Dye Leather Car Seats

[Shayne]

I'm getting there shouldn't take too much longer

 

[Red Oktober]

looks great that

 

[Chris Green90]

Liking the Door Cards Mate

 

[Shayne]

Why i decided to dye seats in the first place .

 

[Shayne]

Lots of leather binding and heavy filler

 

[Shayne]

I decided to fill the cracks a little shy of flush so the leather retains some of its character and also because i hope the filler will hold up better when clothing is not brushing directly against it .

 

[Chas]

Excellent job there Shayne, not completely filling the cracks worked very well, I presume the shine will gradually wear off with use.

 

[Shayne]

Excellent job there Shayne, not completely filling the cracks worked very well, I presume the shine will gradually wear off with use.

Cheers the shine looks far worse in pics than it really is , obviously the camera likes things that reflect light . To be honest i'd be much happier with no shine at all but considering the seats were ready for the scrapyard its a fair compromise . They look ok in the truck though its still obviously leather just looks like someone cleaned them with that shiny stuff valets always put on your dash . Just hope i can post a pic in a year showing no sign of wear on the colour and far less reflection on the camera .

 

[oostsco]

Hi Shane

I would like to do the same after seeing the good results you got. Can you confirm this is what is required:
- Clean seats with acetone
- Fieblings acrylic sealer/resolene
- Leather binder and heavy filler is used on cracks

What are the quantities needed?

Also does the dye work on vinyl - the sides of my seats are vinyl

Thanks
Tobie

 

[silvercruiser]

Im not sure you will get a reply from shayne as im sure he is working away for a little while.

 

[oostsco]

thanks for letting me know Joe

 

[Chris Green90]

Any chance of some updated pics on this one Shayne. How are they going 14 months on???

 

[Shayne]

Still good and pics are pointless because the camera will not pick up the wear that can be seen with the human eye . In truth i have been lazy because i had every intention of topping up on the topcoat protective stuff (can't even remember what its called) . There's a tiny bit of wear on the drivers seat edge but i doubt anyone but me would notice the seats were once blue . 10 minutes will make it new again when i get around to it . The crack filler and binding stuff has astonished me , these seats were in really bad nick and i had little faith just filling the gaps would work but i reckon now the seats will outlast the truck .

I am hoping to get to Lincomb do you want me to leave the seats as is so you can judge for yourself ?

 

[Chris Green90]

That would be great bud. The seats in the new truck are cloth but in really really good nick. However I can get hold of a set of leather but they are quite tired. So still not sure what to do.

 

[Shayne]

What i did was extreme and not exactly cheap , PITA of a job to be honest , but that's because i changed the colour and the seats to start with were only fit for the scrap yard . If i only wanted to repair instead of change the colour i think it would have been easy to make them good again theres plenty of repair kits out there .

 

[Shayne]

2 year update





They would have fared better had i made any effort to maintain them , the acrylic sealer should have been applied a few times over the following months to build it up but once the seats were back in use i just forgot about them .

 

[Beau]

Not bad wear for two years, and like you said they may have worn a bit nicer if you re-applied the sealer. Not a huge fan of regular leather seats anyway, would chose cloth over leather any day! Unless I was buying a top end sports car...

On a second note, 2 years have gone by so quick! I remember the start of this thread like it was yesterday

 

[chadr]

Considering the state that the seats were in originally, I think you did very well to restore them to the level you did and given the circumstances, not bad wear for 2 years.

On a second note, 2 years have gone by so quick! I remember the start of this thread like it was yesterday

That's exactly what I was thinking!

 

[Shayne]

It's a credit to the furniture clinic products that the cracks in the leather many of which were holed all the way through show no signs of giving up . The dye and sealer was never intended for use on car seats and that was just a gamble i took . Seems like donkeys years ago to me and i'm reasonably confident i could return them to their finished state in a couple of hours without drying time (refit the following morning) so yeah it was a success in its own way i had nothing to lose because the seats were dead and the original blue was nauseous