Loose seat leather on Vantage/DB9

I posted this on a couple of other forums, but thought I'd see if anyone here has run into this. I have been on-again/off-again in the market for a Gaydon era Aston (probably a V8V) for a few years now, and have started looking closer here lately. I am noticing seat leather on a lot of the 06-08 cars in particular that seems to have become stretched and loose, and thus wrinkled. It's especially noticeable on the seat back bolsters. It almost looks like the seat covers are a size too big for the underlying foam. See attached pics for a typical example. The leather does not appeared worn or damaged, just loose and the seat cover ill-fitting.

Has anyone else experienced this, and more importantly is there an easy fix? Can the existing leather be pulled in around the cushions and tightened up by an upholstery place? Or would I be looking at a full re-trim?
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What mileage are you finding that on?

Mine doesn't have any of that. For comparison, mine is an 07 under 40k miles, always been garaged.

FWIW, I tend to obsess over my driving comfort. I'm happy but still working the seat adjustments to find my ideal settings. I find the foam on the rigid side, so your pictures look like something I'd like to try, as if they've been broken in more than mine, and thus more …embracing?
Cheers,
- Art
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The ones I've seen don't seem to correlate much with mileage. Have seen it on both higher and lower mileage examples. The car pictured above is a 2007 with 30K miles on it. I posted a similar thread at 6speedonline, and one of the owners there referred to it as the "fat bugger syndrome", where a larger owner has compressed the seat foams to the point that they no longer expand back to their original size, thus the covers become loose. I suppose this could make sense, that the problem is actually in the foam and not the leather.

 

I saw your post on 6speed... I've seen that saggy leather as well. Not sure why it does it. There are plenty of cars for sale, I did not even consider any that had that issue. My V8 Vantage is an '07 with 12k miles and the seats are not saggy at all. I've also seen lots of cars where the armrest leather is all stretched out.
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Normally I'd just skip a car that looked like that as well. There was one I found that looked like a good deal was almost exactly the color and options I've been looking for. Just wondering how big a deal it would be to fix.

BTW that is a gorgeous leather color on your car. What is the name of it?

 

You can eliminate a vast majority of wrinkles by rehydrating the leather. Take multiple terry cloth towels, get them wet (not drenched) and microwave them. They will obviously be steaming hot when you take them out, so be careful. Apply the hot, wet towels to the leather area that is wrinkled and allow to sit until they cool or let set in the sun with windows up. This will rehydrate the leather and caused it to "fatten". I have had to do this a couple of times on my Esprit and it worked great, especially the center tunnel leather where my right arm rests.

 

Thank you, the color of my leather is called Red Fox. In person it looks incredible, especially with the Caspian Blue carpets and stitching and beige alcantara headliner. Many people actually gasp when they first see the interior, I've never had that happen before!

Judging by the pricing I've seen for replacement materials, I'm guessing that fixing sagging leather would be very costly. My experience so far is that an Aston Martin is as expensive as a Ferrari to keep up. Actually, more like twice as expensive as my 328.

But damn... I love my Vantage!

 

This is true to an extent - I spent a day rehydrating the leather in my Vantage and while it looked perfectly fine before, after treating it with Leather Masters Leather Vital it looked absolutely stunning. Extremely smooth with a perfect sheen. Looks like a million bucks.

But I don't think it will make much difference when the leather is sagging like elephant skin.

 

That is true if the leather is sagging to an extreme extent but the above with Leatherique makes a world of difference.

 

The weight issue did come to mind when I wrote my response, but I didnt feel like "going there"…

The odd thing is, in your example, the passenger side is as bad as the driver's side. Can only speculate whether a passenger was in the car with equal frequency and weight as that of the driver. ?? LOL.

- Art

 

per the carfax it's been in Florida and Houston for the last 9 years, I'm wondering if persistent heat/humidity degraded the foam abnormally.

it doesn't seem to be excessive sunlight exposure so maybe just a non-climate controlled garage for too long.

it's also possible for solvents, gas fumes, etc to degrade foam.

 

AM uses top end aniline leather which requires regular conditioning care. Otherwise it starts drying out and shrinks. This distorts the overall shape as it doesn't shrink uniformly. The leather dash pieces tend to show shrinkage before the seats. And don't forget to condition and oil the interior wood trim pieces so they don't dry out, fade, and crack. The materials are great quality but more delicate and in need of maintenance care than what most people are aware of.

 

Wrong about the leather type. The DBS uses semi-aniline while the lesser models use regular leather. None use aniline.

 

If you have leather shrinkage around the windshield base it could also be a water leak.

 

I'm in the process of acquiring a 2007 DB9 6spd Manual (14,000 miles) from a buddy. Seat leather is as tight as new on the seats, dash, etc... I've looked at quite a few and have found that other than 'expected' bolster wear, none to have loose leather.
On an unrelated note, I've ordered the "Gaydon Era" book and am anxiously awaiting its arrival!

Jim

 

+1
You are correct. I'm way off base.
I had an extra dash piece and checked that the leather does have a top coat finish on it.