Leather seat repair

[viz007]

Using this post my inspiration http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... her+repair, I decided to try and repair my leather seats using the repair and touch up kits from furniture clinic. I am very pleased with the final result so thought I'd share some pics of the drivers seat which needed the most work.

Before:




After:

[Gert_8]

Nice work. So, what was the process?

[viz007]

Nice work. So, what was the process?

Thanks! The process was to basically:
- tidy the tear,
- glue a patch inside the tear
- apply leather filler into the repaired area and any large cracks.
- sand it down a bit
- mix the dyes and try to match the colour
- apply coats of the dye with a sponge where required
- finally apply the gloss or matt finish (I used 50/50 of both)

I was going to post photos of the whole process but if you look at the link in my original message the whole process is described fully with photos. The whole kit coat £40 and its made the seats look almost new so I'm thrilled.

[Gert_8]

When you applied the final coat, does this not seal the dye in, which also stops the leather breathing?

[viz007]

When you applied the final coat, does this not seal the dye in, which also stops the leather breathing?

I wouldn't have thought so. All the stuff I used came in the kit specially for leather repair. The bottle with the gloss and matt finishes are labelled leather gloss and leather finish so have hopefully been designed for this purpose.

[bosers]

Nice work, Sir!

[ianev]

Nice work, Sir!

bravo! how long did it take?

[viz007]

Nice work, Sir!

bravo! how long did it take?

probably around 3 hours in total as it was only the drivers seat that needed repair. The other seats just needed touching up with dye in places. I only had about 45 mins to work on this each evening this week so I would let the filler and coats of dye dry overnight and do a bit each day but the instructions say you can use a hair dryer and they dry within a few mins so you could do this all in one go.

The most time consuming part was trying to mix the dyes to match the dark blue colour. I didn't get it spot on but I think its close enough. I believe you can pay a bit more and get furniture clinic to mix the dyes for you if you send a sample which is probably worth doing in hindsight.

[ianev]

well the pics tell their own story - looks like a great job and thanks for the tips

[brutus]

very impressive, , ive got leather & cloth bolsters for sale, , for pretty the much same money, wish i could av helped ya ..... also theres the e30 ' specialist yard in n17 that does good work

[viz007]

Thanks that's good to know. I'm pleased to say that the repair has lasted so far!