seat covers for 96 SR5

[fishin4runner]

My leather is wasted. Want some new seat covers. Found 500 denier camos covers at camoseatcovers.com for a great deal. Talked with the shop and they have pattern for a 95 4runner. I know 95 to 96 changed from 2nd to 3rd generation 4runner. Is this the same seat or did that change too?
Thanks for any help and/or guidance.

[Bob98SR5]

2nd gen and 3rd gen seats are different.

there are two types of seats for 3rd gens, regular and sport. sport has side bolsters. which ones do you have? make sure you order accordingly.

[fishin4runner]

Sport buckets with bolsters. Manual adjustments, lumbar on inside driver's side & adjustable headrests.

[Bob98SR5]

as far as i know, the seat design changed too (for the better). i believe the rail pattern changed too

[clark2334]

My leather is wasted. Want some new car seat covers (http://www.jcwhitney.com/seat-covers-protection-upholstery-and-cushions/c15607j1s17.jcwx). Found 500 denier camos covers at camoseatcovers.com for a great deal. Talked with the shop and they have pattern for a 95 4runner. I know 95 to 96 changed from 2nd to 3rd generation 4runner. Is this the same seat or did that change too?
Thanks for any help and/or guidance.

ive been looking for a seat cover and i finally found the one that will surely has a great deal with. thanks for making this recommendation.

[paddlenbike]

How trashed are the seats? Take a look at the testimonials at leathermagic.com. I am planning to use one of the leather repair kits on my commuter car. I probably wouldn't believe it but a guy on the forums posted his results on his Volvo 850:
http://www.leathermagic.com/Assets/Hodgson/image001.jpg

after:
http://www.leathermagic.com/Assets/Hodgson/image003.jpg

They say you can repair cuts up to 4" long and holes up to 2" in diameter with their kit, and they will sell you additional leather inserts for larger ones.

Compared to seatcovers a repair will increase the value of your vehicle and you will not have ill-fitting seatcovers to deal with.

[Killa-Cotton]

Now that their back in shape get some Mothers Leather Conditioner and apply it ever couple of weeks for a few months and then every month after that. Your seats will last forever.

[Bob98SR5]

ken,

I think i told you that I used/am using Leatherique. I think theyre all the same :) Anyways, here's my before and after pics. not on same side, but same results:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6045/5907072459_4c24a5ce28_z.jpg

After:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5314/5907627488_1ab2c628d0_z.jpg

The shit works. But its laborious the first time. Better to take out the seats, its much easier to work with. I actually undid the hinge part too and worked on the seats as two pieces.

Try Tearmender for torn leather.

Bob

[paddlenbike]

Bob, thanks for the encouragement. It's amazing what you can do with leather if you put the time into it.

I haven't seen the OP around, so I will go ahead and post this. Here is a photo the previous owner of my 850 took of the torn passenger's seat:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-43Es6r51H5E/TyBsNF0aJaI/AAAAAAAAGjo/dQ4h2aF6Eo0/s800/DSCN0685.JPG
Lexol, Leatherique, etc., will all repair cracked and dried seats. What appears different about Leathermagic is you can repair tears up to 4" (or larger if you order a larger leather scrap) and it comes with a dye to make it match the original leather. I checked tearmender and I'm not sure it would work for such a large repair. What do you think?

[Bob98SR5]

ken,
4" tear is pretty big. i am not sure if it can or not. but from my research, all the products and application of is all the same: clean, sand, clean area, scrap of glued material underneath, sand, apply some kind of leather prep, and dye. my repair will be much easier b/c the tear is relatively small and in the middle of the seat bottom.

i'm actually done w/ sanding and prepping my seat back. now i have to repair the small tear in the seat bottom and prep the seat bottom for sanding. your thread inspires me to move forward. perhaps we should start a separate thread?

[paddlenbike]

I am anxious to see how yours comes out. Feel free to start a new thread, although realistically I won't have time to start on mine until mid-June. But in the meantime, here is another volvo leather seat restoration that helps motivate me a bit.

Before
http://thehuangs.com/images/VFront01.jpg

After
http://thehuangs.com/images/VFront03.jpg

And the guy's writeup is HERE (http://thehuangs.com/?p=219)