Finally Finished Re-colouring Leather Seats and Card Inserts

[Nigel Coleman]

32 man hours of OCD work................... pleased with the results!

[The-Acre]

That is truly impressive!

[Nigel Coleman]

Thank you very much Phil.

Once I have recovered I'll add text of what I did.

[Lexiguy]

Hi Nigel

They look fantastic!

Please let us know what you did exactly to achieve such a transformation and what products you used.

Thanks for your illuminating and useful post!

Anthony

[Nigel Coleman]

(A)

 

So, to begin with I watched numerous YouTube videos on how to recolour leather car seats to give me confidence in doing the job myself. There are are lots to view for both professional and DIY recolouring and repair. The “Colourlock” ones seemed to be the best?

 

I used the DIY method of using a small sponge to “sponge & dab” the dye/paint onto the seats. (Also I used this method as I don’t have a garage as most professionals remove the seats then spray them). I achieved good results but you could do even better if you are able to remove the seats and spray on the dye.

I also had a small hole in the drivers seat that I needed to repair.

 

I sent the broken drivers side seatbelt strap to the dye/paint suppliers leathercare.com for a paint match – you could send your headrest or a small piece of leather from under the front/back seats to match. You will need to order 2 x 200ml bottles to do the entire car.

 

It appears to me that it virtually impossible to get a perfect colour match to a 17 year old interior. Once applied the matched paint will end up being at least one shade brighter, newer than the old leather colour so you will have to do ALL the leather in the car. Leathercare.com labelled the bottle “Lexus Ecru”.

 

If you look at the following photo you can see various stages of coats and shades. The armrest is not cleaned and appears glossy with years of dirt, grease and grime with a greyish tint. The headrest has just 2 coats of paint and the finished seat has 4/5 coats of dye/paint.

[Nigel Coleman]

 

(B)

Here is a list of the materials and tools I used (I already had the Leather Cleaner) total cost in the region of £165.00 delivered. You will also need a hair dryer, masking tape and a supply of rubber gloves.

 

Geist. Easy Colour Restorer DIY Leather & Vinyl paint | www.leathercare.com

 

Geist. Easy Filler to fill scratches and cracks on leather and vinyl | www.leathercare.com

 

Geist. Double Sided Sanding & Finishing Pads | Pack of 2 | www.leathercare.com

 

Colourlock Set of 3 Sponges 90 x 55 x 35 mm : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

 

COLOURLOCK Stainless Steel Spatula/Oil Painting Knife : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

 

COLOURLOCK Leather Cleaning Spirit for Cleaning and degreasing Leather Furniture Suite, Sofas, settees, car Seats, Alcantara interiors, Jacket Collars and Cuffs, etc (225 ml) : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

 

COLOURLOCK Leather Glue Crack Kit Solvent- (Glue 20g, Tension, 3 Mini Brushes) : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

 

Colourlock® mini leather sealant, 30 ml, seals leather against abrasion, wear and stain, for cars, furniture, leather jackets : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

 

Koogel Paintbrush Set-7 Filbert Art Nylon Artist Painting Flat Brush Natural Wood for Professional Oil Acrylic Watercolor Gouache Painting (White Tip) : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

 

PROUSKY 4 PCS Paint Brush Set, Wooden Handle Foam Brush for Arts and Crafts 4 Sizes Absorbent Foam Brushes for Oils Varnishes Stains Acrylics : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

 

Geist. Leather & Upholstery Cleaning Brush Medium | To clean car seats, leather sofas, and alcantara | For car interiors, furniture, boots, shoes, bags and more : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

 

Autoglym Gentle Leather Cleaner Kit **COMES WITH MICROFIBRE CLEANING TOWEL & APPLICATOR PAD** : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive 

 

[Nigel Coleman]

(C)

 

Method Used

 

1. Use leather cleaner and brush into a foam. Leave for a minute then clean off with a cloth rinsed in clean water – repeat if necessary. Wait until dry or speed up drying with hair dryer.

 

2. Degrease seats with cleaning/degreasing spirit. Dry with hair dryer

 

3. Lightly sand crease and cracked areas with the sanding pad – clean with spirit.

 

4. Fill in cracks and creases with the “filler”. Leave for 20 minutes to dry the sand with the sanding pad. Repeat this several times depending on how deep they are and/or between paint coats. (some old creases my be too big/deep to fill?) Many very fine creases will improve with just the paint layers.

 

5. Mask trims and covers.

 

6. Apply the colour dye/paint in a dabbing action with a black sponge. Use the hair dryer to dry the paint between coats (I found that a heat gun was to hot/powerful) Apply 4 to 5 coats to the front seats, centre armrest and door handles and inserts drying with the hair dryer between coats. You can also fill and try to improve cracks between coats. Apply 3 to 4 coats to the back seats.

 

7. You can easily remove the back seats for painting. The bottom seat just pulls out from the front and you remove the back ones by taking off the rear head rests then remove 4 seat bolts and slide out the seat sideways through the seatbelts.

 

8. Remove the armrest for painting (several screws) and centre console trim starting at the back of the heated seats switches (I found an alarm sensor right there!) including the gear selector trim to paint the leather.

 

7. I used the very small flat art paint brushes to paint in the tiny gap between the silver radio unit and control unit (mask silver edges) and other places. You will need to repeat this at least 4 times.

 

8. I removed the door electric window trims for painting behind. Also the door handle centre screw for loosening the handle trims and painting behind.

 

9. Paint the door inserts and handles with the sponge. Mask the wood trim edges and use the small flat paint brush to get paint under the wood trim and trim edges – repeat until you get the correct coverage.

 

10. Mask the front seat side bolster plastic trims. Push the leather bolster in with your fingers to get room to sponge and paint lower down. Hold open and dry with hair dryer between coats, push leather in again and move along and repeat. Touch up and repeat in places difficult to get at with the small flat paint brush.

 

11. Used the hole repair kit and filler to fix the rip in the drivers seat. Sanded painted several times.

 

12. Applied the mini leather sealant to all coloured surfaces with a black sponge. 2 coats to front seats, armrest and door handles.

[Nigel Coleman]

Improvements with both paint layers and filling. Much better than it was.

[Glyn Jennings]

1 hour ago, Nigel Coleman said:

Improvements with both paint layers and filling. Much better than it was.

Thanks for posting this detailed process and materials required to restore the seat leather. I am sure this will be very helpful for those wanting to do the same.

[Bob King]

Job well done 👍🏻

I’ve done it to both my previous SC using the Rutland leather dye..only observation was it was very unslippy afterwards ..had to apply a conditioner to help .

[Nigel Coleman]

Thanks Bob - it was hard work.

I finished with 2 coats of semi-matt colourlock sealer. it is supposed to protect the colour and make the leather easier to clean? Then reapply every 6/12 months.

Some say that the leather conditioner can not actually be absorbed into the plastic water based leather dye/paint and you end up with a glossy finish which attracts dirt and grime,. I know that's a classic used leather look but I think new car leather seats look more matt than glossy?

[Nigel Coleman]

Thanks Bob - it was hard work.

I finished with 2 coats of semi-matt colourlock sealer. it is supposed to protect the colour and make the leather easier to clean? Then reapply every 6/12 months.

Some say that the leather conditioner can not actually be absorbed into the plastic water based leather dye/paint and you end up with a glossy finish which attracts dirt and grime,. I know that's a classic used leather look but I think new car leather seats look more matt than glossy? 

However the sealant does come in "gloss" (slippy) as well as semi-matt and matt.

I used semi-matt.

[gc0700]

Nigel,

Your article was perfectly timed, as I was wondering how to improve my Ecru interior and now I know how it can be achieved.  The comprehensive description of the work you undertook and also the detailed list of materials and sources, is an invaluable resource.

Very many thanks

[Nigel Coleman]

Thanks very much Tim.

I found the DIY method results looked very good. If you are able to remove the front seats and spray the coats on then I'm sure you can achieve even better results.

You can even get mini spray guns that work off aerosol can propellent that would do the job from amazon.

Only down side is that I'm suffering with tennis elbow and a sore wrist from all that "sponge dabbing".  😬

[gc0700]

Nigel,

I had wondered about using an airbrush, with an aerosol can propellent. So am pleased to see you consider it a viable option. The airbrush kits seem to be cheap enough to experiment with this option. 

I'm not surprised your suffering with all that dabbing.😀 

I'll be away shortly, for a couple of weeks so will pick this up again when I get back and let you know how I get on.

[Nigel Coleman]

Yes Tim it would be wise to experiment with spraying to master your technique first. I did not want to - our have a garage - to do it that way.