My seat cushion on my driver seat bottom was dyed. I hate dyed leather. It is cracking and I guess the leather is as well. I found a back seat from an 2005 XJ8 and it's the correct color. My upholstery guy is going to make the leather rushed to match my XJR 2007 seat cover and section in the leather from the 2005 XJ8. Is the leather the same on an XJR as the XJ8 expect for the ruching and piping? I mean type, texture, etc.? they are the exact same color just different years. Luckily the leather on the back seat is larger so they can ruch the leather and make it look original.

 

I hate to break it to you, but ALL leather used in automobiles is dyed. Or more accurately, none of it is dyed as one would think of dye anymore, but top coated with a paint-like flexible coating.

What you more likely have is a cheap or poorly done respray. If they didn't properly condition the leather, even the best leather dyes will eventually crack. The cheaper leather dyes don't have a nice hand, and it takes a little more work to make it like a factory finish.

Instead of going to all the work of reupholstering, you might seek out someone who is a good leather restorer who can strip the failing top coat, condition the leather, and put on a quality topcoat.

You can also DIY, it's not particularly difficult, and you might be surprised how good the results can be. I've had good success with Leather World Tech:

http://www.leatherworldtech.com/


EDIT - One of the secrets is to sand gently with 1000 or 1500 grit wet paper the final coat to get a nice hand to the leather.

 

Oh, I know how leather is dyed. I work in the industry. There are different types of leathers and different ways of dying leather. The most common is sprayed and layered with a top coating. Mercedes, on the better cars (with Designo interiors) are Semi-Aniline dyed, now Lexus is doing the same on their better cars as well. Most are just done through the spray dye process and VAT dying is really the way to go for holding color, so they will absorb leather conditioners. When I said I do not like dyed leather, I meant, someone went in a sprayed it with VINYL dye, not SEM elastomer dye (which is a water based dye with a special flex agent) which can be applied with a sponge or spray. Mine is HARD because of the incorrect dye applied. I have bought a back seat and am replacing the front section and will have an exact match and color uniformity. Thank you for breaking the news to me though. FYI, spray dyed leather is actually sealed and leather conditioners are impervious to them. Selling leather conditioners are a marketing tool to sell products. For most cars conditioners are nothing more than Voodoo magic. Very few car manufactures use full Aniline or VAT dyed leathers, which actually do absorb conditioners. Thank you for the learning lesson.

 

No worries Collector1, I won't make the mistake of trying to help you again.

BTW, it's a shame you didn't demonstrate your great knowledge in the wording of your original post, which would have saved us both a bit of time.

Cheers