New to the forum and new to the Cooper with the purchase of a 2002 Base with leather seats. On this car the stitching is openning up on the upper part of the seat side above the Airbag tag. Any one else experience this and if so how did you repair? Thanks

 

Duct tape

Search for car upholstery and seat repair shops in your area. You're doing well if the issue is only the seams splitting on a 14 year old car. Owners have experienced far worse seat wear problems. Can you post a pic?

 

+1
the stitch is a special stich to let the airbag deploy right...an auto upholstery shop will have the know how if you so desire...
another option MIGHT be to get a seat cover...some are made to be compatible with airbags...

 

Just added an image of the offending area in the first post.

I'll have to see if there is an upholstery shop in the area.

I'd hate to put seat covers on the cool textured leather seats. Its one of the reasons I liked the car enough to buy it.

Anyone try to fix themselves?

Thanks

 

It looks trivial to me. Anybody who's handy with a needle and thread should be able to sew it up.

 

I was thinking it might not be too difficult if it's not too much effort to get a needle through the original stitching holes. I am worried about affecting the function of the airbags though.

 

As long as you don't go crazy with hand stitching, it won't withstand the explosive force of airbag deployment. The location of your split might not even interfere with it anyway.

 

Back to this problem... I finally found and went to talk with a guy that does upholstery work. He said he could fix it but would need to take the leather cover off to sew it on his machine. He said this would bump up the fix time to about 2 hours which in service terms means too much money.

I figure I might be about to save some money by removing the cover myself, taking it to him to repair, and then reinstalling myself. I should only take him a few minutes to sew it.

My question -- Anyone take off a leather seat cover and reinstall? How hard and how much time? Have a step by step? I already checked YouTube. Thanks

 

http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-gen...ont-seats.html

I had someone do a non MINI for me, less than two hours and that included some parts removal and welding.

 

Update...

I finally took the seat to the local upholstery shop to get stitched up. He said the leather was glued to the foam and that the back rest section of the seat warmer was also stuck to the leather. If he were to take it off it might ruin the warmer pad. As a result I decided not to have him fix the seam. He said he could do it by hand but it would take a few hours (and cost too much more).

Another data point. I have since purchased another mini - a '06 R52 and it had a splitting seam on the outside of the passenger seat. He was able to sew up that seam as the leather cover was not glued to the foam. This car does not have seat warmers.

So it may be that earlier cars were glued while later gen 1 cars were not. Or it could be the difference between one having heated seats and one not. I'm not sure.

So I'm trying to research sewing it myself. An additional suggestions?

If anyone is interested...

 

I hand stitched mine a few weeks ago. It took a couple of hours, some curved needles, pliers and a thimble. Don't forget the thimble!

I only stabbed myself 3 times. It is holding up well. Not a very fund job, but the local upholstery guy would not do it because of the airbag and associated liability.

Additional, a stitch in time saves nine.

 

Aspen, Would you be willing to detail your process? Pictures? I tried sewing with a regular needle that I bent in a curve because the upholstery needles I bought were all too large. I also opened up the existing holes a little with an awl in an effort to ease the needle pushing. No luck, it was too hard to get the needle through one side and then try to find the hole from the backside in the other piece. I didn't try pliers to push/pull the needle so maybe that would help. I also need to get some heavier thread the stuff I was trying to work with broke a few time. Thanks

 

Sorry no pictures.


I went to Michaels and got some leather sewing needles in assorted sizes. The smallest bend too easily and the big ones are too big. I watched a couple of Youtube videos on how to sew leather.
You need to stitch down on one side, go up through the next hole on the same side then directly across to the other side, then repeat. It is very hard to get the needle to come out the hole adjacent to the one you just went through from the top. This is where the pliers and stabbing myself came into play. A sharp curved needle should do the trick.
Don't pull on the thread until you are pretty much done. Just leave it loose. Once it is all in place you tighten starting at one end and work your way to the other end. I used a wood kebab skewer to do the tightening. Tie off the loose end once it is all snug.
I got some heavy weight thread from Michael's as well and it was a decent colour match.
You can see the repair, but it is much better than it was and is holding up OK.

 

You'll need heavy twine and a hooked needle. You can get all this stuff at any arts and crafts store. I've done this in my GTO when the rear seats split...for no reason. No one ever sat back there.

 

I know this is old but I'm hoping for a response lol. You said heavy twine, if you use a heavy thread/twine will the airbag still be able to deploy through it?

 

That's the trick. The factory uses a weaker thread and special stitch. Hard to replicate that.