My used 996 came with a few scratches, scuffsand even one or two gouges to the black leather interior. Could anyone recommend a product and or process to buff these out? Thanks in advance, JC

 

If they are gouges, you probably will have to have that leather section of the seat replaced.

 

You have several options. If you want to spot repair what most specialist would do is fill the gouge with a soft foam to fill it. Then they would patch it with some type of plasticizer and then color match. This is also how it's done with couches. I personally don't recommend this because over time it may crack again depending on the craftsmanship of the leather specialist. Some non experienced people would even use spray paint and over a few days or weeks; it would crack or chip off from any pressure that would stretch it. I would recommend re-leathering the seats. There are several great vendors. The ones I've used is Northwest Leather located somewhere in Canada and it's better then most of the other ones I've seen. The difference in quality of the leather can range from thickness to grain level. I know the German automakers are very picky about only using the best grade leather so I would recommend only using the best. The good thing about going releathering is that you can custom pick your colors, perforations, plushness of the leather.

 

Thanks, you are right, i certainly don't want to make cheap repairs that actually do more harm than good. Frankly i am the only one who notices these blemishes, and what I am really interested in is a way to buff out the couple of scuffs and surface wearing present under the door handle and on one or two parts of the seat bolsters.

Themore seriousdamage i describe is not to the seating surfaces, but rather to the side and back of the passenger seat. It looks like the previous owner tried transporting something a bit too large with sharp corners in the back seat, and had a hard time wedging it in or out. (Now i know why he traded this in for the turbo cabrio!)

I had thought anywayabout replacing both front seats with the optional sports seats, and that nearly all of the damage i described is to the back of thefront passenger seat makes me even more interested in doing that. Two practical problems make me hesitate:

1. No idea about the availability and cost of original porsche sports seats for the 996 turbo, or whether i would actually be destroying the value of the car by changing the seats that came with the car from the factory, even if the new seats are also from porsche.

2. my wife's car (not a p) was hit on the front passenger side in a 90 degree collision. since the accident and subsequent repairs, the drivers seatshifts slightlyon its tracks when cornering. The dealer tried to fix the problem, even removed the seat, and the seats still shifts when cornering. Although this situation is completely different from switching seats in an accident-free car, i wouldn't want to risk having another shifty seat (I find it truly annoying to havean unstableseat that moves slightly underneath mewhen driving).

Sorry for the rather tedious post. JC