The one thing that I have no clue even going about how to fix - outside of throwing a bunch of money at it and hoping it will go away and fix itself...


1989 XJS V12 - leather seat piping, bad

1989 XJS V12 - leather seat piping, bad

 

One of mine went like that, and $$ was tight, I had 8 Jags at the time.

Via someone, who knew someone, etc etc, I found a guy that did Marine Upholstery, and he refurbed both seats $400. Worked from home, and a craftsman, and 25 years on, still looks as he did it.

 

While you are waiting to get it fixed, cut away the piping, and trim the piping covering, then dab paint or dye on the area, just to clean it up for now.

Rob

 

What I did to solve my problem when the piping burst on my 1996 XJS seat bottom:

I went to a Jag dealership and asked them who does their leather upholstery repairs. They referred me to a small shop in some random industrial business park that I never would have found on my own. A guy looked at this problem, and charged me less than $200 to fix it. He wanted the seat, or in this case the car, for a week to fit it in. I dropped it off when I left for my next vacation.

Valuable lesson learned:

I should have had him do BOTH sides of that seat, as the other side, which looked great at the time, went a few years later. He's got to cut open the leather anyways, doing the other side of that set wouldn't have cost that much more.

Your other option is to simply buy new leather seat covers.