This is a continuation of the secretlab titan chair renewal. After swapping in the new Secretlab TITAN upholstery, I was left holding the old backrest and seat pans. The foam and shells were perfectly fine — only the leatherette had failed — and throwing them out felt wrong.
Then I remembered Manuel, an older friend of mine who has spent a lifetime as an auto upholsterer. If anyone could give those parts a second life, it was him. I’d end up with a customized chair made by someone I like, and one I’d sit in every single day.
the brief
I handed him the parts with only two requirements: dark colour, and I need to sit on it 12h+ a day. Everything else was his call — that’s the whole point of asking someone who knows what they’re doing.
He came back with chevron quilting and contrast stitching, in automotive-grade material. Proper car-seat construction, not gaming-chair construction.
the second chair idea
Once the reupholstered parts were back, another idea took shape. If I ordered the remaining pieces from Secretlab — base, casters, gas lift, armrests, side covers — the old shells would become a complete second chair for the office. Two chairs to compare side by side, and a full set of spares if anything ever fails on either one.
Secretlab’s spare parts store covers most of it, and their support team handles what isn’t listed publicly. Collecting everything took a few months of ordering in batches.
The pistons were the only two parts I didn’t get from Secretlab — those came from Amazon. Took the opportunity to replace the main piston on the first chair too, while I was at it. I ordered the wrong outside fitting design on that first one, so it needed a bit of persuading to sit properly in the original shell. Didn’t repeat that mistake on the second piston — check the fitting profile, not just the length and class.
lowering the armrests
While everything was apart, I also fixed a long-standing annoyance: the armrests hitting the desk. This Secretlab chair armrest spacer drops them another 25mm, low enough to clear the desk without fouling the adjustment controls. You need 3x M8x50mm bolts and washers per arm to fit them.
the result
Side by side, the custom one holds up. The chevron pattern is a breathable fabric, with leatherette kept to the sides and bolsters only. It doesn’t run substantially cooler, but it does breathe more, and it grips — you slide around far less than on an all-leatherette seat, so you end up sitting more stable overall. That turned out to matter more than I expected.
It costs more and takes more work than simply binning the old parts. But I ended up with two working chairs instead of one, a full set of replacement parts should I ever need them, and a chair customized by a friend. Definitely worth it.