seat dye experiment -before and after

[Ceeker]

Well, I never used dye before but thought I would try my hands at it. I bought "sure coat" dye - indigo color and used 25psi, and spray gun to apply.

Here are the results. I am pretty pleased at my first attempt. the leather is still very pliable and not hard; did fill minor cracks and imperfections but the larger cracks didn't do so well. I suppose if I fixed those before with leather repair it would have been good. well, live and learn. :-)

[thebutcher37]

Dude.. that looks good...

Encouragement!

[CW325]

Nice! How much prep work?

[poopin04]

That looks great dude.

[Ceeker]

the prep work if you want to do a thorough job would require breaking the seats down. Taking the tracks and mechs off and whatever is removable. tape the rest off. Separate the back from the bottom. then it's scrub time with a 3m green pad and special soap by sem. rinse with water and wipe with clean cloth/micro fibre. then use a sem cleaner for vinyl and leather. again use a different cloth and wipe. then you are ready to spray. I would say you'd need a total of about 6 hours. tear down, prep and application with drying time between. I just finished my passenger seat, rear bottom and front seat backs since my first post. the product I used was "Surecoat"

the final thing...lots of patience. :-)

[Garageaholic]

Looks amazing, but next tinge post the pics directly on the forum as opposed to attached pics. I think I speak for everybody here when I say that I hate to open another window.

[Ceeker]

Looks amazing, but next tinge post the pics directly on the forum as opposed to attached pics. I think I speak for everybody here when I say that I hate to open another window.

thanks for the tip guys.

yeah it is cheaper then re upholster, and would say the work is less as well. I have now done both type of work so I know from experience.
Nothing is better then new leather; but for the money and time this is your best bet to refresh it. As long as the leather is not completely beat, hard and cracked. then it is done for. Also, the leather can't have the suede come through. it won't work out.

[chadthestampede]

Put the url of the image in between [img][/img] tags

[thebutcher37]

Ditto on posting pics....

But damn... I already cheered once but ill say it again, It looks great!

[beybedba]

nice

[absolutdog]

looks great!!

[sector6]

Looks good!
I'm in the process of doing the same thing with my sport interior using Leatherique. It looks mint so far.
Which product(s) are you using? Did you brush it or spray it?

[Ceeker]

Looks good!
I'm in the process of doing the same thing with my sport interior using Leatherique. It looks mint so far.
Which product(s) are you using? Did you brush it or spray it?

I used sem soap, sem vinyl leather prep cleaner (solvent) and then a product called "SURECOAT" for the dye. used an 25psi air gun to lay the paint down.

I didn't go with leatherique only because I didn't want to wait for the product. I've seen it locally on a couple cars and it doesn't look bad at all.
I think more or less the chemical composition is the same.

[sector6]

I used sem soap, sem vinyl leather prep cleaner (solvent) and then a product called "SURECOAT" for the dye. used an 25psi air gun to lay the paint down.

I didn't go with leatherique only because I didn't want to wait for the product. I've seen it locally on a couple cars and it doesn't look bad at all.
I think more or less the chemical composition is the same.

I'll have to get some pics up after I'm done. I went with a brush being that I don't have access to spray equipment. Surprisingly, it is coming out very nice. I used the "rejuvenating oil", then cleaned them with "pristine clean", applied the "crack filler" on a few areas where the leather was starting to crack, wet sanded with 600 grit using "prepping agent" instead of water and re-sanded with 1000 grit (sanding lightly). Then brushed on the dye in light coats.

It is labor intensive, but the results are worth it. GL with the rest of your project!

[tonerrrr]

Great job!