No, it's a leather alternative. It's not the cost I'm debating, it's a few things. Value of the car, wear, comfort, smell, oh, and maybe alittle cost? But I don't want to take short cuts that will be less appealing if that makes any since.
Ultra leather is synthetic. I think it's really nice. The advantage of ultra leather is that it can be stretched in 2 directions, where as real leather can only really be stretched in 1 direction.
Maybe one of the experts like Tracy from Recovery Room will chime in.
Ultra leather the seat inserts and lower seat surrounds - and leave everything else real leather. That eliminates the leather wrinkles in the stretch zones - while the rest of the leather gives the look/smell your after. That's what Tracy recommend to me at Columbus - and I'm sure he'll set us straight when he jumps in.
THANKS TO: A&M Machine and Fabrication, CCTek (http://www.candctek.com), Hermance Design(www.hermancedesign.com), Paradise Road Rod & Custom, Harry Opfer Welding, Wegner Automotive Research, Clayton Machine Works
We use Ultra leather (vinyl) for our projects.
The "alternative" material:
-stretches easier.
-more flexible
-wears better
-cleans better
There are good and bad vinyls. Some wear and clean better than ones that stretch better etc. and some have better (more realistic leather like) grain.
The only thing missing is that awesome leather smell