| Author | Message | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 418 Registered: 5-2001 |
Krysti knows what she's talking about, she's a member of the family that founded Leatherique. She was a great help when I was getting my redye project launched. I think she's the one who's putting energy into trying to grow the business. In the US, standard 'rubbing alcohol' sold in local pharmacies is 70%isopropryl, 30% water. Just read the label. Hmm, thought that preping agent smelled familiar!! I suspect it isn't much more than rubbing alcohol with maybe a touch of a soap & something to color it. I don't think Krysti was suggesting using the alcolhol to wet sand with, probably just to clean up with afterwards. I found that attempting to dry sand really scratched the dye up while just wetting the paper & the surface let me do fine removal of dye with the same piece of sandpaper. I've been having a problem with the dye peeling off of a small spot on the left back bolster on the driver's side.(Just where your butt rubs getting in & out). I'd built up the area with small overlapping dabs of crack filler simulating grain. I sanded & touched up the dye twice, at about 3-4 week intervals, but it kept reappearing I finally called leatherique & spoke with George himself. He recommended wet sanding with a fairly coarse sandpaper to give it more 'bite' & cleaning up with 70% Isopropryl rubbing alcohol. (I'm not sure he knew that I had lots of prepping agent left over.) I'll be doing that just before I store the car for the winter. Hopefully that will give the dye enought time to firmly bond with the leather. | ||||
| Simon Campbell (Simonc)
New member Username: Simonc Post Number: 49 Registered: 2-2002 |
Jerry Verell is correct. I am redying my 400 seats at the moment and have them out of the car. The bottom is just a foam pad with springs and hog rings. Verell Krysti from Leatherique suggested that I use Isopropyl Alcohol instead of their own prepping agent, in order to save shipping costs to the UK. Does this sound OK to you. I am at the 'sanding down with prepping agent ' stage and just wanted to check before I search London for this alcohol stuff. She said lacquer thinners would be too strong and that the Isopropyl Alcohol would just remove any old dye that the thinners had left behind - we did not discuss sanding the leather though but I guess the liquid is also acting as a lubricant to the sanding paper. | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 416 Registered: 5-2001 |
re:"the underside has no fabric or leather on them,only foam." Why are you expecting more? The only one who'd normally see the bottom of a seat is a service tech. That's all my seats had, & I'm pretty sure the leather is original. The leather was fastened with 'hog rings' to the perimeter of the frame. The rest of the underside was foam molded over the rubber straps that serve as springs. | ||||
| Jerry H (Jerry)
Junior Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 131 Registered: 3-2001 |
What does the underside of the 308 seats look like from the factory? I have recovered seats and the underside has no fabric or leather on them, only foam. I am reying them in two weeks and want to finish the underside better than they are today. | ||||
| Kelly (Tifosi1)
Member Username: Tifosi1 Post Number: 440 Registered: 2-2002 |
Well to bring you up todate. I did not let them dry for two days. I wet sanded and cleaned with Laquer thinner. Cleaned with the prep and repeated this several times. I then dye the passenger seat with a rag. It was easy, you just rubbed it into the leather. The bad news, the drivers seat had two rips. I tried sewing and I finished by glueing. I put in the crack filler and it never looked right. i gave up last thursday night after working on the cracks for a week. I'm having the bottom of the seat redone in Connely Leather for $225.00 Sorry, but it just did not look right. It made the seat look like it had a sore. Alden who is doing the work, said he could tell that I wore shorts in the car. He said that I sweated on the leather and the cracks were exactly where my leg touched the seat. He said he sees it all the time from people who run. they get in the car after running, get out and never wipe down the seats. They need to get the leather replaced every year. I'm getting seat covers now. Frank told me that Foa has some for $200.00. I should get it back by next Friday. I'll take some Pics then and you can see, it does look beautiful. I redyed the rest of the interior today and it came out great. Thanks for all your help. Kelly | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 414 Registered: 5-2001 |
Kelley, The lowest photo looks just right, the grain is starting to show thru. Hard to tell with the others because of the black & the angle of the lighting. The real test is the fingers. If it feels soft & flexable after the Rejuvinator oil, and the oil soaks thru into the leather. It'll be fine. Patiencs is everything here. Let the Rejuv. oil soak in. Wash w/Prestine clean & then dry for at least 2 days. Then w/Surface Prep & another couple of days. Wipe on the dye in vy thin layers & PRESTO!! | ||||
| Kelly (Tifosi1)
Member Username: Tifosi1 Post Number: 436 Registered: 2-2002 |
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| Kelly (Tifosi1)
Member Username: Tifosi1 Post Number: 435 Registered: 2-2002 |
Ok here's what my seats looked like after I stripped them and let them soak in the oil for a couple of days.  
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| Jerry H (Jerry)
Junior Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 129 Registered: 3-2001 |
I don't know if Ric will thank me for this post but Ric Rainbolt re-"dyed" his TR interior a month or so ago. Although I have not seen the interior completly assembled I have seen it in about the 50% mark. It is absolutly FLAWLESS. I was never so impressed with a interior rework. He explained to me the process and I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon helping and observing his procedure. Taking your time and attention to detail was the real trick I saw in it. Ric used a hair dryer to flash dry VERY light coats of the paint/dye. The result was a sheen identical to the oem. The light coats also enabled the fine grain to show. I am embarking on my resoration in a few weeks and I will post photos of the before and after. | ||||
| Kelly (Tifosi1)
Member Username: Tifosi1 Post Number: 418 Registered: 2-2002 |
Got it at Wal-Mart. Klean Strip I like it casue it does not dry out the seats. | ||||
| Jerry W. (Tork1966)
Member Username: Tork1966 Post Number: 255 Registered: 7-2001 |
Kelly, what brand of water based stripper did you use? | ||||
| magoo (Magoo)
Advanced Member Username: Magoo Post Number: 3186 Registered: 2-2001 |
Verell, You are correct in that the Ferrari leathers are not Vat dyed. I also have a problem with the leather dyes. They are not dyes the are a coating like painting. The water based ones are the best to use, hold up far better and don't crack or peel. | ||||
| Kelly (Tifosi1)
Member Username: Tifosi1 Post Number: 415 Registered: 2-2002 |
I have started the process. I gave up on Acetone and Lacquer thinner and went to a water base stripper that is really taking the stuff off quick. I like the stripper becasue it does not dry out the leather like the other stuff. you wash it off with water. So far I got the top of the drivers seat done and it is now getting the oil treament for a week. I'll let yawl know how I make out. Thx for all your help Verell. Kelly | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 378 Registered: 5-2001 |
I agree, far better to touch-up wear areas on the dye film well before you wear down to the leather. Even before the re-dye I'd touched-up the heavy wear areas on my driver's bolsters to protect the leather. It didn't quite match the old faded dye, but it protected the surface until I could do the full dye job. Another nice thing about the leatherique, is you can easily put a very thin coat on to refresh the color if you get some sun fadeing, or spill something on that leaves the surface slightly stained. A little bit on a staining sponge or piece of terry cloth & it just blends in. | ||||
| Jeff Edison (Euro308guy)
New member Username: Euro308guy Post Number: 42 Registered: 7-2002 |
Nice job, I re-dyed my seats years ago with Leatherique. They look new like yours. I think you'll be especially pleased in years to come when, as they wear, they touch up right back to new again with ease. This is a BIG advantage over getting them re-skinned. | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 376 Registered: 5-2001 |
re: color change Well, parts of my seat were dark brown leather after I stripped them. Also, both my steering wheel, and the places where I used crack filler were both white. The brown stripped leather quickly took the dye & assumed it's color after 3-4 light coats. The white took a few more coats completely cover it. IMHO, a complete color change might take a few more thin coats of dye, but it will be a complete change. Go for it! The leatherique 'dye' looks, feels, & behaves very much like a latex semi-transparent wood stain, or maybe a slightly translucent latex paint. It's really as easy to use as a latex stain or paint. It also cleans up with soap & water if it hasn't dried. If you drop it on something & let it dry, 'goof off' will clean it off, even after 3-4 days drying. While useing it, I decided that I was in actuality painting my seats. If it looks & quacks like a .... CONNOLLY DIDN'T VAT DYE! Popular rumor to the contary, Connolly leather of 308 vintage is not vat dyed. It was tanned, and then it was 'spray painted' with the dye. The dye only penetrated into the pores and other fine crevices that form the leather's grain. (See the stripped section of my seat.) It then covered the rest of the leather with a thin originally flexable film. VAT DYED IS ALL THE WAY THRU: My motorcycle leathers are vat dyed. The color completely penetrated the leather. If you cut a piece of vat dyed leather, or scrape/wear it down, its still a uniform color through the entire thickness. | ||||
| Roderick Keeler (Dr_carguy)
New member Username: Dr_carguy Post Number: 5 Registered: 8-2002 |
Has anybody tried a color change with the Leatherique products? George says it's as easy as redying, but I'd really like to get someone's real world experience. -Rod | ||||
| Mike Charness (Mcharness)
Junior Member Username: Mcharness Post Number: 64 Registered: 8-2002 |
Verell -- thanks for the nice comments. Good to know people actually read and use some of the stuff I put out!  Mike | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 373 Registered: 5-2001 |
KUDOS DUE MIKE CHARNESS My comment in my earlier post doesn't begin to express the deep appreciation I have for Mike's write-up. Shortly after I got my car, someone pointed me to the FerrariList.com web site. It had hot links to two Ferrari FAQ sites. One of the first articles I read on the The FCA Northwest Region's Ferrari FAQ site was Mike's article: http://www.ferrariclub.com/faq/leatherdye.html I'm not sure I would have tackeled the job myself without his article! It gave me a detailed procedure to follow. This in turn gave me confidence that I could do a professional job, & pointed me to Leatherique. THANKS MIKE FOR GETTING ME STARTED!!! RE: SEAT REMOVAL? Yes, I removed the seats & then pulled the hinge off, & the hinge screw from the other side. I also masked off the headrest posts & the tops of the little plastic pieces the posts slide into. This is important as lacquer thinner eats the plastic almost instantly(Yes, I do need to find another of the little pieces). I'd only recommend you try to do this job in the car if you are certain that the seats only have the original dye, or maybe one additional coat of dye. It probably takes all of 5 minuites to pull a seat out & pull the hinge/hinge screw off. Less if you have a 6mm hex wrench on an air ratchet. It probably quicker over-all to pull the seat than all the contortions, masking, etc. you have to do to deal with it in the car. Not to mention the risk of accidently dyeing something you never intended to like your carpet. Also, once it's apart, you can properly clean & redye the area where the back joins the bottom. Interestingly enouth, my seats had apparently always been redyed w/o taking them apart. The ONLY part of the seats that seemed to have only one coat of dye was the area at the joint between the front & back seate! That's how I discovered that there was some beautiful grain hidden under all that dye! APPLYING DYE I did not spray my seats. BRUSHED PIPEING & CRACK SEALER I used a cheap hobby shop brush to paint the dye on the pipeing, the strip down the middle of each seat, & where I'd used crack sealer. USED STAINING SPONGE FOR THE REST I used a terry covered 'staining sponge' from the wood staining dept of a local HW store. With the sponge I could put on as much or as little dye as I wanted, & rub it in. I could also get it down into cracks & crevices. I gave each seat 4-5 complete coats, with another 2-3 coats in heavy wear areas. Each coat was very thin, almost transparent. Just wiped a coat on with the sponge. By the time I'd finished with a coat on the entire seat, the previous coat was dry enough for me to wipe on the next coat. BTW, the leatherique dye goes a LONG way! I bet I only used 6 or 7 ounces for both seats! BTW, I did NOT completely strip the hard backs of the seats. The backs are somethingn hard, probably fibreglass, with leather stretched over them. Then a coat of something that took a grain pattern was applied. When I stripped a small section at the bottom of the back, I discovered I'd lost the grain! So I just used lacquer thinner with a green scotchbrite pad to get the top layer or so off, then preped & re-dyed. | ||||
| Eric Eiland (Eric308gtsiqv)
Member Username: Eric308gtsiqv Post Number: 414 Registered: 11-2001 |
Verell...the interior turned out terrific! Very well done. The Leatherique system is great, isn't it? I just finished the re-dye on mine today, and I was ecstatic with the results. Later, I'll post some pics, etc. in another thread. George, owner of Leatherique, stopped by Friday and got me started on the project. He gave me some "inside" secrets and tips, and even loaned me his airbrush / generator! I'll brag some more on them later. Did you take your seats out to do the re-dye? I did my entire interior "installed" in the car...from rejuvination to pristine clean to prep agent to sanding to re-dye. Hind-sight, I think it would have been much easier with the seats-out -- at least that is what my lower back is telling me right now  . | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 371 Registered: 5-2001 |
Mike, Yes, I started with 2 sets of directions. One was your write-up, & the other was Leatherique's instructins. I did my passenger's seat late in the summer of '01. Your instructions probably saved me a lot of mistakes. However, I ran into dye removal problems from the start. MANY MANY OLD COATS OF DYE DON'T STRIP OFF W/WET SAND & LACQUER THINNER The biggest problem I ran into was that my old dye didn't want to strip with just lacquer thinner & a terry towell. I must have spent 2-3 hours on the bottom of my passenger seat & had barely got the 1st 2 coats off! No fun in 95 degree weather with a organic vapor mask on. I then remembered a tip someone posted & switched to using blocks of green scotchbrite from the HW store. Even with the scotch brite, I spent 2 full days on my passenger's seat before I decided I must have gotten enough dye off. I took off somewhere between 3 & 4 distinct dye layers. All were close to the same color, but all were slightly different colors. However, I never could really got down to where I could see the leather's grain as you can in the 2nd picture below. Since I couldn't seem to get any more of the dye off, I stopped. I then put the seat back together slathered it with rejuvinator oil, left the bagged seat in the sun for a couple of days. Slathering more rejuvinator oil on each evening. This went on for a week. I then put the passenger seat in my car & left the bag on it for another week to ensure max. penetration. Then followed the instructions for cleaning & dyeing. PASSENGER SEAT LOOKS GREAT, BUT IS STILL A BIT STIFF. I waan't completely satisfied with the passenger seat's final softness. It was definitely muchly improved, but still had some stiffness to it, especially in areas far away from a seam. I GOT THE DRIVER'S SEAT PROPERLY STRIPPED: Last month I started in on the driver's seat, using lacquer thinner & green scotchbrite. After 15 or 20 minuites on the 1st section of the seat bottom, I took the 1st photo below. I just wasn't getting thru the dye, & the driver's seat seemed to have even more dye coats than the passenger's seat! After some thinking I took a walk out to the deck where my wife was using Strypeze on a table. Said to my self 'that ought to strip the old dye!!!'. I tried it on a section underneath the seat. The Strypeze softened the dye, but not enough to wipe it off with a towel. It also dried the leather out, but it came back w/rejuvinator oil. Finally I hit on slathering strypeze on a section ahead of where I was working, & covering that section with plastic wrap. Meanwhile I was working on a section with more Strypeze & a small toothbrush shaped brass brush. Periodicly I'd wipe the goo off with a terry towel soaked in lacquer thinner. It still took me 2 days (Yes, in 90+ degree weather again) to strip the driver's seat. However, I could see that I was truly down to the leather's surface. I then pretty much followed the same process I used on the passenger's seat. I used up a full pint of rejuvinator oil on the driver's seat! Every day for a week I'd slather it on. It just kept soaking it up! Finally it seemed that it wasn't absorbing any where as much as it had been, so I decided to move to the cleaning & prep phases. I let it dry a week between the cleaning & the prep. Towards the end, I called leatherique & got George himself. He reviewed what I'd done & said that it sounded fine. He also said that they used to sell a powerful dye stripper, but EPA regulations banned it's shipment! Mike, I think that your stripping process works great when there are only a couple of dye coats. Only when there is layer after layer of dye should someone grab the Strypeze & brass brush. RE: STEERING WHEEL Yes, I dyed it also. I really like the way it came out. There's a bit of a story behind it. While I was doing my passenger seat, I saw an eBay listing for a 'Ferrari 328 White steering wheel'. It really was a white leather wrapped MOMO wheel! The auction was close to ending, so I said 'what the heck, it looks like it's going cheap, bid $75 and got it for $72! It arrived brand new. The seller had had Ferrari special order it for his wife's new white 328, back in '89. However, it took forever to arrive & the 328 had gotten traded for another car in the meantime. Anyway, I just masked the black off, Gave it 3-4 rejuvinator oil treatments, cleaned, prepped & dyed it while I was doing the same to my driver's seat. I really like the 328 wheel better than my car's original wheel. The rim is a bit thicker & is scupltured in the grip areas. Really changed the 'feel' of the car! RE: CRACK FILLER I used it, but much much less than I thought I was going to. Most of the cracks turned out to be in the dye coats, and the leather just had a mild crease in it when the dye was stripped. You can see this in the photos. I did have a couple of true scratches that I filled in & they're undetectable. I did use crack filler to re-grain the driver seat's left bolster where it was somewhat worn off. Also the seat hinge had cut the leather. After filing the seat hinge smooth, I sewed up the leather & used crack filler to hide the sewing. I'm very happy with the repair. You can't see it at all. I've got photos of the repair end to end. I'll post them when I get a chance to resize them so they'll upload. Dr. Tommy, IMHO, you probably could have saved your original leather. It's hard to tell from a photo for sure, but I don't see anything that looks unrepairable. | ||||
| Robert Davis (H2oquick)
Junior Member Username: H2oquick Post Number: 194 Registered: 8-2001 |
Great job Verell! Looking at your seats they look soft...leather wise....mine are as hard as boards..... | ||||
| jeff ryerson (Atheyg)
New member Username: Atheyg Post Number: 36 Registered: 8-2002 |
They look like new, very nice Did you need to use any of the crack filler? | ||||
| Dr Tommy Cosgrove (Vwalfa4re)
Member Username: Vwalfa4re Post Number: 297 Registered: 5-2001 |
Here is my old seat cover next to the new seat. It was actually torn in a few places as you can see so maybe a re-dye wouldn't have been enough.  | ||||
| Dr Tommy Cosgrove (Vwalfa4re)
Member Username: Vwalfa4re Post Number: 296 Registered: 5-2001 |
I have seen Mike's car and he did an outstanding job as well. Makes me wonder if I screwed up replacing the leather in my car instead of a re-dye. | ||||
| Mike Charness (Mcharness)
Junior Member Username: Mcharness Post Number: 53 Registered: 8-2002 |
Verell: VERY nice! I don't know if you reviewed my Leather Restoration article at www.fca-se.org/concours.htm but it may be helpful to anyone else thinking of doing a similar project. There's also a link there to photos of my redone interior www.tradetutor.com/photos/interior/ Mike | ||||
| Don Norton (Litig8r)
Junior Member Username: Litig8r Post Number: 118 Registered: 6-2001 |
That's really nice. One of my winter projects is to redye the seats in mine. Does anyone with the older 308 seats (with the black dividers) have any experience using Leatherique? I'm wondering how difficult it is to do it where the seats are tan with the black leather trim. | ||||
| Dr Tommy Cosgrove (Vwalfa4re)
Member Username: Vwalfa4re Post Number: 291 Registered: 5-2001 |
Looks great. Did you do the steering wheel too? | ||||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 368 Registered: 5-2001 |
I can't help bragging, I'm so happy with my seat redye I just have to share it!!! I finally finished redyeing my seats w/Leatherique custom matched dye. I gave them the full treatment. Since they had 4-5 layers of old dye, the recommended wet sanding & rubbing wa terry cloth soaked in lacquer thinner barely started to strip them. In this picture, the right-hand front corner section of the driver's seat had the recommended sanding/lacquer thinner rub-off. As you can see, there's still a lot of old dye remaining:  I ended up using Strypeze w/a brass toothbrush to get the old dye stripped down to where the leather's beautiful grain was clearly visable as shown here:  However, the final results were worth the effort:  The full effect is a renewed interior:  |
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