Replacing Cloth Seats With Leather On 2006 Sport

[ron.dittmer]

Hi All,

I haven't posted here in a very long time, but I just had to share this with you all.

After 35 years of marriage, at age 54 my wife has finally experienced "love for a vehicle" for the first time with her 2006 Liberty Sport 4x4. She loves the rugged "Jeep" look with the raw gray plastic fenders. It is equipped with everything she wanted and more, except that is has a cloth interior. Over the years she always mentioned how nice it would have been if her Sport had a leather interior. So...

This past Christmas I bought her a leather seat skin kit for her Sport. It has "Jeep" embroidery on the front seat backs, and map pockets for the backs of the front seats. The leather kit I purchased is the same that was used for dealer-installed options back in 2006.

I am deep into the installation right now and have to say the project is not for the faint-of-heart. It is testing my patience, but it is not rocket science either. No sewing or special tools are required. Fortunately there is not hurry or I'd be loosing my mind.

The old cloth seat skins are almost like new so I hope to recover some of the expense by taking advantage of Ebay soon. I'll have to post some pictures of the final result. At the moment I have the rear 60/40 bench seat complete and in-process of tackling the front bucket seats. The fronts are less challenging....yes!

Ron Dittmer
2006 Jeep Libert Sport
Silver exterior with medium gray interior (was cloth, soon to be leather)

 

[4x4kayak2112]

Let me know about the cloth ones, mine in our playaround kj needs new cloth, and post pics of your progress

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[ron.dittmer]

Oops

 

[NJallDAY]

Looks good man. Nice work

 

[flair1111]

awesome!!

 

[4x4kingx889]

if you dont mind me asking how much were they? they look really good!

 

[wheeee32]

Those came out nicely. $???

 

[Porkchop]

if you dont mind me asking how much were they? they look really good!

And wear did you get them

 

[04Liberty]

Looks good.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Looks really nice!

 

[martin_metal_88]

Really nice job! look very clean!

 

[05-jeep-libby]

Wow, awesome work? So how do you install if no sewing is required?

 

[badkittystt]

Nice job! I want to know the answer to all of these questions too!


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[NJallDAY]

Wow, awesome work? So how do you install if no sewing is required?

Nice job! I want to know the answer to all of these questions too!


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Im pretty sure its not to hard to do, just need some patience. You remove the seat from the vehicle and remove the plastic on the side of the seat base. The seat material has a plastic clip thing (sorry for getting all technical lol) at the ends of both the seat base and back. So after you remove the old material you just slide the new ones on and make sure it positioned right and nice and snug then you just pull the clips over the seat frame and it snaps on to keep everything tight. I could be wrong but thats how i imagine it to be done

 

[badkittystt]

Alright smarty pants, where do we acquire these magical seat covers then? And can I coat them in some waterproofing thing first to keep the saltwater out?


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[NJallDAY]

Alright smarty pants, where do we acquire these magical seat covers then? And can I coat them in some waterproofing thing first to keep the saltwater out?


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Haha 99% of knowledge is usless at best. I dont know how much or where to get them. But i do know my buddy got a pair of seat covers made of neoprene that are water proof. He just needs to take them off and hose em down when get back from surfing to get the white salt residue off.

 

[ron.dittmer]

Sorry for the lengthy delay on the results. I forgot about this post.

Here is the finished product. The front seats have map pockets on their backside.

$680 for the kit from Signature Seat Comfort out of California which included the map pockets, "Jeep" embroidery, and shipping. You can contact them at [email protected]
I worked with David.

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I sold my old cloth skins on ebay for $200. So in the end they really cost me $480 plus my time which took about a week in the evenings and one weekend.

I added 3/4" batting material inside the front base seat cushions to firm them up better.

The trick about every cutout is to assemble the seat first, then cut the leather to the need of the cutout. Then mount the trim plates over that.

The rear head rests were tricky. Strangely a long handle shoehorn worked best on them.

The rear 60/40 bench seat was so much harder than the front bucket seats. I don't have a picture of the backside of the rear seats. Like the original cloth, they have carpet there which admittedly don't have that glove fit. But it is the backside after-all. I contemplated adding batting material there as well to puff them up, but then decided against it.

The original cloth wire reinforced tufting (the indented linework) was originally attached with hog rings, but I used wire ties during assembly of the leather work which worked out so much better.

My wife says the new leather completely changed her driving experience. She is extremely happy with her like-new Jeep Liberty. It also helped that I cleaned the rest of the interior when the seats were out.

Again my appologies for not responding sooner on the results, the experience, who I bought them from, and price.