After 135,000 miles and 8 years, the driver seat, door handle and console on my 2007 Jaguar XK had gotten discolored and ugly. See the attached before photos. The leather on the seat had worn so much that I patched it to keep any further wear from happening. The patch was not attached well and not the same color as the seat. I gave the car to Fibrenew in Lexington, KY. yesterday. In a job that took one day they made it look like new. I decided it was better to leave the patch in place because I continue to wear on that spot every time I get in and out of the car. So, they made the patch the right color and otherwise made it blend as good as a patch might. See the reworked pictures. I'm posting this because I was very surprised at how much could be done with the worn leather in such a short time and think others might be interested.

 

The images are too tiny to really see them.

 

+1

 

I've used Fibrenew as well on my seats and steering wheel. Excellent work. Unfortunately, doesn't last forever as continued wear and tear may require reapplicatio.

 

click on the images to enlarge them.

 

Do you think you could've prevented the wear to start with? I wasn't too impressed with the leather on my '07 and it seemed like different parts have different quality levels of leather.

 

Looks like they did a great job. I am still trying to figure out how my car with over 100,000 miles still looks like nobody ever sat in it. And this is a Florida car to boot!

 

Maybe it's from only wearing baby blue FUBU sweat outfits versus jeans?

 

When I had to dress professional for work, the leather stayed a lot cleaner than when I could wear jeans to work... More "designer" the jeans, the more dye that comes out of them onto the seat.

 

I scraped up the driver's seat in my 2012 vert when I used to wear my mobile phone in a belt holster. Needless to say I no longer put the phone in a belt holster.

 

Most of the damage to leather seat surfaces ( on any car) occurs on the driver's seat bolster; the reason is obvious: the driver gets in and out by sliding into the seat, abraiding the bolster as he does so. First the colour coat of the leather wears off and then the leather itself becomes damaged.
A simple bit of care getting in and out, and yes, not wearing phones or other items on your belt) can avoid all this unnecessary damage. The seats should and can look like new for years and years with that bit of care and regular leather conditioning. But if the colour coat has been damaged, the leather can very easily be recoloured using a product like Leatherique or Surflex colourant. (and there are brands too). Once the leather itself is damaged, a repair is more involved, more expensive, and rarely results in a perfect "OEM" finish.

 

I think I could have altered the way I get in and out of the car so that the left bolster wear would not have occurred. But, I believe machines should be adapted to humans; not the other way around.


The center console closing process is a design defect. In order to close it, I put the palm of my hand in the center and push. That's precisely where the wear occurred.


I think the wear at the front of the seat is normal. I've got 137,000 miles on the car and 8 years of driving. I think any leather seating with that use would have had the minimal wear I had on the front of the seat.

 

Looks fabulous