Dyeing my seats

Hey guys, there are some places on my leather that's a little thin as far as the colour goes. The leather isn't necessarily worn very bad, just some of the dye over time has faded and maybe been rubbed against just enough to remove some of the shade. The seats are as you know "Connolly Leather" (whatever the hell that is) and they're black. Where would I look to get a durable, "factory" grade (or leather shop) quality dye?
Thanks

 

Good thread here:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/ferrari-discussion-not-model-specific/48263-leatherique-leather-renew.html

Matt

 

I was thinking about Leatherique but didn't have the time so at MondiPalooza this past summer, a few of us got a guy from FIBRENEW to come down and retouch our interiors. Great and affordable work ~$125 a seat, I would highly recommend them. My seats look brand new.

Check them out on web:
Automotive Market - Auto Upholstery Repair | Dashboard and Car Scratch Repair

For your state of South Carolina:
Fibrenew North Charleston, Frank Swearington 843 860-3482
Fibrenew of the Midlands, Jeff Shupe 803 223-9336
Fibrenew Upstate, Rick and Lynn Halpin 864 859-8447

Best

 

Here is the article or rather post that I did:
The seats look perfect still even after 4000miles of 4 in the car hanging on for grim death, hot bottoms in the seats.....

I thought I'd post some pictures of my recent seat 'restoration' or rather seat 'tart up a bit'.
However my girlfriend and I got so involved in the task that I completley forgot to take any pictures...and
the only ones I got were once the job was done.
So here are some sequence shots of the seat fix on my friends Lotus V8 instead.
His seat was in quite a bad state and so it's easier to see the contrast.
The colour I used was a Reeves and Windsor and Newton acrylic from an art shop. I have used art acrylics on leather before and found them to be incredibly durable.
I spent about an hour matching several colour mixes to the seats, allowing them to dry for a few mins to see the true colour when dry. Obviously you need a good eye for colour, and the beauty with water based acrylic is that it is very flexable and is not fully permanent for about 12 hours.
The technique is to clean the leather with white spirit, this is a parafin or kerosene based spirit that will NOT strip the leather of its colour and does not leave an oily residue - although doing a test is advised strongly.
Next is to fill any surface cracks in your seats colour with the acrylic colour on a very, very fine brush and allow to dry.
Then using a slightly textured cloth on the end of your finger, lighty stipple the colour on matching the leathers texture.
It is vital that you keep the colour as thin and light as possible at this stage.
Finally you can lightly airbrush some colour for blending the effect in, and then after 24 hours apply a clear wax polish or leather feed.
The trick is to keep it as light and as thin as possible.
If you go too heavy your seats will look like a tart wearing lashings of make-up.
It's the make-up that's light that looks the best because it's only an enhancement not a cover up.
In fact this is a job for the ladies because they know about make-up and subtlety.
So lads maybe if you fancy undertaking a job such as this, get one of the girls to watch over you.
All the best, and have fun, regards Bell Bloke.
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I just wanted to add that acrylic is the stuff to use because it won't strip off the old color or damage it in any way, it's hard wearing and flexible, you can get a perfect colour match, and finally you have 24 hours to decide if you are happy with the job you have done. If you don't like the work you have done just wipe it off and your seats will be completely unmarked.
All the best, Bell.

 

WOW!
Thanks
A lot of stuff I never would've imagined.

 

Looks great! The previous owner did a half baked job on my Mondial - after I get other stuff sorted - I'll focus on restoring the interior!!

Great job!!!

 

Agree, and followed the same process....
Cheers,
Greg

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Fibrenew did a great job on interiors for a few of us Mondial owners this past summer while in PA.
Check out the great work: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/mondial/414082-mondial-interior-work.html
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Mike he even did RV seats at the same time ;-) for a Mondial owner.

 

That looks great. I really like that steering wheel as well. What kind is it?

 

+1 He did a great job due partially to your excellent generator, Claude.

 

That's a classic Nardi wheel

Happy New Year !!

Hank

 

Yes in deed, love my classic wooden Nardi steering wheel with Ferrari BIG Horn!
My car has no power steering assist so the bigger diameter wheel makes manual steering a non-issue.

C H E E R S

 

This product is excellent. Easy to use, cheap, and lasts a long time. I think I paid $60.00 for the kit. When your done you can't tell the difference in color especially Ferrari Connolly black. This product is amazing. Saved me $4000.00

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4f6RdcE8xI]Magic Mender® Leather Repair Kit...a few examples - YouTube[/ame]

 

Yes I guess for the power and the cool interior with the A/C on those very HOT and humid days LOL!