Suede Bolster 1988 in Texoma TX (Dallas area)

[Guest BJM]

1988 Buick Reatta

1988 Buick Reatta First Year made. Original only 5000 built. All original good mechanic and

physical condition. 115,000 miles Red with tan interior. Needs A/C charge. Call John at

214-356-6683. $2999 or best offer.

Wow, those suede bolsters are in nice shape, low mileage car. Reatta geeks need to own this one.

[Guest steveskyhawk]

That suede could have been an upgrade or have easily been replaced. I just had a suede headliner made for my one of my convertibles. Most convertibles came with a black headliner unless it was special ordered with a color keyed headliner

[Guest Sidney22]

This is the car I went to see. It's in nice shape, but needs a/c work and brake work. If I had wanted to work on something, it was in nice shape.

[Guest BJM]

This is the car I went to see. It's in nice shape, but needs a/c work and brake work. If I had wanted to work on something, it was in nice shape.

Sidney

Sounds like you have taken to Reattas and will eventually get one. I would love to have an 88 Suede Bolster car as this is one of the iconic visual cues of the 88 Reatta, back when GM said "what the hell" and did these sort of odd ball things.

It would be good to get the VIN for this car, to see if it should be a true suede bolster car. Also, the paint looks excellent with good shine in the photos, is this he case? If so, this is an indication that this now 24 year old car was well taken care of or re-painted. This is a significant early car.

[Barney Eaton]

Suede seat bolsters were standard on all early 1988 Reattas. From information submitted by Reatta owners, Buick switched to all slick leather around 2/5 into the 1988 build. Tan was the first to change as that color had the highest usage. Buick had suede seats of all interior colors in stock to use and as they were installed and the supply deminished, the replacement, all slick leather seats were a running change.

Original owners have also told us that they had wear problems with the suede and Buick replaced the suede with non-suede seats (skins?)

This makes sense because you will find early 1988 cars with non-suede seats.

There is also documentation that shows some early 1988 cars were made with cloth seats. Again there is Reatta information that says the original plan was for cloth standard and leather optional, along with wire wheel hub cap and other accessories. By the time the car was introduced, that plan was scrapped and Reattas came loaded, leather seats, alloy wheels, ABS, etc. Apparantly any early car with cloth interior that was not scrapped, was changed to leather.

[Guest BJM]

Suede seat bolsters were standard on all early 1988 Reattas.

Barney

I recall a post from you a while back educating me on the suede bolster history and I believe you stated there was a point where Buick went to all slick leather after production started and the suede bolsters were found to be a high wear item.

I thought, and my memory may be fading, that meant that all suede bolster cars were "early production" Reattas and therefore if I (or we) found one in the marketplace it meant an early production car, which appeals to me as a collector.

Personally I have never seen a suede bolster car that was not tan. I have seen 3-4 and all were tan. I can imagine that a few suede bolster cars were changed out with slick leather seating. Customer complaint - woudl result in a new warranty seat cover. In fact, it was inevitable as suede needs "erasered" every now and then.

Anyway, I would think a suede bolster car that was found to be original would be of interest to Reatta collectors, as it is with me. It's the 1st thing I look for when I open an 88 Craigs List ad, I look at those seats. Maybe it's just me.

[Bushwack]

Barney

I recall a post from you a while back educating me on the suede bolster history and I believe you stated there was a point where Buick went to all slick leather after production started and the suede bolsters were found to be a high wear item.

I thought, and my memory may be fading, that meant that all suede bolster cars were "early production" Reattas and therefore if I (or we) found one in the marketplace it meant an early production car, which appeals to me as a collector.

Personally I have never seen a suede bolster car that was not tan. I have seen 3-4 and all were tan. I can imagine that a few suede bolster cars were changed out with slick leather seating. Customer complaint - woudl result in a new warranty seat cover. In fact, it was inevitable as suede needs "erasered" every now and then.

Anyway, I would think a suede bolster car that was found to be original would be of interest to Reatta collectors, as it is with me. It's the 1st thing I look for when I open an 88 Craigs List ad, I look at those seats. Maybe it's just me.

1988 silver/gray coupe with suede bolsters in Illinois (wish it was closer to home).

AutoTrader.com[bUICK[REATTA[]][]]&modelCode1=REATTA&sortBy=distanceASC&makeCode1=BUICK&startYear=1981&numRecords=100&searchRadius=0&bodyStyleCodes=COUPE&listingId=327010610&Log=0

[Barney Eaton]

As noted above, suede was used on the early production cars. The vin number tell the build sequence and we know that 4708 were made in 1988. Simple math will tell you how early (or late) any Reatta is within the year it was made.

The 1988 prototype convertible that is now at the San Diego Automobile Museum is vin 900039, a very early '88, but because Buick upgraded it during the time it was used as a show car, it now has slick leather seats, a 1990 style air bag steering wheel and insturment panel...it even has a '89-'91 large style hood emblem.

The database, located at www.reatta.net attempts to track 1988's with suede. Sometime the owner tells us and sometimes they don't.

You will notice that suede stopped appearing in tan around 901800..... hard to determine the exact last tan car built with suede. Also notice that the other color interiors show suede running into the 902000 numbers.

If you find early suede interior cars, report them to me and I will log it on the database. I just tried to view the Illinois car posted by Ervin but it has been removed. Ebay usually list the vin number but other sites are not as consistant, so trying to get the vin without calling the seller is not always easy.

[Guest HessLakeGuy]

To all:

Isn't there a Reatta suede maintenance kit? It came in a box, if I remember right.

Tom

[Guest BJM]

To all:

Isn't there a Reatta suede maintenance kit? It came in a box, if I remember right.

Tom

Tom

I worked for a shoe store for several years. We always used erasers, worked great.