Dye Leather Car Seats

[thewormman]

I recoloured a few leather seats when I had a restoration business and used this http://www.liquidleather.com/re-colouring.htm

They have a archive of colours based on manufacturers codes and will also colour match a sample. Everything I did I sprayed and it came out great whilst keeping the originality and character (creases) the site gives a good explanation how to do them as well

 

[helen07]

Spoke to a pro today , he said new leather would cost £1500 at the absolute minimum . He could re-colour them for around £400 but doesn't advise anyone to do it because they just look painted when finished . This set me to thinking so i spent all afternoon experimenting with a seat . As a result i have just ordered 4 litres of acetone and will visit Asda to buy a bunch of their black heavy duty pan scourers (the rough cloth kind they usually put on the back of sponges) .

Fact is the original finish on the seat leather is thick . I used deglazer over and over on a test area trying to break through the water resistant barrier without luck . So i took sandpaper to it . Once i could get water to soak in i dried it with a hair dryer and applied dye . Of course the dye soaked in which means it is there permanently . It will still need an acrylic finish to stop dye rubbing onto clothes but ultimately once done the seats should remain black forever .

 

[Graham]

Hellen,

Would seats out of a newer 120 series not fit?

Gra.

 

[helen07]

Hellen,

Would seats out of a newer 120 series not fit?

Gra.

I'm convinced the easiest solution would be to cut the sliders off my original seats , do the same to some leather seats from say a BMW or even a Hyundai , swap them over and just weld them together .

Unfortunately i don't have the equipment or contacts to do this , i live in Wales but i'm from a little rock in the Irish sea so have very little local knowledge . If i took the truck home i could probably turn it into a space shuttle for the price of a few pints but such is life .

However while this should work a treat on front seats it is very unlikely you would get your rear seats to match .

Might be an idea for someone who removed the rear seats anyway though .

 

[helen07]

Acetone arrived today and my trucks still in the paint shop so i made a start on the backseats which i removed earlier just to test my theory .

As you can see from the first pic the backseat seem's to be unused and as good as it was new .
http://s999.beta.photobucket.com/user/minus-millions/media/Seats002_zpscbfb3ac0.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

It took maybe 15 minutes of applying acetone and scrubbing with a scourer to remove the protective synthetic layer from the leather underneath .
http://s999.beta.photobucket.com/user/minus-millions/media/Seats001_zps876fe78e.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

The dye can now penetrate whatever colourant was originally used to ensure the colour change is permanent .

I have searched for hours for an all inclusive guide to dying leather car seats without luck . There's plenty who work with raw leather offering "expert" advice and plenty more claiming success using anything from boot polish to professional coatings and in the end i am forced to accept they are all write in a sense BUT !

The definition of dye is that it penetrates changing the colour of a substance permanently . This is whats done to raw leather otherwise it would all be skin colour . A car seat is not raw leather . A car seat starts out as raw leather , then it is dyed to a colour (there are many ways of doing this) , then the dyed leather is entombed in a synthetic hard wearing waterproof layer .Professional coatings simply add another synthetic layer to the one already covering your "leather" car seat , just like painting over old paint .

I could end up making a fool of myself doing this if i fail to get a decent finished seat at the end of it all , but i intend to keep this thread updated in the hope that when i'm finished i can post an all inclusive guide to dying leather seats to help others trying to do the same .

 

[oostsco]

Keep us updated - interesting!

 

[majic79]

It sounds like interesting stuff and I'm curious about the results, please keep trying, I'm curious to know what you use for the final "patent" finishing as that's what's going to seal it all in and you're giving me ideas

 

[Graham]

I guess many of the leather Land Cruiser owners awe waiting with baited breath.

I hope all your hard determination pays off, and you do find a great way to restore your seats, to some thing like former glory.

Gra.

 

[helen07]

Fiebings acrylic sealer is the front runner for synthetic sealer at the moment but only because i started out (made a mess of !) my seats using fiebings dye at the outset . Most of Fiebings products are intended for use on horse tack , saddles etc which despite being for outdoor use (or maybe as a result of) are supplied in pretty much raw leather as this allows constant upkeep with the likes of saddle soap and protective oils .

It doesn't pay for car manufacturers to make their products last forever .

The actual products used i believe are pretty much unimportant they probably all work , but only if the seats are stripped down properly before you start .

For those like Majic79 i must warn stripping seats is a labour intensive job whereas actually applying dye and sealer is effortless by comparison . BUT NO POINT IN APPLYING DYE IF THE SEATS ARE'NT STRIPPED . You may as well take a 6 inch brush and a tin of hammerite and paint your seats if your not going to remove the protective coating from leather first because the end result will be the same regardless of what product you use .

 

[helen07]

I guess many of the leather Land Cruiser owners awe waiting with baited breath.

I hope all your hard determination pays off, and you do find a great way to restore your seats, to some thing like former glory.

Gra.

It's not determination driving me Graham is bullheaded stubborness !

Experts built the Titanic - an amateur built the ARK !

 

[helen07]

Here's part of the rear seats stripped , it took about 2 hours of brushing acetone on and scrubbing it off with a scourer pad
http://s999.beta.photobucket.com/us...ppedfordye002_zps9b644344.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

I noticed when stripping the seat that the acetone when brushed on tends to make the original colour run so i went over the whole thing with acetone and a brush when finished in the hope that the white and blue will dye a bit more evenly . PS the blue colour is now absorbent and will soak up water so should how dye no problem .
http://s999.beta.photobucket.com/us...ppedfordye003_zpsfad7d144.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

I'm letting it dry right now so i can start with the dye .

 

[Graham]

Fixed

.

Need to use the image code



Gra

 

[helen07]

No option to share on my photobucket , except share on facebook or twitter and i'd rather have MORON tattoo'd on my forehead than sign up to that drivel . I can select copy but then it just asks me which album i would like to add pics to .

I'd be grateful for instructions if someone knows what i'm doing wrong ?

 

[chadr]

As Graham has mentioned, choose/copy the "IMG Code" for the picture you want to post and paste into your thread - it should have

tags around the (picture's) URL. No need to do anything else.

 

[helen07]

I will test it with this

 

[helen07]

Hey it worked thanks so heres the seat with its first coat of dye . Its a bit patchy but i'd bet my house you could not scrub it back to blue no matter how hard you tried . I should have removed the seat back and belts but it has metal rivets and i don't have a rivet gun to replace them , and the plastic rivets were obviously going to break if i pulled them out meaning i'd have to search for more . Its worth noting if your doing this though that acetone glues clingfilm to the seats .

I will let it dry overnight then dye it again in the morning for a more even finish .

 

[helen07]

Acrylic Resolene arrived today and i'm impressed , just rubbed it all over the seat with a damp sponge keeping it as thin as possible which is not hard as it has the consistancy of water but the seat look brilliant and there has been no change as its drying .
Obviously how it performs longterm is what really matters but only time will tell . I'm gonna give it 3 coats before i post another pic .

While using the resolene i thought to myself - someone with seats in a tired but reasonable condition could probably make them look new again by just giving them a good clean with acetone and a cloth then wiping over with this resolene . The whole process has made me realize only the worst cracks actually go as deep as the leather underneath . Fine cracks are most likely to be in the plastic like protective layer so will probably buff out with acetone . My front seats are in very poor condition thats why i decided to have a go myself and dye them black at the same time in the hope black would hide amatuer repairs .

 

[helen07]

Looking Good -

 

[Shayne]

I'm happy to report you definately can dye leather car seats . I finished the back seat today and i'm very very confident it will out last the truck without rubbing off at all . If i have one reservation the seat looks too new for my liking but i'm sure a bit of use and sunlight will soon fix this .

 

[Shayne]

These have been in my truck and used daily for about 3 weeks now and i can definately say i believe they will last a very long time without any care at all . My only reservation is they are a bit shiney for my liking but i'm sure they will dull down as time goes on .