Category: Interior
Price: $1
Private or Vendor Listing: Private Listing
Part fits (you may select multiples): R52
Location (Region): NorthEast
Item Condition: Brand New

I have looked high and low and have gotten estimates to have my leather seats redone in my R52. The stitching is popping on both seat bottoms and the driver's bolster. Does anyone know if the leather itself can be ordered, and if so, from where?? My seats are in good shape otherwise, but all the upholsterers in my area are leery of redoing my seats because of the installed airbags.

 

BUMP
please...

 

Leatherseats or katzskin are both great options for custom leather. They provide just the leather covers, so you remove the current and replace with the new. Lots of YouTube videos to show how. You can also purchase the leather and bring it directly to an upholster for installation.

 

Re-stitching the seat bottoms isn't too bad on the facelift seats like yours since they use the standard hog rings. I recently did the repair to a set of english leather seats I installed in my MINI. The pre-facelift seat covers are glued, making reassembly a lot more difficult.

The side of the back cushion is a little more tricky, since the seam that tore is likely the seam that the airbag comes through if it deploys. I've avoided touching those seams on seats I've worked on out of extreme caution, although I've seen others repair them with a thinner thread claiming it doesn't affect the airbag. There was even a video of one guy testing it on an extra seat he had.

When I priced new leather options, they were all very expensive - I think in the ballpark of $1,000 if I remember correctly. The cushions with seat covers are available directly from MINI too, but again, very expensive at $600-700 per cushion I think. MINI doesn't offer the seat covers by themselves for the first gens unfortunately - you have to buy the cushion w/seat cover.

Do you have pictures of the damage? Where in the Northeast are you? I might be able to help you out with re-stitching the bottoms. I also have some extra seat back cushions in panther black leather in decent, but not perfect shape that might work for the seat back. They're not too hard to switch from one seat to another.