I had good luck picking up a ‘68 XR7 Cougar this year. The interior, particularly the front seats are not up to snuff compared to the exterior and drivetrain. It was a lot of fun taking a detailed look at the interior today. Any input and advice would be very much appreciated! Everything is as purchased. Didn’t even clean anything until I figured out what I had.
Goal is to maintain and when realistic, increase the value. In my mind (insert your favorite joke here) that entails keeping/returning the interior to stock condition. Upgrades in material and craftmanship are okay. Not a survivor but a driver. I want to enjoy without feeling like I have to store it in a bubble. No plans to sell ever.
Question – What’s the best way to restore the front seats without outshining the remainder of the interior? Anyone have just the leather surface replaced by sewing new material at the seams? I intend to keep the pattern and grain consistent to the XR7.
I’ve reached out to SMS and received these color samples. Happy to learn that my doors and much of the interior hasn’t faded drastically.
A – Heavy textured vinyl that is a perfect match for color and grain of door/seat inserts.
B – Smooth vinyl for the remainder of the interior. Color is a little too dark.
C – Leather reference only for grain and feel. Can by made same color as “B” but “A” is perfect.
D – Mooncrater headliner.
E – Brown carpet reference. Color is way to light but the weave is spot on.
Also working with JCC and WCCC but color matching has me hesitant to by premade covers.
The foam and burlap are going to be rotten when you remove the seat covers. What I did is buy the reproduction upholstery kit from WCCC. I purchased the two grains of leather needed. The two hides, one smooth and one pebble grain, cost me only $250 for both. Mine were black, so much easier to color match. I had a local upholstery guy rip the stitches and insert the leather only where it was originally. It turned out awesome.
I doubt that you will have good results trying to do the same to 50 year old seat upholstery. Notice that the original saddle colors are all over the place. My other car has a saddle XR-7 interior, I had hides custom dyed in Italy and shipped over. Then I had the seat upholstery custom made to match the original pattern entirely in leather. It looks great but was very expensive. The hides alone were close to $2K. Here’s a picture of my saddle interior.
Thanks Royce. Was thinking that working with the older material and subbing in new leather would be risky. Especially with a color such as saddle. I saw your older post about these all leather seats and how they smell so good. Is that place you had them done at still in business? I recall they were out of Kentucky but I could not locate any online presence. My saddle pieces aren’t as off as the photos might suggest. It was helpful to have the reference color samples.
I thought that might be your reply. Part of my “Plan B” was under my Christmas tree yesterday. There’s some interior shops in my area and I will be hitting them up after the New Year.
