Smiles

I've noticed several posts recently about repairing and replacing leather.

Unless the leather is torn, severely cracked or badly abraded, it can be healed. I used products from www.liquidleather.com and was very satisfied with the results.

Below are seats from a 1967 Ferrari. The seat on the right looked exactly like the seat on the left before treatment. I applied Liquid Leather conditioner to the seats several times and then let the leather absorb the stuff. Then I wiped on dye and immediately wiped off any excess.

The LL treatment helped heal the cracks and the black dye provided the color. The seats now look great.

Most 993 seem to have a color-worn area on the driver's seat bolster from getting in and out of the car. A tiny bit of dye and conditioner can go a long way into making this spot look like new.

I have no affiliation and so on, but Liquid Leather works great. I hope this helps.

Matt

Cactus

I like it.

Texas993

Wow, that is amazing. I wonder if you have more success with black seats. I recently had the tan seats from my Ferrari re-dyed by the best guy in Dallas. While they look good, the improvement is not a dramatic as yours.

Nice job! I sense that you will do this on your new C4S...

Smiles

Thanks, Patrick.

You've got sharp senses. There's a little area on the seatback bolster that needs a little attention. It should look like new when done.

Edward

Nice job, Matt!
Thanks for the post with picture ...I have been contemplating this very thing for a couple of years, literally, but have been too chicken to give it a whirl. You've encouraged me to try it as a summer project!


Edward

Smiles

Good, Edward, and thank you. That's exactly what I want to do: encourage people to try it themselves. It's quite easy.

Matt

JJJMCD

It looks great. A question - how smelly is the treatment and dye? Some of that stuff is pretty toxic.

MarkD

Yes!
You can renew your leather... even just a bolster if you want to freshen it up.
I have used ColorPlus products with the same success, though not as extreme as the pics Smiles posted. That is a great example of what is possible.

Cows don't come in the various colors our seats came in
All of this leather is dyed and if you use a quality product you can get like-new results, as long as the leather is not torn. Cracks are not a problem. They are usually just cracks in the color, not the leather itself.
Good info here: http://www.colorplus.com/frameset_brochure.html (no afilliation but a very happy long term customer. Great service from this small biz)

Edit: not smelly and non-toxic

Smiles

Thanks for asking. I forgot the best part.

The smell of the dye is slightly strong, but disappears as the solvents dry.

But the smell of the Leatherique is wonderful. It smells more like Ferrari leather, if you know what I mean.

briefescape

Not afraid here just satisfied with my dye job . 2 ago years ago and still looking good .
Cheers Guy

Raptor

Smiles, pj, MarkD, briefescape: Does the dye come off on clothing after it has "cured?"

MarkD

No, it is as permanent as anything can be.

993Porsche

Can these products be purchased at local or national stores (Walmarts, Pepboys, Kmart, etc...)?


Ken

MarkD

Not that I know of. I shopped around a bit a few years back.
colorplus sells some popular colors but also can color match anything you send them. Very cool.
As a side note, I have always ordered the smallest quantity they offer... and I have never needed anything close to all of it. A little goes a long ways.

On my 993 turbo, black interior, the drivers bolster was slightly faded. I cleaned it and lightly brushed on the black "sureflex" dye to touch it up. Looks like the rest of the seat now.

I also used it to do a complete color change on a 3 spoke wheel (from gray to black) for my 993 tip since it is hard to find a tip wheel... it looks like a black wheel and is holding up very well.
Great stuff!

briefescape

In my case I rebuild my front seat and the leather I got was not quite the macthing color so I redye both seat and now they are a perfect match

Cheers Guy