About 4 years ago I refurbed the sports seats on my 64 using a kit from furniture clinic. It was a bit of a rush job TBH with seats left in the car and the dye sponged on. Still, it looked not too bad until recently.

I was quoted £600 to have the seats professionally dyed, so being a cheapskate I decided to by the dye and start again...

First step is to get the seats out the car and mask up the red beading. Took about 2.5 hours in all!:



Photo of how bad the seats were in some areas:



With the seats masked-up the original hard wearing coating is removed with a prep solution. An alcohol cleaner is then used to lift any old dye. This took about 2.5 hours again:



Dye is then applied with a sponge, two coats, taking time to get into a
all the nooks. Following this a smart repair gun is used to build up the dye. Mr Dobson Snr at the controls! At 34 I'm still the apprentice!:



With the colour on a hard wearing gloss coat is applied by gun:



Finally, the gloss is toned down with a mix of matt and satin lacquer. About 3 hours of gun work in total:



Seats un-masked




Fitted:

 

Wow great job, I love the piping

 

Forgot to mention I hand dyed the piping red after those photos to brighten it up

Chris

 

Looks ace. the 'prep' solution, did it take all the old dye off? What steering wheel is that?

 

Between prep solution and alcohol cleaner and a lot of elbow grease all old dye was removed. Seats were almost plastic feeling before, now they are far better.

Steering wheel is a rep of a momo wheel, as wanted the red stitch to match dash, doors and centre console.

Looking for the real item ATM.

Chris

 

I've got my drivers seat out and the colour difference front to back is pee'ing me off. They have been refurbed in light brown and not Linen.

Where did you get the materials?

 

From Furniture Clinic bud. Their head office is just up the road from me, but most people mail order the stuff. They do a full kit with airbrush for about £80 I think.

I found the dye too thick for the airbrush tho.

Chris

 

Great result & that masking up on the piping looks like a right tedious job..... That trim colour looks great but when I'm working on customers cars with that light colour carpet I take my shoes off as you only have to look at it and it marks....but being a OCD owner like myself I'm sure it's no problemo

 

I can understand the masking but it still touches the piping. How do yo get the dye right up into the piping without smudging it?

 

The piping flexes, so when it's masked you can pull it to one side for applying the linen colour. When the masking is removed it was a case of being careful with a fine brush to brighten up the red on the piping.

Chris

 

Black over-mats help, but it needs a regular wet vacuum before shows

Chris

 

Wow. Great job!

 

Nice work Chris

Cheers,
Paul

 

Outstanding results, well done.

 

I love the piping too! Gives it lots of details.