Full leather seat restore/re-dye - Results

[chris_k80]

Having seen a few posts showing leather repair/recon results, I thought I'd show my full seat re-dye I've done this week. This is a bit more time consuming than the repair options I've seen here previously, but I'm pleased with the results as the seats look like new. Not a job for a complete novice, but with a bit of trial and error I managed this without any real previous experience except one bolster repair I did once using a sponge and some leather dye and a few spraycan bodywork repairs!

I know there will be purists who think that the shiny/worn-in look should be kept for originality, but for me its a matter of opinion. Check it out and decide for yourself.

My seats were worn but with no rips, mainly just worn down to the hide around the bolsters. The seats all over were looking tired and shiny with various marks and stains:




For this job I used Gliptone products. First I cleaned the seats and headrests all over using their leather cleaner, then applied the leather conditioner and left to dry. I got myself 1 litre of their "BMW Black" leather dye, which was a good match for my E30's black leather.

For the spraying I used a mains powered compressor and spray gun set - mine were both bought from Lidl but you can rent them cheaply enough, or use the 'hobby gun' that Gliptone do. For best results use a proper compressor and gun like this one, I set mine to 1.5 bar which was about the lowest pressure I could get the gun to work at.



Having washed, conditioned and thoroughly dried out the seats I stripped the seats as much as I had time for and masked up the remaining trim. Then wiped them down all over with methylated spirits (meths). Then it was time to spray the dye on:

This was by far the hardest part of the job. You need to spray several light even coats, leaving to dry between each one. The seats look awful when you are spraying them and its really hard to work out where you have & haven't painted, this is where the several coats help you out. The first time spraying I completely messed it up, put too much dye on and it ran all over the place. Fortunately you can just wipe it all off with a rag and start again - much easier than spraying bodywork!

After all that, left to dry overnight in a dust free environment (my garage had to do). Here are the results - crisp, clean and new looking leather:

Driver's seat:



Headrests looking like new:


Passenger seat:

Close up of lower part:


Couple of the finished item:



Whole job for front and rear seats took me around a day and a half and approx £75 in consumables (leather cleaner, conditioner, dye and meths)

[Jon_Bmw]

Looks excellent from the photos. A nice matt finish which I like.

From the freshly painted photos that look really wet, does it just dry into the photos you have shown or is there any other products on it?

Good job.

[Mitchen]

Great job! Looks the business. Be interesting to see what they look like in a year or so.

[chris_k80]

Thanks! The dye dries straight into the finish you see in the final pictures, it goes on wet but 20 mins after spraying it starts to dry into a matt finish. The main trick is to keep dust off it.

I'll update over time about the durability of the finish, cars I've had from new usually start to show a bit of shine on the seats & steering wheel after a year so it will be interesting to compare.

[jimf]

That's a brilliant job. Great writeup too which will inspire others to have a go. Well done.

[Gavla]

Looks fantastic, great job...in my experience it lasts about 12 months and then may need to be coated again...

[powelly]

They look great. I started doing mine about 18 months ago, ran out time and now I can't be bothered!!! I'm getting a company in Reading to do it for me now.

[bab-91]

Looks good!



Peter will be along to wax lyrical about the virtues of patina

[chris_k80]

Many thanks for all the replies. Must admit I had been putting off doing it since the early Spring as I knew it would be a hassle. Worst bit was actually lifting the seats in and out of the car in a confined space and then around the house to dry.

Now I've got the experience I reckon I could re-do the lot within a day. Hopefully the finish will fade with use as opposed to time as I only do <1000 miles annually, so it might last a bit longer than a year!

[Gert_8]

Those look brilliant.

[matt86]

Great job you've done there. Now I know who to go to when I need a set done.

[powelly]

I stripped my front seats down to ensure everything got a good coat of the dye, I was also a bit concerned that painting them assembled might make bits stick together, perhaps this is not the case. Did you use furniture clinic??

[chris_k80]

All my stuff came from Gliptone Leathercare - http://www.liquidleather.com/
Its fairly local to me and I'd been given a recommendation so thought I'd give them a go.

I was also concerned that painting them assembled would cause problems, but it didn't. After each coat dried, when starting the next one I would pull the centre sections away from the bolsters and spray in the gaps to make sure I got good coverage. I also had to spray with the seats reclined, then tipped forwards to get best coverage of the base cushion. Once it had all dried I was able to gently peel the touching sections off of each other with no problems or visible marks.

I guess a perfectionist would strip the seats down completely before spraying. I didn't have time for this, it would have taken me ages as I've never taken a seat apart before. If this would be a quick job for you then it would be the best way I think.

[BMG]

That's a fantastic result, especially given the relative time and cost.

I would add that it's well worth taking the seat apart for several reasons.
The first being to simply check the most prove cables that are usually frayed as they are old seats now.

Second being it takes minutes and could have improved the result ( doesn't look it from the pics ) of your process.

Third, I found that none of the leather treatments so soften and revive cardboard-like leather that well when applied to assembled seats, as they never fully soak in.
If you remove the bolsters and get to the back of the leather and apply your preferred brand leather magic potion to make it supple again, it makes a HUGE difference and can really transform what feel like brittle cardboard back in to soft leather again.

[oomz1975]

Great result & excellent write up.