# My repair to a ripped RECARO



## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

I bought a set of cream Audi S3 RECARO seats to restore and fit in to my Astra Coupe. I have never completed a repair of this nature before, so its been a huge learning curve.

A leather repair kit was ordered with all the necessary bits to complete my repair, including base colour, tints, filler compound, glue etc etc










Hear is the big 'L' shaped tear in the bolster










Some repair sheet was cut and placed underneath the overhanging leather, to allow it to be glued down.










Once glued, a little heat was applied to help speed up the process



















A clean up of the area was given with the leather prep, and layers of filler applied to build up, with about 30mins between each coat.










Once the leather filler compound had dried, it has some elasticity to it, which behaves in the sane way leather does.
This was sanded down smooth and flush with the leather, to allow for paint to be added and hopefully hide the fact a repair has occurred.










Now the scary part. Adding colour.
Now its not 100% match, but at this point it doesnt bother me too much, as the whole colour of the seats will be changing to the same tone as Vauxhall cream leather. I will be ordering an exact colour match of this, as trying to mix colours to match is very difficult for an amateur like myself.

But here it is, a repaired RECARO seat


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## paul200 (Jun 8, 2012)

Looks good buddy, have you checked that they actually fit in your car first?


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## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

paul200 said:


> Looks good buddy, have you checked that they actually fit in your car first?


Of course.

I test fitted in an Astra SRi I am breaking for spares.


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## Saj (Dec 24, 2012)

Great repair that !


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## CTR De (Feb 10, 2011)

great job mate


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## absolute (Jan 19, 2010)

Gosh, that's a lovely repair buddy. 

Lovely turnaround.


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## martyp (Oct 24, 2006)

Great repair job.

Those seats look mega comfy too! :thumb:


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## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

Thanks.

Im actually really surprised how easy the kit was to work with


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## IndepthCarDetailing (Feb 12, 2012)

you done a good job


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## Twenny Benson (Mar 22, 2011)

Spot on repair there mate, I will be attempting this very soon. Who supplied the repair kit?


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## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

The kit was from Scratch Doctor.

Buy I will likely be ordering an exact match of colour from Furniture Clinic - who also do a repair kit.


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Excellent repair keep us updated when you come to re-colour them :thumb:


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## streaky (Dec 2, 2006)

Thats a great effort.


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## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

After receiving a colour match kit from Furniture Clinic (whos products i couldnt recomend enough) here are the final finished seats, after also having heated seat pads fitted too. I chose a heated pad kit which has 5 heat settings to match my current heated seats.

Considering the condition and colour of the leather when i got them, they are now restored and finished in the same colour beige as my OE Vauxhall leather

comments welcome


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## Benn (Aug 22, 2007)

Wow i didn't think you could repair a tear in the leather. Very impressive.


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## rob3rto (May 23, 2007)

Great work, soon will do mine. Summer I think.

What heat pad kit did you get, one thing missing in my car.


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## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

was from ebay

its a chinese kit. quality seems really good, and allows you to cut the pad (as pictured) to fit your seat perfectly. you can choose from 5heat settings, or just on/off. the kit cost £90.


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## craigeh123 (Dec 26, 2011)

Looks awesome nice one


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## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

Now that the snow has gone, the seats are now finally in.

i made a wiring loom for the electric motors of the seats, and routed the wiring loom for the new heated seat pads under the dash and wired them up.

Really pleased with the way they look, and the colour match is perfect from Furniture Clinic


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## Ric (Feb 4, 2007)

think i'd have cleaned the seats first then repair, rather than risk damaging the repair with the clean they desperately need.


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## johnsastra16v (Oct 7, 2007)

carbonangel said:


> think i'd have cleaned the seats first then repair, rather than risk damaging the repair with the clean they desperately need.


They were thoroughly cleaned with Furniture Clinic strong cleaner. I also have the protection cream too, which will be going on soon


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## absolute (Jan 19, 2010)

Fascinating result


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