Help to make my leather seats look good again.

[t1pper]

Hi,
I thought I would give my interor a spruce up recently its the standard grey VX trim and it is looking much improved after a deep clean aside from my leather seats that are looking a bit worn and cracked.

I have seen the leather type balms with a dye included does anyone have experience of these?

How do I match the correct colour?

I am aware that there are some professional companies that offer the service but as always I like to do all the work myself.

All tips welcome and especially specific products would be very helpfull.

 

[Shayne]

http://www.landcruiserclub.net/foru...her-seat-repair-cream?highlight=leather+seats

 

[Splondike]

I have also found the gliptone / liquid leather stuff to be excellent, you would probably need their scuffmaster kit. I re-furbished a leather trim for a BMW with it that had been sitting outside in a breakers yard and it came up really nicely. I have got to do the same in mine. Gliptone will provide an exact match to your leather if you send them a sample or a headrest to match.

http://www.liquidleather.com/

My seats went from this:




To this:

 

[t1pper]

Hi,
Thanks for the info Splondike and taking the trouble to post some pictures that looks very much the results I wish to achieve, I had previously ordered some grey leather balm with a dye incorporated, not had a chance to see how the product works yet.
However it looks a bit like a shoe polish where a close match is good enough to blend in any imperfections, I will report my results once I have chance to test the products.

 

[nathanrobo]

I did my LC a year ago. I got a leather tannery to match and mix up 1 litre of the light tan and a litre of the darker die for the trim /dashboard etc.

A mate of mine has a body shop and advised to vac and clean seats, then clean them with thinners (I took all seats out).

Then use a rag with die for the first coat, which dries a little like sandpaper. A further couple of coats were done using an airbrush. The finish was superb!

 

[t1pper]

Well I have had a couple of bashes with a leather balm the first was a "light grey" that looked more like an off white than light grey, it left a chalky type finish to the grain of the leather on the test area.

Second was a "dark grey" (Re-charcoal) that left black stains in the leather grain and stitching, so second fail.

So I am now going to try the Scuffmaster kit from Gliptone, I will send them a head rest as a sample.

I will report my finding in a week or so once I have the kit back.

 

[nathanrobo]

Hi,
I thought I would give my interor a spruce up recently its the standard grey VX trim and it is looking much improved after a deep clean aside from my leather seats that are looking a bit worn and cracked.

I have seen the leather type balms with a dye included does anyone have experience of these?

How do I match the correct colour?

I am aware that there are some professional companies that offer the service but as always I like to do all the work myself.

All tips welcome and especially specific products would be very helpfull.

Take a headrest or similar to a tannery. These folk tint raw leather to specific colours for making handbags, shoes, furniture etc. Not only will you get a decent match but you'll get the right product too!

You then need to clean the seats, then clean them down with gun cleaning thinners, then rub the first coat of dye on with a rag, which will feel a little rough when dry, then use an air bush or small spray gun to do another couple of coats. If you put the last coat on close and slow, you'll achieve the right texture. btw it's a lot easier to remove all seats.

 

[Shayne]

I've been thinking about contacting these guys for a while http://www.autoleathers.co.uk/