Ripped and cracked leather seats - my fix

[LittleDave]

Thought I'd do a quick post as with little effort it saved me allot of money. There are a few posts on the zone of guys using 'Furniture Clinic' products but generally the larger kits. They work really well.

I used a couple of basic kits to repair and colour the leather, total cost £44 enough to do most of the interior cracking and tears etc.

Below is the fist pic showing the rip on the drivers bolster, I've trimmed round the edges to clean it up.



The second pic shows how you poke a thin mesh material behind the tear and then glue in place, seems a good fix strong stuff.



Ready for filling. They supply (along with the glue and tools) a flexible filler that you build up in layers.



Some bad cracking





Apply the filler and leave 20mins or if you can't wait use a hairdryer, worked for me.





This bit was fun, you have to mix the colour and test, using the hairdryer again. Worth persevering to get the match exactly.





A bit like bodywork, keep filling and sanding until you get it really smooth. To be honest I could probably have kept going with this for perfection.



Apply colour, re-fill, sand, colour.





I was pretty please with the end result it seems robust and it doesn't look like its been repaired. I have another split to do on the rear seat and some re-colouring. If it gone to a trimmer it may of cost a couple of hundred.

Time spent 2-3hrs off and on.

[Kemix]

Great work. Looks good

[threelander]

hi my seats are not too bad just cracked and need a freshen up so how do i fill the cracks and repaint them black please

[LittleDave]

You will need the two basic kits from Furniture Clinic one with the colours and one with the filler. That said you may just need a pot of flexible filler and some of their black dye.

Clean and lightly sand the leather (fine grade paper). Then apply the filler with a flat bladed plastic tool. Sand back once dried, then apply the dye in several coats drying each coat before sopping the next. Don't put too much filler on in one go, thin coats are best.

It's pretty straightforward I was surprised how well it worked!

Hope that helps.

[SHAKEELE30]

thats top work mate, you think its the same method for a long slit/cut on the seat too?

[robsy]

that the same seat? Thats a very good repair - saves hunting around for replacement seats -

How long is the repair meant to last??