I re-upholstered the interior of my leaf, and the kit I bought also has leather trim pieces for the door panels. I disassembled the door panels no problem, but the plastic piece that holds the fabric seems to be "glued", or somehow hard-attached (not sure how better to explain this) to the door panel. Has anyone else done this? Thanks in advance.
door panel disassembly - leather trim install
- Thread starter njleaf
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rawhog
Well-known member
No. But I am interested in where you bought your kit.
FairwoodRed
Well-known member
You can buy Katzkin's at http://www.autoseatskins.com/nissan-leaf-katzkin-leather-s/561.htm . I've had Katzkin on two cars now and they are a great product. July like OEM leather. I did not actually order from the site above - this time I paid a shop to install it, but I have installed other Katzkin's as DIY.
redLEAF
Well-known member
FairwoodRed said:
Unless I missed something, those are 'seat skins' and NOT door panels; as I also own a Miata many have 'reskinned' the OEM plastic/vinyl door panels for these but have yet to see many do a LEAF so would be curious on this kit as well. Many times it's hard to get this to look right so the assembly/execution is critical to a good looking panel --- as always, photos would be good; others have disassembled the door panels for speaker refits and I think at least one other has recovered their door panel so a forum search may be in order ...
I got the kit from eBay. The site to order directly is leatherseats.com. The kit comes with covers for the seats, center console and the armrests. I used some help for the seats, did the center console myself, but can't figure out how to remove the armrest piece. It seems glued to the plastic.
FairwoodRed
Well-known member
redLEAF said:
The Katzkin set for the Leaf is a full set. It includes both front seats, full rear seat, both arm rests, all head rests, and center console. I'll try to get a photo tonight.
redLEAF
Well-known member
FairwoodRed said:
Sorry, but an 'arm rest' is not an entire door panel; it's typically just a double-stick tape padded cover but sometimes more elaborate ... photos of what stays original and what gets covered/replaced will show exactly what you're getting. Using the old Miata as an example again, depending on model year, some leather car accessory shops will offer an arm rest cover (door or center) or 'door top panel' covers, etc. An example of a first series Miata install instructions is linked below. This just replaces a portion of the door covering, not the whole thing but includes sufficient assembly instructions otherwise you would be better off to let an upholstery shop do it.
http://www.redlinegoods.com/MiataDoorPanelInstall.pdf
FairwoodRed
Well-known member
Below is a photo of my installed Katzkin leathers. A couple more photos are here. As you can see, they come with the fabric part of the door panel armrests. When the Original Poster described it as “leather trim pieces for the door panels” I took it to be the same armrest parts on my doors and not an entire door panel. Sorry if got that assumption wrong.
Back to the original poster, I remember my shop saying that they had to cut the original fabric off, but I don’t remember if that was the seats or the armrests. I might be willing to take my panel off and see if the back side has any evidence of what the shop did, but that wouldn’t be until early next week.
Back to the original poster, I remember my shop saying that they had to cut the original fabric off, but I don’t remember if that was the seats or the armrests. I might be willing to take my panel off and see if the back side has any evidence of what the shop did, but that wouldn’t be until early next week.
FairwoodRed
Well-known member
HA HA! I've got your answer! My shop drilled out the welded plastic rivets and replaced it with wide head screws. You could also use a plastic welding kit (Harbor Freight, $20), but I'd use the screws first. Also looks like they glued the leather to the armrest.
Let me know if this helped.
Let me know if this helped.
BooKittyLeaf
Well-known member
Reviving this post!
We got the SV because my wife liked the idea of the Recycled Seats. After a few months she doesn't really care for them as they look more "worn out" than they are.
So I am looking into reupholstering them in Leather and found this post. Any chances you/anyone has pics of the whole process - from taking the seats out, upholstering & re install?
I have re-upholstered many 60's muscle cars with the hog rings & stuff - but this looks to be a whole different animal.
Also, regarding interior... I dont really like the shinny black finish on the arm rest power window area, and the console piece (I prefer the satin black like on the S model) So I intend to remove all the Shinny plastic trim & paint Satin.
Any instruction/pics of that as well would be appreciated.
Thanks
We got the SV because my wife liked the idea of the Recycled Seats. After a few months she doesn't really care for them as they look more "worn out" than they are.
So I am looking into reupholstering them in Leather and found this post. Any chances you/anyone has pics of the whole process - from taking the seats out, upholstering & re install?
I have re-upholstered many 60's muscle cars with the hog rings & stuff - but this looks to be a whole different animal.
Also, regarding interior... I dont really like the shinny black finish on the arm rest power window area, and the console piece (I prefer the satin black like on the S model) So I intend to remove all the Shinny plastic trim & paint Satin.
Any instruction/pics of that as well would be appreciated.
Thanks
