Marine Blue

For years I've been searching for leather touch up paint which would eliminate the scratches and scuffs due to time/mileage. Here is a brief description of what I did to restore the leather.

Initial cleaning was with Leatherique Rejuventor/Prestine Clean and more recently with Leathermasters Strong cleaner.

I sent an email to Paul Champagne (THANK YOU PAUL!) asking for advice on how to redye/repaint leather in areas where the color has worn. He suggested Leather Magic's colorant products and mentioned that he had great results with their products.

About two weeks ago I finally ordered the product and gave it a try today. I didn't do any additional preperaton although it is suggested if your have a larger area to repair.

I applied it with a very fine tipped artist brush to help control application. The paint wasn't a perfect match which I suspect is due to age/sun of the 20 year old leather.

As I applied the paint I immediately used my finger tip to help blend it into the surroundings. Doing this made it nearly impossible to see where the leather was repainted. My finger helped spread the paint into the worn unpainted areas, the painted areas did not accept the paint so it made the application easy. Some areas reaquired two to three coats to fully cover the wear.

Here are a few pictures of the before and after. Note that the first pictures of the seat bolster when I bought the car and the second is what it looked like after cleaning. The rest are self explanatory. Feel free to ask questions.

IcemanG17

Afshin
That turned out VERY good!!

borland

Looks good. You might want to add another layer, but be careful you don't apply to much and mask the natural grain of the leather.

A little late, but to improve adhesion of the dye, you can use a tooth brush and leather cleaner to remove the grease from the leather before using the dye. Just need to make sure you let it completely dry before applying the dye otherwise the dye may have a problem adhering to the old leather and also wear much faster.

Color matching in different kinds of lighting can be difficult, although some colors are easy to match.

Your interior color looks to be 'Silk Grey' which Porsche only offered in 89' and 90'. You might also have 'linen grey' which they also offered that year. Did you order by color description or did you have to send a sample?

Got a link to the company web site? Prices?

Rob Edwards

Looks great !

What color code is your interior, Afshin? My GTS has a tri-color interior, with black dash/console, midnight blue carpets, and light gray seats. Here are the codes from the build sheet:


Interior Trim: MT
Interior Trim: Lthtt/Lthr Seat-Lt Grey/Black
Interior Equipment Code: KL Leatherette
Seat Combination Number: AQL
Seat Cushion Material: LED Leather
Seat Side Support Material: LE Leather
Seat Back Material: LE Leather
Carpet Color Code: 6YR

Sorry, totally washed out seats in the shot that shows all three colors:




Borland- where'd you get the MY availability of 'Silk Grey'? I'd be interested to know how that compares to Linen, vs. Light Grey.

Also, where'd you get the product, direct from Leather Magic, or a dealer? Half the webpages at Leather Magic's website are 'Page Not Found'

At least here's their Porsche color chart: Here's http://www.leathermagicpro.com/Pages...ecolrchart.htm

TOGWT

Leather or Viynl repair / re-colouring - http://www.magicmender.com/

Marine Blue

In a few of the spots I needed 3 coats to get proper color match, the brake handle for exampled needed this.

I did clean the leather with Leathermasters strong and a leather brush and I would strongly recommend this to anyone before they recolor. With the leather completely clean the colorant stuck to the unpainted areas like crazy glue. When I was sliding my finger over the cracks to remove the excess I did it almost immediately after applying the colorant and noted that it stayed in all the right place. I also dried quickly and it is perfectly pliable, really impressed at how easy it was.

Leathermagic has a Porsche specific color chart so it makes it easy to find the common colors. They also offer match to sample if you have a custom color. The only drawback to this paint is that it doesn't have the same satin look as the factory, if you look closely (a few inches away) you will see that it is slightly duller.

I spent 15 minutes on the phone trying to explain what I was trying to do and the guy was pushing me to buy the entire kit. Since I had no intention to spray the paint and I only needed to cover very small areas I asked for just the colorant which cost $25.00 plus shipping. The technique I used wasn't explained anywhere, I kind of figured it out after adding too much colorant to an area and I quickly used my finger to wipe off the excess. I realized at that time that it worked perfectly to blend and remove excess. I have a ton left over so I can touch up again in the future. Heres the link to what I bought: http://www.leathermagic.com/Pages/clrcoats_Dyes.htm

Rob I posted the link above for the recolor. If you're covering larger areas you may want to opt for the kit. My interior is Linen and Navy but I haven't yet figured out what color navy it is. The color code on the window sticker says QD for the interior code, not sure where to look fo find what it is. Are you going to touch up the GTS or GT?

S4ordie

Looks fantastic! Great job.

Your seat release levers look like htey are covered in leather. Is this true? I don't think I've seen any other release levers in any color other than black unless they have been painted or covered after the fact.

Marine Blue

Good Catch. Yeah the Seat Release levers are covered in leather as are a bunch of other things like the seat belt releases, hand brake surround, roof, rear hatch etc etc etc. Its good and bad, leather shrinks and I'm fighting to prevent it.

heinrich

Very rare to see full leather ... it was an X50 option or something, I'm sure you've seen the brochure pics posted on RL before Afshin. Tres Cool!!!

JWise

Hi Afshin,

I just found some sport seats for my GT. The passenger side is like new, as is the driver's side with the exception of some bolster wear (see attached). I will follow your (and Paul Champagne's) advice in coloring, unless you think I should use a different method. Your opinion please, and thank you.

If any other experts would like to chime in, I would appreciate your input and advice as well. Thanks!

Marine Blue

Jarrod, very nice find with those sports seats.

This technique will work perfectly for the wear on those seats. The only time I would be hesitant to use something like this is if the leather was damaged (torn) or if it had really deep scratches. You would need to fill these areas first to get decent results. Minor scuffs will redye very nicely and blend perfectly with the surroundings.

Please post some before and after pics!

Marine Blue

Jarrod, don't skip the cleaning steps. Cleaning will help prepare the untreated leather for the dye.

JWise

That's what I was hoping to hear. Clean, redye, post pics, done.

I'll go look at your thread over on RW for pointers as well. Thanks Afshin!

GlisteningTech

Truly Proper Detailing is all about the little stuff. Every little thing. For those of us who are truly and wholly OCD, it is soothing to take care of the little stuff like that.

Good job on the repair, I know how hard it is to make it look as if nothing ever happened rather than something that was damaged and repaired.

Awesome to see that level of dedication and attention to detail.

pushtiulk

Great job with that touch up paint.
@JWise: You can contact leatherique and send them the pictures. They have good leather products (inclusive dye) and they will advice what should you do to re-dye your seat.