Lseat?

[popeyesteve]

I thought that this topic had been addressed earlier, but I can't seen to find it anywhere. Sorry if it is a duplicate.

The leather on my seats is dry and cracking beyond all attempts to rejuvenate with saddle soap, mink oil, leather treatments, etc. Not horrible, but not up my standards. The door panels, dash and headliner are okay. A victim of the Florida sun before I bought the car, I'm afraid. That said, I have planned to contact Lseat.com for leather replacement covers for the Recaros up front and for the back bench. They show two different front seat cover styles. The one they call for 1980 looks closer to what I have than what they call for 1981-1982. I believe that Avanti only offered two different Recaro seat styles. The ones in mine have the adjustable under thigh bolster. Also they show back bench covers with head rests. My car has no rear seat head rests. I can post photos, but that is beside the point for this post.

The two patterns that Lseat.com have were provided by Avanti owner customers in the past, so I am curious if either or all are members of this forum. There are both horrible and good reviews for Lseat.com online. At their price point, I am willing to take a chance but would like to hear from actual Avanti owners who have installed their covers, and what style Recaros they had to provide patterns to Lseat.com.

Thanks,

Steve    

[WayneC]

The fella I sold my '80 Avanti to last year had new front & rear seat covers made by Lseat (Recaro fronts); he sent them the old covers as a pattern. He said it took months and he had to threaten the salesman in Texas to finally get them back (they are made in China), but he said they had turned out well and he was satisfied with them.

[WayneC]

4 minutes ago, WayneC said:

The fella I sold my '80 Avanti to last year had new front & rear seat covers made by Lseat (Recaro fronts); he sent them the old covers as a pattern. He said it took months and he had to threaten the salesman in Texas to finally get them back (they are made in China), but he said they had turned out well and he was satisfied with them.

 

[popeyesteve]

My ‘82 has this style seat. It is closer to the picture that Lseat calls for 1980.

[popeyesteve]

I took a chance on the Lseat covers. It took about 4 weeks to get them. The back seat was a good fit but the front covers were patterned for a different model of Recaro. That made for a bit of alteration to get them to fit. The bolsters for the bottoms are a different shape and needed some repadding to fit. The inserts for the backs and bottoms were completely different. The bottoms required tailoring of the front and rear attachments. The backs required tailoring to narrow the top front. And the back inserts were basically remade from the disassembled parts plus some extra leather material that I bought separately. The headrest covers are a completely different shape and will have to be remade. It was a lot of effort on my part and required a bunch of hand and machine sewing. I would say that unless you have the exact model Recaro seats that Lseat.com has the pattern for, don’t do it if it is your first rodeo.

[mfg]

Nice photos!....as an aside, in the second to last photo......although headrests are a safety feature, I do like the look of your front seats without them!

[studegary]

50 minutes ago, mfg said:

Nice photos!....as an aside, in the second to last photo......although headrests are a safety feature, I do like the look of your front seats without them!

But will not pass inspection in some/many states.  Having been in several rear end collisions, I would want them.

[WayneC]

The photos I posted above are for a 1980 Avanti that belonged to me. That car was sold in early 2019 and the new owner ordered seat covers from Lseat; he sent the old covers to them to use as a pattern. It took them some months (I believe the covers are made in China) and he called Lseat numerous times, but he finally got them and said he was happy with them.