Leather Restoration (Help Needed!)

Not sure if Leatherique will work with those--look pretty rough. I would have them recovered to look almost new!!

 

If you haven't gotten to the point of turning the leather into suede, you can dye over the marks/stains. You're going to have to build up with several coats, though, to get rid of any translucent effect which shows through. You *might* consider using a white dye first to lighten those areas in order to get smoother color with the regular dye. But if it was me, since you said it does come off, I'd continue to use lacquer thiner (maybe even acetone) WITHOUT rubbing hard... just enough to continue take off whatever that is so you don't go through the leather's outer skin into suede. If you go through, or have already gone through the outer skin into suede, you'll need to coat those areas lightly with Leatherique's "crack filler" before redying.

I suggest calling George Pavlisco himself over at Leatherique (if you can catch him when he's not out of the office on travel) and get his expert opinion.

Mike

 

Sometimes you have to resort to something more aggressive than lacquer thinner. Based on George's advice, some of us have used paint stripper with good results. I used Strypeze, & Tifosi1 used a water based thinner from Walmart:

REDYED SEATS LOOK GREAT!!!
http://70.85.40.84/~ferrari/discus/messages/256120/134850.html

Too bad the pix didn't survive the Fchat hard drive crash.

After stripping, the leather should be treated with Leatherique's Rejuvinator & then allow several weeks for it to thoroughly penetrate before being cleaned with Prestine clean & dye prep. I didn't have a problem, but there have been reports of dye not holding if it's applied too soon after a rejuvinator treatment.

 

You can bring it to the shop in Aiken if you wish, PLEASE call 877-395-3366 first. Mike is correct from the pictures you MAY have suede. This can be fixed with 800 paper DRY which will polish the hyde then you can brush on some color. The blending is the problem. Sorry i am not mores active on the forum been up to my %*#^@( since th show in November.

 

Man...those seats look like CRAP!!! ;-)

 

I agree - what the hell happened here? good luck to you!
gordon

 

I agree - what the hell happened here? good luck to you!
gordon

 

Actually...John will know I'm just kidding around. He'll be the person I go to when I start my leather R&R in a month or so...

 

I just redid the leather in my Mondial with the Color-Plus system, and they came out great. Excellent product, easy to work with. The key to their system is the rejunvenator/leather conditioner. After using their cleaner and then cleaning again with laquer thinner, you use the rejuvenator oil to recondition the leather. I did several coats with it over a couple of days, and then let it soak in for a couple of weeks. The driver's seat was pretty rough, with some staining, off-color patches, and a couple of gouges. I used their filler, evened things up. Then, before color coat was applied, I cleaned the seats again, carefully, with laquer thinner. The color coat went on in several thin coats, and dried to a like-new finish.

Check out www.colorplus.com. Great stuff. NAYYY, just a very happy customer. And what's really nice about the color coat -- it's water based. So clean-up is easy.

 

I've done several interior restorations and always use the Leatherique. After they are stripped try some light sanding with 1200 wet paper ussing the prepping agent. Be sure not to go too far as you will turn the leather to suede. I always use an air brush to reapply the dye. When doing so I do about 30-40 coats of dye VERY thin. You will get excellent results if you just take your time and be very conservative with each coat. Also, the thinner you apply the less likely you will get any build up on the stitching. Just make sure you cover every inch so not to leave uneven spots

Wade

 

Wade:
Why did you choose to use an air brush? Have you tried aerosol cans? Brushing it on?
Ed

 

Yes I have tried them all, brush on, dabb on, aerosol, and sponging it on. You cannot beat a good quality air bush. You have more control over each layer of dye. It usually does not clump or run. Granting you have some experience using the air brush. I swear by it. I have done numerous interior restos and they all come out very nice.


Wade

 

Wade's right on in that the key to using Leatherique's dye is to apply thin, light coats, letting each coat flash dry before applying the next coat.

Any application method that applies thin coats should work fine.

As I mentioned in my old Fchat post, I get excellent results applying leatherique with a HW store staining sponge. Initially I dampened the sponge with water, then squeezed it as dry as I could by hand. Then poured some leatherique dye onto the sponge & mixed it into the sponge to spread it out. Then began applying the dye by hand, refreshing the sponge with more dy as inecessary. The 1st 3 or 4 coats looked very uneven, then everything started blending together & by the 5th or 6th coat the color was completely uniform.

 

I agree I just completed a restoration with only two coats of leatherique. The product is truly fantastic. Be sure to prep well and take your time.

Like mentioned above, the key is thin coats. I'm very impressed with the results.

 

308nut- when using an air brush to apply leatherique, does it need to be thinned ? (50% laquer thinner etc?)

 

Leatherique dye is water based, (think latex paint). That's why it doesn't harden over time like the lacquer based dyes.

It's fairly thin, but still is thick enough so that you'll probably have to thin it a bit for most air brushes to handle it & give good atomization.

BTW, if you're spraying, allow lots of room for overspray as about half of what you're spraying will drift away.

 

I bought an Ferrari sport seat which was in need of a dye job and I applied the Leatherique with a cheap Testors air can airbrush and it worked great. Previous to this I had never used an airbrush in my life. Just get a cardboard box and first shoot the leatherique on the cardboard to test it and to adjust your spray. The folks at leatherique will tell you how to thin it for this application. Once you have done the leather prep, the spraying is the easy part. Good luck.