Reconolising leather

[William]

Just wondering if anyone can tell me what is involved in the process and roughly how much it would cost to get the whole interior of a Motorsport done, excluding the seats, but including the funny bits like hood cover and consoles etc.

Also, any ideas on good places that do it in the south east area (east anglia??) would be helpful.

Thanks a lot

[Emotechnik]

Recolonising leather

Funniest typo in a post title that I've read in a long time

[William]

ha ha that was a slip!! edited

[Emotechnik]

Do a search for companies like Swissol or Meguiar's Products

[William]

Thanks mate I really wanted info on reconolising though as I know there are plenty of treatments that supposedly restore it, but I want the best job possible,

no results come up on google really if i search reconolising so i thought i ought to try knowledge from experience here

[Emotechnik]

Try searching for Connolly leather or

http://www.ukhide.co.uk/ do a Leather Hide Food for Connolly

Connolly as a company doesn't exist any more, and BMW group leather was never Connolly

http://www.ukhide.co.uk/connolly.html

[William]

yeah i've had a look at those but it gives no indication of what the process is, where I can get it done and how much it would cost. I really need to know this, someone must have had it done!!

[d6dph]

try a vehicle retrimmers like l 4 leather/carisma etc. where abouts are you? i know of a really good guy local to me.

[motorsport]

Very few do it and some companies actually paint the leather, not a good idea really. Well worth doing a proper job yourself with some products readily available for little Ԛ£Ã”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£s. I've just finished mine myself using leather magic products and it looks spot on IMO.
Time and effort required but 100% worth it. PM me your tel number as there is too much to type.
Andy

[Simon13]

motosport lets see some pictures of your hard work mate?

[motorsport]

ok i'll buy a digi camera and get into 21st century.
Andy

[William]

Very few do it and some companies actually paint the leather, not a good idea really. Well worth doing a proper job yourself with some products readily available for little Ԛ£Ã”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£Ãƒ”šÃ‚£s. I've just finished mine myself using leather magic products and it looks spot on IMO.
Time and effort required but 100% worth it. PM me your tel number as there is too much to type.
Andy

Andy, thanks a lot I will get in touch as soon as I have the car. As for painting the leather, isn't that what everyone does to leather?-you don't find silver, cream, red and black skins on cows that I've seen!! Or are you saying there is a different process for colouring the leather?

Do you have any before and after pics? I am intending to do it mostly to the consoles and panels as the seats are in good condition. Is that a problem?

Thanks a lot

[Simon13]

William don't be silly! they dye it i'd imagine

[William]

William don't be silly! they dye it i'd imagine

woops, yeah thats a bit obvious isn't it! thanks mate

[motorsport]

William no probs at all, fairly easy just time consuming.
Speak to you when you're ready.

[kevin316i]

I think the point above about painting the leather is that the aftermarket leather colouring kits use what is equivalent to a paint, but this is not the same as the original finish put on the leather. It can look like the leather has been painted, which won't look very original, and won't have the resilience of the original finish.

I have seen a product call ScruffMaster advertised by liquidleather which uses a watered down dye to rub across the leather and then wipe, which will just re-colour the parts that have lost their original colouring. Hope to use this product on my own seats when all the other jobs on the car are complete.

[estee]

Has anyone used Zainos "Leather in a bottle" as apposed to liquid leathers, looking to do mine soon

Cheers
estee

[want_a_m3]

See this thread,

I had my M3 done recently, results are a million times better than liquid leather type products.

Hope it helps.


http://www.bmwcarclubforum.co.uk/forum_ ... 29427&PN=3

Mark

[w17led]

hi mate pm me i know a guy or works in the south east and is a reconolising specialist!

Whole interior for mtorsport is approx #350.00

and yes they do die the leather again and smooth of any cracks ,

gonna get mine done soon, just waiting for a couple of weeks

[estee]

cheers w17led, but I'm up in edinburgh, it'd cost me that price twice in fuel to get down

[DaveD]

just to put you right as I was in the leather trade in another life...you can buy a solvent that will remove the surface of most leathers and then you can 're-dye' them in any colour you can get a dye in!

if you look at the reverse side of a piece of leather you will find they are mostly light grey

There still is a 'connollising 'cream
http://www.saddler.co.uk/acatalog/Conno ... ather.html

which will feed the leather and it is what the proffesionals use but to get the surface really supple again if it has dried out takes a LONG time and a lot of hide food

a lot of members (including myself) have used scuffmaster and have found it to be excelent for small areas
A friend of mine recently refinnished the whole of his Audi convertible and is really pleased but he did take the whole interior out and removed the trim on the seat and sprayed it on using a prper compressor