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petsar68
Member Since: 12 Feb 2009
Location: Queenstown - Central Otago
Posts: 31
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Whats leather & whats not. |
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Could someone kindly tell me what parts of the interior are real leather and whats not, ie the seat backs dont appear to be as well as the arm rests and how about the head restraints etc etc ?
Thanks again 1995 V8 ES - SOLD.
2005 TDV6 HSE - SOLD.
2006 RRS TDV6 SOLD.
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8th Jan 2010 5:56 am |
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bellautos
Member Since: 02 Feb 2006
Location: NorthYorkshire
Posts: 2532
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Ive thought the same thing in the past, the cars for sale at LR seem to be listed as leather seats but they are not all leather, they are a mixture of leather and plastic/ man made leather.
i know the sides and the ront edges of the rear seat in the D3 i have are plastic leather ive not looked to deeply at the rest.
Pete
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8th Jan 2010 8:02 pm |
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Renton
Member Since: 13 Jan 2009
Location: Somewhere in the middle
Posts: 1718
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I believe only the upper sides are made of leather, rest is vinyl or some other plastic material. CLUB ILLEGAL CAR WASHERS
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8th Jan 2010 8:09 pm |
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mzplcg
Member Since: 23 Jun 2009
Location: Gone
Posts: 1087
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Believe it or not, car leather only has to contain 5% real leather. On Mercs for example you have 3 choices. Cloth, standard leather and Nappa leather. the standard stuff looks more like buffalo hide and is the cheapest mix of materials you could imagine. But, it does contain some real leather. Nappa on the other hand is much nicer but costs a whole heap more. It also wears more quickly.
Also, the stuff which is subject to the most wear tends to have the lowest amount of leather in it. The surface is very heavily treated to try and prolong its life which can give it that vinyl feel.
Imagine if they were made of the finest soft leather, how long would they last? One journey probably. The best soft leather can't be used for clothes either because buttonholes would simply tear out etc. Which is why decent leather in cars costs a kings ransom, because it's hellishly hard to make it durable without diluting the leather content.
So in short, they probably are leather but just different grades for different parts of the seat.
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8th Jan 2010 9:12 pm |
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petsar68
Member Since: 12 Feb 2009
Location: Queenstown - Central Otago
Posts: 31
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Its for cleaning purposes that i ask as vinyl and rubber (AG) cleaner would be more use than leather cleaner on those parts of the interior that are not leather.
I believe the arm rests, head restraints,seat backs and sides are this leatherette mixture but i stand to be corrected. 1995 V8 ES - SOLD.
2005 TDV6 HSE - SOLD.
2006 RRS TDV6 SOLD.
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9th Jan 2010 4:51 am |
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catweasel
Member Since: 05 May 2006
Location: Bundaleer
Posts: 4805
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seat facings are leather the rest is plastic. push your finger into the seat facing and it will crinkle (do it you will see what I mean) then do it on the seat back and the indent will be smooth.
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9th Jan 2010 5:02 am |
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jkp
Member Since: 17 Sep 2005
Location: Living among Bawbags
Posts: 4528
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By law a seat described as leather, only has to have the parts of the seat that your body parts come into contact with as leather the rest can be made up of anything.
The side and rears are the cheap split of the leather that is then shaved, textured and coloured and covered with a poly-coating for longevity. This process also goes into the DFS sofas that are advertised as bicast leather. This is the stuff that is sold as leather but feels like your sitting on plastic. Cheap and nasty.
The part that you plonk your backside on is pigmented leather, i.e. its painted. So you are actually not sitting on leather, but the painted surface. This is obvious on std leather as you can almost see the brush strokes and the finish has a tough feel to it, due to the paint used. Ruched leather is more subtle and the paint is not as industrious.
To see if I'm right take some acetone and wipe it over the seat base. This will reveal the base coat colours and actual true leather finish. You will be amazed at how quickly you can make a black seat base turn cream or whatever colour the factory bought in on the cheap prior to colouring it. I had to do a repair on a FFRR seat base and the original colour was green, not the sand finish that it was delivered with.
BTW, please dont be daft enought to try acetone .....(thats my disclaimer) but if you do please take picks for me to see.
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9th Jan 2010 5:52 am |
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Renton
Member Since: 13 Jan 2009
Location: Somewhere in the middle
Posts: 1718
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jkp wrote:
The side and rears are the cheap split of the leather that is then shaved, textured and coloured and covered with a poly-coating for longevity.
I had punctured the side of the drivers seat and thats defenitely no leather of any kind. CLUB ILLEGAL CAR WASHERS
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9th Jan 2010 5:19 pm |
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petsar68
Member Since: 12 Feb 2009
Location: Queenstown - Central Otago
Posts: 31
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Thats pretty conclusive then, thankyou. 1995 V8 ES - SOLD.
2005 TDV6 HSE - SOLD.
2006 RRS TDV6 SOLD.
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11th Jan 2010 5:16 am |
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