Inspired by this forum, I had a go at my leather yesterday

[jlbuk]

My front seats are quite bad, especially the drivers - rear side bolster really worn and nasty, and right down to backing in a small area of the lower side bolster. I should state at this point I'm not that fussy, but as you can see from the pix, it was really bad.

Sourced the kit from a really helpfull UK supplier, including all the tools/solutions, spraygun, and colour matched paint (just sent them a snipet from the underside of the armrest leather).

Process:

Removed the seat - too fiddy to work in there, and glad I did as the fumes from some of the solvents (see later) would have killed me. Note - I'm pretty strong, but these seats are HEAVY !

Before:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00125.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00126.jpg


Rubbed it down with wet n dry sandpaper - started with 1200, but this was too fine - switched to 600 which was good, something even a little courser would work even better.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00128.jpg

Cleaned it down with "leather prep", which removes all the original finish/sealant. The fumes from this are really nasty, working outside essential. Using the sandpaper with the leather prep worked great on the most cracked areas, taking the surface down nicely. Then cleaned it off with the alchohol cleaner, which strips of everything that the prep doesn't (not much as far as I could tell !). Note the now matt finish.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00129.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00130.jpg


Masked it off, and did a trial spray with the supplied, colour matched dye (water based).
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00135.jpg

Note the patch where it's worn down to the backing still looked nasty, so I filled it with the supplied filler:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00136.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00137.jpg


A quick sand down once dry, and a couple more coats of the dye, things were looking better:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00140.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...K/Dsc00141.jpg

To be honest I could have done this better, but ran out of time. I may add a little more filler to that hole, sand and recoat.

What's left now is to add the final sealing / finish (some kind of clear coating). WIll have to wait 'till next weekend though, lucky this one isn't my DD.

Feeling pretty pleased with the results, especially as I was going with the classic 80:20 "results/effort" balance

[thestallionq8]

WOW! Amazing job! Looks real good!

[Romer]

when I bought my truck, my seats looked perfect, but they tended to show cracks in a few months and it was obviously treated to make them look better. It would be interesting to note how long the seats remain looking like that.

I bet you put a lot more work into it then the guy who was just trying to sell a truck so you should be way ahead right there.

Nice job!

[landcruisers4ever]

they turned out really good,great job

[sseaman]

they look good, i'm still working up the courage to do the seats in my avalon, as Ken said i don't want them looking bad or worse a few months down the road

[KurtKuhn]

This looks great! Would really like to see a follow up images in 12 months, especially where the filler is used.

Thanks for the write up.

-KK

[hatman406080]

before

[hatman406080]

after $500

[jlbuk]

hat, your's look as mashed / worse as mine !

Sure, will do an update in 6 months / a year to see how they hold up. To be honest, I'm expecting some degredation, but that they'll still be better than they were !