Did a Delta Vehicle Systems shifter console and center console upgrade on the LS3-80. With the center console came the leather cover option. It comes in raw leather which we figured would be fine but it was enough of a difference from the oak leather that we decided to try and match it.
Now I know very little about working with leather so I contacted someone that knew a whole lot more than I did. He being the local guy who does interiors for hot rods and private planes. The guy’s work is unbelievable.
I called him and asked for a suggestion of where to buy leather dye (since my initial searches came up empty). His response was “why?”
He said that dyeing leather is something that is generally done in large batches when you want to maintain the visual grain structure. He said that for something tiny like a center console cover he just uses SEM paint. A paint!? A paint.
Off to the local professional auto body paint supply where, as it turns out, they carry every single variation of SEM colors that are offered. It was a gold mine.
Started with the “vinyl” prep and finished it off with SEM 15893 Med. Prairie Tan. It was a near perfect match.
First console image is raw leather. The other two are post paint. In the images I noticed that the camera doesn’t pic up the color variance the way the human eye does. I think it’s likely because the newly painted piece is more photon reflective and looks “brighter”. It’s not. So I tweaked the color in the photo to give a better idea of the color match to real life.
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