A massive scuff on my center console reminds me how dumb I am).

Overall the difference is staggering from stock. People say you'll slide around in the seat. After having leather in my E36 M3, I didn't stress too much about that. With this set-up, you won't slide any more or less with the Katskins. The BRZ/FRS side bolsters are big enough, you won't go anywhere and the leather offers significant enough padding, it's snug in there.

Is it plush? Yeah.

Here's a pic from Google albums to show the new seat and the stock on in car.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...hDeUluc0cxaldn

Overall you'll be pretty happy putting leather in. It just makes the car so much more like a plush high-end sports car.

Here's the overall parts list you WILL need:


1. E10 Torx socket - you need this to remove the 4 bolts that hold the seat to the car. For some ODD reason, the back bolts were CRAZY tight. Like the factory guys used an air tool and over torqued it. DO NOT USE an 8mm socket - no matter how well it looks like it fits. If you somehow stripped the e10 bolt... drill out the two rivets on either side. Start with like a 1/8" drill bit and work your way up to something like 13/32" which is about the same size as the rivet. Use a titanium drill bit. Those crazy rivets aren't mild steel! Once you get the seat out, take a hammer and tap the remaining plate counter-clock-wise. The stripped e10 bolt will rotate out. Yes, ask me how I know this works.

2. Hog Ring Pliers and 500 hog rings - The Hog Ring clips use a special positioning type of plier. Even though each seat takes about 20-30 hog rings, you will find you will miss fastening things a few times or have to go back and redo the task. Amazon sells the set of rings and pliers. Forgot the name, something like Jakes Off-Road. The pliers use a red handle.

3. ZIP ties - There's some situations under/around the seats where you think, "I can't use a metal ring here, that's dangerous"... aka the side airbag area. Given the air bag basically explodes outward, I'd rather have a plastic zip tie than a metal ring right?

4. Need nose pliers - I have small hands, some area where you need to pull or tug are too small to grab things.

5. Flat head screwdriver - the coverings use these U-clips, the flat head can help you wedge into the clip and guide it where you want it to go.

6. Xacto Knife / Sharpie Marker - you will need to do a few cuts in the material to get stuff through - like the headrest posts or rear seat-back buttons. Mark the actual hole area with "dots" from the sharpie. When cutting, cut just slightly smaller/shorter from the hole END. You don't want to cut the very edge of the holes because when you fit the final pieces in... you'll see the cuts. If you cut slightly shorter you can gently pull the material over and around things and have just enough tension to bring the material back in and thus hide the cuts. I used a X approach to cutting holes.

---

TIMEFRAME:


(Suggest you start with the backs as it's easier and will get you used to things)
Rear back seat (2 cushions) - About 3 hours between pulling the cushions out, removing the stock coverings, putting the new coverings on, and putting it all back in car.

Rear back seat - back rest - About 3 hours between removing the back panel from the car, removing the stock coverings/putting on the new coverings, and bolting it back in. Note - you may need a hand with getting the new covering on. The back rest cushion uses a pull over the top and U clip an edge fastener. So one guy pulls and compresses the cushion, the other guy folds the material over and clips the U fastener to the seat edge.

---

Front seat - passenger side - about 6 hours total

It's about 30 minutes tops to pull the front seat and unplug the airbag and seat sensors.

Headrest - you keep the original covering on. Your new cover just goes right over it. Suggest installing it half-inside-out so you just roll over the top. About a 30-45 minute job. And those stupid U clips are back too. You'll understand why I call them stupid.

Backrest - About 2-3 hours. Removing the original material was pretty easy. Start at the bottom with undoing the bungie strap under the seat. It will reveal the hog clips holding the seat in. Once those are off, you unzip the back of the covering and it's pretty fast from there. REMEMBER to take camera phone shots as you do this part because it's easy to forget what clips to what. You'll also undo the airbag straps to the seat covers too. Photograph this! When putting the new coverings on, start in the middle of the seat with the hog rings - this will allow you to stretch over the top and bottom of the seat.

Seat cushion - About 3 hours. This takes longer because you have to deal with the mechanicals of the seat and you HAVE to do A LOT of tugging and pulling. Undoing the stock coverings is easy, like 15 minutes. But take pictures as you go, especially around the positioning of the clamps and hooks that go to the seat frame. When putting on the new Katskin coverings, start in the middle of the seat... the lateral-left-right hog rings that fasten the seat in the middle. THEN attach the front leading edge U CLIP. This is EASILY an one hour task as you REALLY have to pull the front of the seat, roll the front edge of the skin over, AND CLIP the U clip to the seat rail.

Driver side - doing that soon... probably starting on a Friday night so I can finish by Sunday. Hopefully this should go faster with the learning curve out of the way.

[White64Goat]

Cutting old hog rings off and installing the new ones is brutal on your hands. Remember the old spring hand exercisers? It's like one of those for every one you cut off and install. Don't buy cheap hog ring pliers, they will fail, buy some decent ones. They make straight ones and curved ones, you may need both. Hog rings are similar to cutting a coat hanger if that helps for comparison.