Old Duct Tape on Leather Seats...

[Big Rectangular Car]

The passenger side front seat apparently split in a couple of places, and the PO used duct tape to close the holes. As I'm sure you know, duct tape after a while deteriorates and leaves a nasty, crusty residue on whatever it was stuck to. Not a good idea to use it on seats anyway, though I'm beginnning to think duct tape is only good for taping ducts. Hehe...
I peeled off the outer layer, and went about trying to find something that is strong enough to dissolve the white crusty crap on the seats, but not completely kill the leather's finish, though it will likely be replaced anyway...

Finally found some Goof-Off that is working but it's taking a lot of scrubbing, that the odor is a bit strong. Had to air the car out really well the rest of the day.

What I'm wondering is, what's a good way to repair a crack in leather seats? Is there a tape that will work better, or should I just replace that section of leather?

[91 LTD]

If you google "leather repair kits" it looks like you have a ton of options beyond just taping over the cracks.

[boXman]

I got lots of duct tape on my front seat in the wagon.... :p

[Blaze86Vic]

Actualy, Duct tape is no good for ducts. It's too sensitive to heat, so they can't use it on ducts.

[p71towny]

It just takes time doing the meathod you described. I suppose you could stitch it together if you really wanted to.

[87mefull]

Is the leather split in one place or several places? If its split in one location and looks easy to fix, you can try the leather repair kits. Look around for a good one though.

If it looks really bad, might be better off replacing the seat from a junked panther. Since its the passenger seat, it easier to remove vs. the driver's seat since you don't have to deal with the power equipment. Just have to find a matching blue leather passenger seat and the blue interior is pretty common. The seats are heavy as shit though, about 50-60 pounds.

Might sound ghetto but another cheap fix is to use an old leather jacket to fix the seat. Might not apply to your car directly since I think you have a blue interior but it can be a cheap fix. Salvation army and goodwill stores sell them for as low as $2.00, just have find your color. I might be doing this to my car soon, the seat edge where the arm rests are has cracked badly on the driver's side. I will have to cut two leather strips though so it matches on both sides.

[DuceAnAHalf]

Most DIY leather repair kits are shit. Either have the seat professionally repaired or have the section replaced if possible.

[Big Rectangular Car]

It's split in a couple of places, I think it's due to the leather losing its suppleness. It's not so bad that the seat needs replacing, though.
After looking at replies, I googled the repair kits and found some commentary by a leather repair person, it's true, the kits don't do that good a job, especially on old leather seats. If you fix it in one place, it will probably split in another.
I'll probably get some leather glue and use some leather scraps on hand, to make patches.
Thanks for the advice and all.

[DuceAnAHalf]

It's split in a couple of places, I think it's due to the leather losing its suppleness. It's not so bad that the seat needs replacing, though.
After looking at replies, I googled the repair kits and found some commentary by a leather repair person, it's true, the kits don't do that good a job, especially on old leather seats. If you fix it in one place, it will probably split in another.
I'll probably get some leather glue and use some leather scraps on hand, to make patches.
Thanks for the advice and all.

FYI we do upholstery. Almost exclusivly boats, mostly 24' to 65' range.

[Big Rectangular Car]

Added a pic of the seat. It's not a huge deal, because a seat cushion covers this, but I'd like to close the holes with something besides the old tape, which as you can see is dried up and has deteriorated into powdery stuff.
So, I thought of reinforcing it from underneath with patches and leather glue to prevent further tearing ,and just stitching it up. When I get around to it again, I'll post pics of the results.
So you can snigger at it. Ha!
If I can't really offer any helpful advice, at least I can be entertaining. :P

[raser13]

anone know of somting to keep the seats supple? i was thinking of swappin in some black ones out of a mark8 and the leather was just starting to get a little stiff from sitting in the bone yard . thats why i didn't go for it. so any sugestions? sorry about the highjack.

[DanHool]

Most DIY leather repair kits are shit. Either have the seat professionally repaired or have the section replaced if possible.

i second that

[85GMLS]

The rest of the interior is perfect, everything works on this car everything is original. Just this one seat has two rips in it so were going to patch it up and put seat ocvers on it,then it will look perfect.
My mom is POed she can't post here any more, so she probably wont come back until whoeer did this apologises. Whatevder.

[85crownHPP]

I officially apologise on behalf of the admin team!!!
This forum software is pretty new to use so we are still learning new things all the time.
This problem was a mistake and should be all fixed now! please let us know if its not.

[Big Rectangular Car]

LOL! Okay, I hope this is quickly forgotten, because I'm feeling rather silly, right now. Tends to happen when I'm a newbie somewhere, I get paranoid when something goes wrong. Oy vey.

My son is going