<VV> recoloring faded seats? advice needed

[Nick Elzinga]

JR reckons a professional re-dye job would cost over $250 but under $500 and
will only last 2-3 years when being used as a daily driver. A complete new
set of upholstery for a 63 coupe from Clarks is $453 plus shipping plus
fitting.

I can fully understand wanting to save money in the current economic climate
and not having to fix things that aren't actually broken, but at the end of
the day there is nothing that touches a new part.  Let's face it you were
never going to be happy with the discolored seats that were in there and
you've already wasted $75 on the first attempt at dyeing them and you are
still not happy, so now you may spend $300 having them re-done
professionally and then still find they aren't that great.

It's entirely up to you, but personally I wouldn't even consider trying to
fix up 47 year old vinyl.  You could of course just buy a new set of front
covers and then do the back later, but it will cost more, you will pay
shipping twice over and there may be a color variation between batches of
vinyl.

An unfortunate fact is that restoring cars is not cheap and it is often hard
to justify spending the kind of money one has to in order to make it like
new.  All I can say is you need to be financially brave.  There is no easy
solution.  Short cuts nine times out of ten end up costing more.

Nick Elzinga