Leather or Vinyl for Captains Chairs
We are updating our 9 year old unit. Have looked at and sat in dozens of seats. The ones we found and like the best are vinyl. Is there a huge difference in feel over time? These are amish made from a...
Forum Discussion
ScottG wrote:rgatijnet1 wrote:ScottG wrote:
People are going to hate this but vinyl will out last leather 10 to 1.
Check out any old cars from the 60's or 70's. The leather ones are shot where the vinyl often still looks new.
Anything will outlast leather and stay looking good longer without splits or cracking.
A final note, only the wear surface is generally real leather anyway (the part that cracks first) the rest is vinyl.
JMO.
As someone who has restored quite a few Classic cars of the 50's and 60's, I have to disagree. Properly maintained, leather will far outlast vinyl.
If the RV owner, or any old car owner, totally ignores his seats, and just lets them age in the sun, then both will deteriorate. There are some fine Classic cars out there with the original leather still serviceable, that were built before vinyl was even used in production.
I wrote this post because I too am involved in classic car restoration (just completed a Thunderbird).
I have never seen original leather no matter how well it was kept that held up as well as vinyl clad models. Vinyl OTOH, almost is always good unless it has sat in the sun and even then, seats are often fine. I simple trip to a junk yard will give the OP firm evidence on the life span of leather interiors.
Cars that end up in the junk yard are perfect examples of vehicles that were not properly maintained.
