I plan to repair my seats (leather is weaker than in 2nd gen and it's crackling easily) but want to keep possibility to still drive.

My approach is to give for repair the passenger seat. Once it's done put it on driver side and repair driver seat. This will be termopary till the driver seat will be fixed.
The only issue I see are the ***** for seat settings - they can scratch armrest but I think they are easily removable.

Will the mounting of passenger seat will fit to the car floor on drivers side?

 

I have doubts that your planned seat swap will work. But you can try it out and let us know.
You can purchase replacement seat covers on eBay. They usually sell the bottoms and backs separately. There are both new aftermarket and used OEM. Both leather and vinyl (PU).
It may be a better alternative than what you have planned as a repair, unless you have already spoken to a car upholstery shop.
Also have you seen the Lexus Leather thread on the detailing forum? https://www.clublexus.com/forums/aut...s-leather.html

 

Why?

To be honest they look cheap (but are expensive) and would not match the color with 100%. Leather is changing the color over time.
I plan to give it to upholestry shop where they make perfect color match based on current colour tone. It will be done with spray method with fixing holes/crackles will be about 350$ for both seats (full) + armrest in my country.

I will probably do the test and unmount/switch the seats before visiting the upholestry shop to make sure I will still be able to drive.

 

That is not a bad price to refinish your seats. I have repainted mine with paint from https://www.leatherrenew.com/ and the paint matched perfectly. Other members have also used their paint with success. They hold up well if you also use their clearcoat on top of the color coat. I did not have any tears, just creases and cracks full of dirt.

Seat fit depends if they will physically bolt into the opposite side. I see the following challenges.

Will the bolt holes line up?
Will the seats actually fit into the other side? As you noticed the control panel on the side may prevent proper fit or prevent the bolt holes from lining up as may the overall seat design. You will be the first to try this out.
Will the under-seat wiring match up? Especially on the seat adjustment controls if the driver's side has more adjustments than the passenger. Same with the airbag sensor wiring but that may be only on the passenger seat and you would just have the light on while it is out.

 

I thought there is a built in side-airbag in the seat [first gen had it] and that makes them unique.

-- ignore the air-bag is in the back of the chair and not the seat.

Salim

 

How do you repair cracks? Unless you're only hiding them with paint etc? Aren't they still susseptible to tears? Or is the "repair" purely cosmetic?

 

The seat leather has a top coating of polyurethane. That is how almost all leather car seats are made. Most cracks are in the polyurethane layer. If you keep up maintenance and clean them often with a soft toothbrush and warm water or maybe a little soap, they are not as visible. I think it is rare that the leather itself tears. Most complaints are about how bad the cracks look which is due to them catching all the dirt and jeans rub off etc.

The folks at Leather Renew have kits to fill in the cracks prior to painting/refinishing the seats. You must really clean them first. I used Formula 409 and a toothbrush to scrub out the cracks. Then some sanding is needed, then you fill the cracks with their stuff if they are bad enough, maybe sand again, then apply a coat or 3 of paint before finishing with the clear topcoat. It worked on my car and on others
See this old thread where I and another member posted before and after photos of our seats. His photos are much better.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...-terrible.html

 

Wow. Those seats look pretty good after the treatment.