Seat Refurbishment

[Daz3]

I decided to get the interior ready for the M2.8 seen as though the weather isn't great for spraying.

I bought my products from Gliptone http://www.liquidleather.com/
What I ordered was a scuffmaster kit with 250ml of estoril blue and another 250ml bottle of black dye.

Here's how my bolster looked before the treatment

I Bought a leather rip repair kit from ebay as the bolster had two tears along the creases. This was a bit fiddly you cut a backing strip of the material supplied and poke it behind the rip, then smear the leather glue on the backside of the leather. Then you have to hold the two pieces while the glue sets I had an assistant with a hairdryer

Next step is to fill the remainder of the rip with leather filler. I used a spatula and then wiped the excess with a damp cloth

The next stages are pretty straight forward you scrub the leather with a gliptone cleaner and nail brush followed by wiping with a damp cloth. Next you condition the leather (I conditioned the bolster 2 or 3 times over a couple of days and found it helped remove the creases quite well) The next stage after this was to clean the leather again followed by a degrease ready for the dye.

I applyed the dye in neat form in 3 coats so far to the bolster and this is the result.

I still have the rest of the seats to do but just thought I'd post up my progress, so far I'm please its not perfect and you can make it out under close inspection but its a million times better than it was.

 

[r37]

Looks very very nice, a damn sight better than some of the seats i have seen for sale.

 

[badman gee]

very good, looks great. not easy to do.

mark

 

[SeaSurfer]

Looking great now, thanks for posting, i could do with a bit of refreshing the colour on mine.

 

[Boysie]

Daz3

It looks good
Did you airbrush the diluted dye
also did you apply a clear finish coat
Its amazing that you can repair holes in leather

I watched the pro touch up my bolster, he made it look easy
mine was nowhere near as bad as yours, just very minor wear

 

[GazHyde]

Daz, let me know if you have anything extra to add to this. Will move it to the Knowledge Area when you are finished.

Lovely write up, cheers!

 

[Daz3]

Thanks I'm going to get a few more pics up over the next couple of days got a week off \m/
Ideally I'd have used an airbrush but I got moaned at enough just for putting them on the dining table :-w what I used was a sponge which once the dye is dried you can't see any application marks. I'm going to dilute the dye for the next couple of coats as the rest of the leather is pretty good. Also doing the seat bushes as well.

 

[Daz3]

Sorry boysie forgot to say no clearcoat it doesn't need a sealer although I did get a gloss enhancer which I don't think I'll need to be honest as it matches pretty well as is. I didn't know if I would be able to get a good finish when I bought the seats but couldn't turn them down for the price and rarity and am well chugged so far.

 

[Boysie]

Daz

i was told the gloss enhancer or finish coat
is the protector to stop the dye wearing off, the dye is water based
Maybe this needs further investigation on gliptone site
Just a thought
Shame to spoil a good job

 

[z3cade]

Great job Daz.. There a million times better than before.. Well done :-bd

 

[Snoops]

Daz

i was told the gloss enhancer or finish coat
is the protector to stop the dye wearing off, the dye is water based
Maybe this needs further investigation on gliptone site
Just a thought
Shame to spoil a good job

It seems to say the gloss is a mixer so you get the right finish to match existing rather than a "top coat".
Snoops ont'apatalk

 

[Boysie]

Snoops

I am going by what the leather man said and did to my seat/bolster
Maybe in the trade they have different finishing products.
I read the information on the gliptone scuff kit, i have,
so i understand what you are saying about the gloss being a mixer
i was just passing on, what i had seen

 

[Daz3]

Thanks for the comments everyone! It actually says on the dye pot 'with built in sealent' gliptone do sell another type of dye that does require a top coat to seal. Gonna get cracking with the rest of the seats today

 

[Snoops]

Snoops

I am going by what the leather man said and did to my seat/bolster
Maybe in the trade they have different finishing products.
I read the information on the gliptone scuff kit, i have,
so i understand what you are saying about the gloss being a mixer
i was just passing on, what i had seen

Get what you're saying though Boysie, you would have thought a water based product would require a "top coat" or what's going to stop it rubbing off onto your clothes.

How does this product stand up to being heated, I know the bolster of your seat isn't heated but if you used this on the main body of the seat and you had heated seats... anyone any experience with that?

Really neat job with the damaged leather though worth the time and effort to make such a visible difference.

 

[Boysie]

Regarding leather.
We recently purchased new leather furiture,
cream leather, one seat had a felt tip pen mark on it
This was noticed on delivery, i was not happy
The furniture shop sent a man with a bag
i was amazed , i thought we were going to get a replacement settee.
He treated the area on the leather and airbrushed the spot.
Straight after he had finished, I went to look and could not find the repair
The mount of people who must have discarded worn leather
furniture over the years, without thinking about a refurb

 

[Daz3]

I've now covered all of one seat in the blue dye however upon very close inspection you can see marks where the sponge has passed over. I can't get the camera to pick these up as they are very slight, but me being me I'm not happy so I've bought a mini gravity gun and will be spraying the seats instead

 

[Boysie]

I would be interested in what gun you bought
Always a handy tool to have

 

[Daz3]

Just bought a mini gravity spray gun off eBay thought about an airbrush but I think a mini gravy will be more useful to me. Will keep you posted when I get it.

 

[DangerousDave]

I looked at doing this myself. The Glipstone site says there are 3 shades of Estoril Blue to choose from (they recommend sending them a sample so they can match it) and the cost of all the cleaners and sealers, it would cost around £100.

I've got a professional refurbisher to do it as a weekend job for £125. If I take the seats out, he says he can do all the leather in the car (blue and black) - need to wait and see what kind of job he does.

 

[Boysie]

I used dale at http://lhcupholstery.com/
He is mobile, he's not not cheap, but very good
i dont know what part of the country your in?