I agree that it should be possible to bring the leather back to some sort of acceptable condition. Unfortunately, apparently the thread the seats were sewn with is also deteriorating, and such remedies will do nothing for that. It’d be a waste to spend a lot of time carefully rehydrating the leather only to have it come apart at the seams when you sit on it.
Yeah, that’s what’s happening. There are a couple of areas where if you press on the stitching you can hear it popping. I really concentrated on these areas with the hide food and the leather has softened marginally, but obviously had no good effect on the thread. According to upholsterer, the thread reacts with the foam backing, causing it to weaken, apparently can\ did happen early in some car’s life. ( Early being 20 years or so, relative term when you get old!) Mostly on rear seat base now, but was also doing it on front seat bases; they’ve been recovered. Maybe carry no rear seat passengers, pretend it’s an E Type!
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Kevin,
to be honest, I threw on what felt like a ton of bee wax, but with very little effect. I was recommended non-animal derived products as sold by most professionals. Leatherique is very present in this forum; I’ve been using ColourLock products with very good results so far. Even if you don’t understand the language the pictures speak for themselves (https://www.lederzentrum.de/tip/auto/kfzsoftener.htmll). Maybe I should try to get a deal on their softener. NAYY.
Things we like to have are always more expensive than we expect. That’s our nature. Don’t worry, pay and be happy!
Good luck with the leather
Jochen
75 XJ6L 4.2 auto (UK spec)
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Hi Robert. Is your Series Two a Nelson assembled car. If so I would love to talk to you as I keep a Register of the Series Ones and Two’s assembled here. Contrary to some remarks Nelson quality was just as good if not better than the UK assembled ones. Refer to my book Tracking the Cats
I know I’ve arrive late to this discussion but I bought some great replacement OEM seat covers from Johns Jags in the USA… a few years ago now…
Hi Brian, no mine was produced in England (see photo attached). I was actually hoping that it would have been a New Zealand assembled car prior to purchase but it was not to be. It must have been a huge undertaking setting up to assemble a car of this complexity in relatively small numbers so far from the UK expertise.
Thanks Robert. I published a book last year on the assembly of the Series One and Two XJ6’s in Nelson. The research for the book took me to many places and was very interesting. At the time of publishing I had tracked down around 200 of the cars. Since publication another 35 Jags and 2 Daimlers have surfaced. Sold nearly 200 copies of the book which has been far beyond my expectations. Regards Brian
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