Leather front seats or Vinyl?

[no_go nico]

I have a stock folding vinyl back seat in my 69 camaro. I'm looking at purchasing the Recaro Expert series for the front. Does the vinyl material look cheap? I want matching material but I'd hate to spend $3k for a pair of front seats for them to look cheap. Leather material is an extra $1k, is it worth it? If I go leather, it wont match the vinyl back seats.

Any tips greatly appreciated.

[minendrews68]

Depends on what suits you. If your going for a matching interior, the answer is obvious. Leather is nice, but depends on your budget. I'm thinking for the time being I'd probably go vinyl until you can get the rear seats done in leather. I think the matching would out do the miss matched. JMO

[Rod]

depends on what you do with the car, put what you like in it but if you track or autocross you want cloth or suede, helps hold your ass in place and you dont sweat to death in the staging lines

[no_go nico]

I dont plan on changing the back seat so I am going to go with Vinyl Recaro's, appreciate the input

[anguilla1980]

Good choice man. Leather requires too much maintenance over the years and wears faster than vinyl. I went vinyl for the outside of my Recaros (to minimize bolster wear) and Alcantara for the center inserts (for grip and not being as sweaty).

[no_go nico]

Was the Alcantara an option from Recaro or did you have it custom made?



Good choice man. Leather requires too much maintenance over the years and wears faster than vinyl. I went vinyl for the outside of my Recaros (to minimize bolster wear) and Alcantara for the center inserts (for grip and not being as sweaty).

[anguilla1980]

Mine are custom because I wanted some special touches for my build, but they do offer that combo stock. Recaro uses a fabric called Dinamica: https://www.ebay.com/itm/223893952953

Fesler should be able to order them for you, give Tyler there a call about it. I'm getting my sliders and brackets from Fesler for my Recaros.

[no_go nico]

Yes Dinamica it almost looks like a camouflage design, faint but not a uniform black.

[anguilla1980]

On some, yes, but not all. The ones I linked are plain black, did you even click it? Anyway, up to you.

[no_go nico]

Of course I clicked it. I was speaking with the Expert series in mind

[OldTimer]

I'm no expert, but there's probably 20 different kinds of vinyl and Alcantara is just one variance. Mercedes MB-Tex is a vinyl as well though they marketed it as something special. Some guys (and car companies) have used leather in the seating areas, so in some of our seat designs that would be the "pleated" or tuck and roll sections. Then the Bolsters might be vinyl. Another option is to use perforated leather or vinyl in the seating areas, and then there's always a variant of "Comfort-Weave" in those areas as well.

I'm going to recover the Pontiac Trans AM seats I picked up. Will probably go with a good quality vinyl, and perforated seated sections. I had Alcantara buckets in my SVT Lightning and yes they definitely hold you in place. Ford did the opposite though... the entire seat was Alcantara save for a couple of small panels in the butt/back area which were perforated vinyl. Mine was a low-mileage one, but I've seen lots of lightnings with bolster wear. I would not use that material on bolsters, just the butt/back areas.

Lethal Interiors has a really comprehensive selection of materials for seat recovering. Here's a link: Lethal Interiors Color Charts (https://lethalinteriors.com/colorcharts.html)

[Tsaints1115]

There are vinyls out there that are so close to leather they can fool the layman and are much more durable.