jlturpin

Well, since I have been very limited as to what i could do while recovering from surgery I decided to re-dye the seats and carpet in my 951 while the engine is out, I am also preparing for 968 door panels that are beige, to be burgundy along with the carpet.
Right now the 968 panels are 2 tone, black up top, and beige below. Should I leave the black as is and have two tone door panels? I am going to switch to a black 930S steering wheel and may switch to a black shift **** so that everything flows.

I have used all leatherique products, Rejuvenator oil, Prestine Clean, Prepping agent, Custom dyes, and crack filler for this project. I also used some laquor thinner to help get the old dye off since it was not water based dye.

I can really work on the engine yet, hopefully very soon. Anyway, I thought I would share some photos of before and after.
Before shots, one of the seats has been treated with Rejuvenator oil.

Before, Seat on right treated with Rejuvenator Oil, made a huge difference in leather feel and pliability. But as you can tell from the swatches, years of sun and use have faded them.

Photo of seat being prepared for re-dye.

I uncovered some places where the leather was very thin, and was through the top grain, so I made repairs using donor leather from another Porsche Seat.


I used the leather, cutting out a section about 1" wider than the hole and put it back to back and used leather/fabric glue for the repair. This shows the size that is under the repair.


I then used paper and a sharpie to make a template to fit the hole, and transfered it to the leather donor piece


Here is the trimmed repair piece in place.


After the glue and crack filler cured, I sanded it down to a smooth finish for re-dye.


This is a finished dyed seat, dye cured and Rejuvenator oil applied for 24 hours. The leather is butter soft.


Since this was a "busy" project. I took the time to clean out every hole in the perforated leather. This made a huge improvement on the finished product.


Wish there was some way to allow you to feel the leather after this project and using Leatherique Rejuvenator oil. The 25 Year old leather is as soft and pliable as any new leather I have seen.




Photo of the complete re-dyed seat



Finally my 968 carpeted door panel redyed. One is the base read carpet dye, a swatch of the factory burgundy carpet and finally a carpet dye I custom matched to the factory carpet. I still need to add a little red to get a perfect match, but in regular light without the flash, this is a 99.9% match to the orginal.


If anyone has questions about the project, repairs or products I used, please let me know.

MortenKoch

wow.... what an awesome project. With a very satisfying result. Impressive I must say. Did you have any experience in this kind of work before. My seats are currently not in a need for fixing, but this seems like a very good alternative to repolstering your seats when they are worn out.

jlturpin

Thanks. As far as experience, very little, but I do have a bad case of OCD, so perfection is what I am after. Being hurt allowed me to not rush the project. But I also learned a lot to get to this point and could do it much quicker on my next project. Since I had several weeks to work on them, sometimes I could only work on them for a few minutes at a time due to pain. But now I will be able to provide a full write up with details to get the same results. I probably could have recovered the seats much quicker, but it would have been much more expensive and even know there are some great vendors who sell seat covers, they still are not orginal. Thanks for your kind comments.

Boeing 717

Im doing the same thing right now,

1) how long did you leave the rejuvinator oil on before you put the dye on????

2) did you airbrush the dye on???

Thanks
JERRY

jlturpin

1. I found it absorbed much better after the dye was removed. I applied it 2-3 times and let it sit for 24-48 hours. Some areas absorbed it so fast i could not message it in to the entire seat before I had to add more to that area.

2. I tried several different methods, the seat in the photo, the dye was applied with a very small roller with short nap, and a brush to burn in the areas around the piping and between the bolsters and center sections. I have also used my detail air gun to spray the other seat I am working on. The other method I have tried is dabbing. Using a damp bounty paper towel formed into a mushroom shape and just dab it on. The leather really lets the dye penetrate the fibers.

I think you coud have a successfull project with any of the above methods with patience. I also diluted the dye 20-30% with all the above methods. Brushing is possible, but you would have to have a very nice, soft brush to get results with now brush marks.

Boeing 717

Thanks John........

I have put the rejuvinator oil on twice pretty thick and it all sank in do you think thats enough or should i do more??? The reason i ask is i was looking on a ferrari post where some guy said he could not get the Dye to stick because he either over oiled it or did not let it sink in long enough so i was concerned.

Also i was going to put the Dye on with a rag lightly the first time to get it to sink into the leather and then spray it on with an airbrush the second coat, do you think that would be ok???

jlturpin

I used a LOT of rejuvenator ol, a lot. You will need to let it soak up, then you can lightly sand with 1000 grit wet paper and prepping agent. Then use prepping agent liberally again and wipe clean with lint free cloth. I would thin the first coat so that it absorbs. Obviously, you don't want the oil to be dripping out, but I have not found the "too much" level yet. Seriously, my leather is super soft. I would let it sit for 48 hours before starting to dye. The guy on the ferrari forum could have used something with silicone in it or not used the correct prepping agent. Prep is the key, without a doubt. But even on leatherique's site they say use around 4 ounces per seat, and repeat as necessary.

Use a paper towel, and dab it on, the leather should soak it up, and dry quickly. Once you have a good base coat then you can spray it. The small roller did a great job for the same purpose you are talking about also.