How to: Katzkin Full Leather 2016+ DC

I purchased my 2017 TRD Off-road with Tech back in September after looking at all the different packages and trims I decided the factory leather wasn’t for me as it was extremely stiff and I didn’t like the stamped square pattern. Compared to the softex in the 2016 Trail premium 4Runner I came from it wasn’t up to my standards so I knew aftermarket was where I was going to have to look.


After researching leather interior kits, Katzkins kit seemed to be the clear winner. I really liked the customization options and the fact that is directly replaces the factory cloth without adding bulk to the seats like seat covers do and fit tight like factory interior…but better.


I found the Katzkin leather thread from @jhuey8947 through affordableautholeather.com and ordered up the leather just the way I wanted at a great deal. Being as my husband and I like to DIY as much as we can and didn’t want to pay someone to do the install we did it ourselves over a weekend.


Here's how you can do it too!


TOOLS REQUIRED:

Hog rings and hog ring pliers (ordered with kit)

STRONG needle nose pliers

Small and medium sized flat and Philips head screw drivers

3/8 or ½” Drive ratchet with 10,12,14 mm sockets

Scissors

Sharp knife or razor

Staples

Handheld work light or flashlight

Soft work surface ( I used a moving blanket)

STRONG HANDS and TWO PEOPLE recommended





You can start with whatever seats you want. The back seats are the easiest. I would however recommend not doing the driver seat first incase you need to get tools, run errands, or the job takes longer than anticipated and you don’t finish. Also note in removed all head rests prior to taking out the seats.


I started with the rear seat bottoms.


Step 1:

Flip the seat bottoms forward, remove each seat bottom via the two bolts with your 12mm socket and ratchet attaching the hinge to the seat bottom. Leaving the hinge behind attached to the floor.


Step 2:

To begin the removal of the factory cover, put the seat top down on your work surface and begin prying the channel free from the edge of the seat pan until the whole perimeter is free.

Continue to flip the cover inside out once the edges are free. Don’t pull the cover off as it is attached with hog rings to internal metal rods in the foam. You will need to expose the ends of the hog rings and use your needle nose pliers to twist them apart in order to release the covers. (Remove all left over hog noses from the foam.)




Step 3:

Start to install the new cover by turning it inside out and matching the cover to the seat foam. (note the new leather does not have pockets for the metal rods like the factory one. It has a plastic spine with about a ½” of felt. In these locations you poke the hog ring through the felt near the spine and then hook the other side of the ring to the metal bar embedded into the seat foam.) Use new hog rings and your pliers to attach the hog rings around the plastic spine and into the metal rod in the seat cushion. Tighten with the hog nose pliers.




Step 4:

After All hog rings are attached you can adjust the new covers around the seat. You will need to put the metal pan back in place and then begin pressing the channel on the new seat cover around the pan similar to how the factory cloth was attached.




Repeat for second seat bottom.


We then moved onto the passenger front seat.


Step 1:

Begin removing the seat from the floor via the 4 bolts with your 14mm socket. You may want to move the seat forward or back to make the bolts easier to access. The rear bolts have plastic covers. These unclip from the side. Once unbolted tip the seat back and unclip the plugs on the wiring harness between the floor and seat. My truck had 3; heated seat elements, side airbags, and seat belt sensor.


Step 2:

Once the seat is out you will need to start disassembling it. You first need to remove the plastic covers on both sides where your seat reclines and your seat buckle sits. These can be fragile. There are 2 screws and a few clips per side. Be mindful of the small part of the cover near the inside of the hinge at the seat cushion. I broke one of these until I learned to be more gentle with them.









Both of the front seats have a lot of hog rings on them so fully removing the factory covers is going to take some time. Unclip and unzip as necessary.


You will need to unscrew the metal bar on the back of the top portion of the seat which holds some straps for your side airbags. Hold onto this as we will be reusing the bar. (You may need to cut the 3 sewn on loop straps off of the bar.)







I also cut one slit into the black felt on the back of the factory cover from the wire pass through hole to the edge in order to free my heated seat element.


Step 3:

If you have the seat heating elements you need to cut them loose from the factory covers (mine were attached with plastic similar to clothing tags.) You may also need to remove some of the long metal rods from the factory cloth in order to remove the pads in 1 piece. Make sure you position the heat pads in the same position as they were. On the back seat I reattached the heat pads by stapling the tabs to extra material on the seams of the leather. This is safe and will not puncture through your leather if done right. I opted to secure every other tab as it seemed sufficient.







For the bottom cushion there is no where to attach the pads back to. Instead when you are securing the black spines with the hog rings these will naturally secure the pads in place once they are tightened down.


Step 4:

Start attaching the new covers, remember to reference step 3 above for the heat pads. As you attach the back (top) portion of the seat be sure you are fishing through the airbag straps as you go. The upper hog rings are extremely challenging to get to, you may not be able to get the hog ring pliers in these spots so having strong needle nose pliers will come in handy.

When you are done with the upper seat leather be sure to reattach the bar for the airbag straps on the back of the seat. Reattach any wiring clips you disconnected for the heating elements and airbags.




Step 5:

You will need to cut holes to allow the head rest bezels to pass through the leather. These do not come precut. Carefully feel where the bezels are finding the indent in the center then use your knife to poke a hole into the center of the bezel. Using your factory seat fabric as a guide for size cut holes slightly smaller than the perimeter size of the bezel then pull the leather over the bezel and tuck it around over the edges. DO NOT CUT TOO LARGE!







Step 6: When all leather is on you will need to reattach the side plastics that you took off in order to remove the covers. Remember to be careful with these as they are fragile and the extra thickness of the leather makes them a little more challenging to position correctly.

* For the lumbar support you will need to cut a hole for the knob*
















REPEAT FOR DRIVER FRONT SEAT


Last for the seats was the upper rear seats. These proved to be the easiest and were a breath of fresh air as we neared the end of the install.


Step 1:

To remove the upper rear seats flip the seat backs down. At the bottom of the plastic seat back cover there are small plastic caps covering the two bolts securing it to the hinge. Pull up on these covers to remove them. Then remove the seat back from the hinge via the 2 bolts with your 12mm socket. The passenger side seat back is the same with the addition of also unbolting the middle seat buckle from the floor. This is attached via 1 bolt with a 14mm socket.


Step 2:

Once out of the truck with the seat backs face down there are a few recessed screws keeping the plastic on. 2 on the small seat back and 3 on the large seat back. Use your Philips screw driver to remove these. With the screws loosened the rear cover slides downward releasing hooks on the rest of the cover. Set the plastic cover aside.




Step 3:

Un hook the straps that were exposed by removing the plastic seat back cover. Then begin to turn the cover inside out around the seat foam. The vertical grooves in the seat foam have Velcro and then there are two hog rings on the cross bar to undo.

Work the seat back fabric over the head rest bezels. You are left with the seat cover being held only the seat back fold down pull tab. It has a molded plastic ball on it to prevent it from falling into the seat. Just push it through the slit to fully free the cover.


Step 4:

To now install the leather, start by fishing that pull tab through the slit in the leather cover. Pull it snug over the top of the seat foam. Then secure the hog rings to the spine. Secure it via the Velcro in the grooves then pull the edges over the foam and begin securing the cover via the straps. The first two straps secure the leather through the pass through in the foam at the child seat restraint loops. Then hook the remaining straps that have the plastic channels to the bars within the seat. Lastly hook the additional straps that have the plastic spines on each side via 3 hog rings per strap. Now reinstall the plastic seat back cover making sure all the clips have hooked. Then screw it tight.


For the large seat back the process is the same with the addition of the middle seat belt. With the cover nearly removed you will need to pop the clips to remove the trim ring from the factory cloth then fish the belt completely through the cover. When installing your new cover the first step will be to fish the belt through the hole from the inside. Also fish through and clip the trim ring to the sewn in plastic reinforcement ring in the new leather cover.


Step 5:

Make your slits for the head rests.


Headrests: I found the best way to do the head rests was to flip the covers inside out and work them down the head rest. Be very mindful of not pulling too hard at the bottom stitched clips as you can tear the seems.

 

Reserved

 

Will you be doing the back as well?

 

Yes I did the front and back. I just don't have photos of it all since it was dark when I finished.

 

Reserved?
Nice work!

 

Nice write up. I would add that the front seat buckets, though they look identical, ARE side specific. I discovered the hard way that a seam toward the inside of the truck is about 1/2" longer than the one toward the outside of the truck.

 

Awesome Awesome write up. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together.
Best Regards

John@affordableautoleather.com

 

“Saves” the second post, to add helpful things in the future.

 

Thanks for the writeup

 

Thanks! I found having the Katzkin logo next to the center console/buckle was the perfect fit.

 

@Project Recon I'll probably never do this myself, but props on the write-up. This is the kind of content people need but we don't get enough of!

Well done!

OA

 

Thanks so much!

 

Awesome! I'm shopping for leather seat covers and am leaning to the katzkins. I pumped that I can do the install myself.

Question...did the kit come with the door inserts? How about the part of the dash right above the glovebox?

 

Door panel inserts are not included on the 2016+ models. The 2015 and prior models primarily had cloth on the DPs so this got replaced.

 

Nice work!

 

Very nice write-up and they look great. Question: How do these integrate with your stock seat heaters and/or the seat heater controls on the dash?

 

They work great with the stock seat heaters. You can see in the original post how I attached them. You don't mess with the wiring aside from disconnecting it to remove the seats.

 

Looks great, im going to have to order some now

 

This is perfect! My kit gets delivered today, thanks for the write up.

 

@Project Recon. Thanks for this writeup. I used it to install mine. Your writeup made the install go much smoother than it would have without it. I did do a few things differently.

1. I used this leather cutter set to cut perfectly round holes for the headrests, and wires.

39 Shape Style One Hole Hollow Punch Cutter Tool Leather Craft Set DIY For Handmade

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G84OSUE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


2. I used a leather punch to cut holes for the hog ties in the anchor felt. I think this made it easier than trying to punch through the felt, esp in the tight areas where there is little room for the pliers.

$14 General Tools Leather Hole Punch Tool - 6 Multi-Hole Sizes for Leather, Rubber, & Plastic - Hobbies & Crafts 8.5"es

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004T7WS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3. The plastic anchors of the air bag straps came with holes in them. I assumed the holes were intended to be used for securing with hog ties and that is what I did do initially. I then decided that would be a bad idea because they could become flying shrapnel if they come loose if the airbag ever deploys. So I used zip ties to secure each pair of the anchors.


4. I used a nylon pry tool to slightly widen (open up) the channels of the seat bottoms to make it easier to slip them onto the bottom edge of the seat pans. The bottoms of the front seats where the most difficult in this regard. Doing this helped.