5242
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5244
Number: 5243
From: "cassman108"
Date: Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:37 pm
Subject: Re: Recaro Seat Resto
Body:
Re: Recaro Seat Resto
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I got the dye from a place called Leatherique (www.leatherique.com).
They have a really good website and excellent customer service, but
I'd be happy to describe the process. They provide all the
cleaners/solutions and dye. They will also do a color match, which I
had done. I took the swatch of leather from the underside of the
seat, where no sun damage/fading had occurred.
Here it goes....
1. Vacuum and wipe down the leather to clean the leather of any large
dust/dirt particles. Disconnect the control panels on the sides of
the seats and cover all plastic pieces with masking tape or similar.
2. If the leather is still soft/supple, the first step is to use an
emulsifier to loosen/soften up the leather a bit more. If the
leather is stiff like cardboard (which my seats were) skip to step
#4. Perform this step in the summer sun or if in the winter (like
me) get a heater in a small room and crank it up to about 90
degrees. I actually made a plastic tent in my basement to help keep
the area nice and warm. [my wife wouldn't let me build it in the
living room :)]
3. Thoroughly clean the leather with a cleaning solution and wipe
down often with a soft cloth.
4. Wet-sand with wet-or-dry sand paper. They recommend using 360
grit, but I used 400 grit to be safe and it worked great. Combine
luke-warm water with vinyl prep solution (i used about 2 oz. of
solution to about 25-30 oz. of water) and use this mixture to wet the
sand paper. Tip #1 - I tried varying concentrations of vinyl prep in
the water while sanding and I found that using more vinyl prep made
sanding the seats easier...meaning that the dirt and old dye came off
easier. The passenger seat (as you saw in the pics) was horrifically
damaged and was hard as a rock. Tip #2 - The other key is to start
off sanding very lightly to see how easy/difficult the dirt/dye comes
off. If you press too hard while sanding, you could ruin the
leather. Tip #3 USE GLOVES WHILE SANDING!!!!!! While doing my first
seat I nearly sanded off my fingernails! I ended up using some
rubber grippy gloves for gardening, which worked okay for the second
seat, but not as good as bare hands.
5. Clean any excess dirt with a clean mixture of the vinyl prep and
luke-warm water. Wipe with a clean cloth often. After this you are
ready to dye.
6. MIX THE DYE REALLY WELL. Dump the entire container of dye into a
sealable plastic container. I used one of those Gladware plastic
containers and shook it up for at least 15 minutes. The dye pigments
are light and separate fairly quickly, so you need to shake the dye
up often.
7. Apply the dye w/ a sprayer or good paint brush (I used a paint
brush). Start applying the dye to the seams and corners of the seats
and don't start doing the larger parts of the seat until this is all
finished and dried. This stuff dries really quickly. After you have
done all the seams/corners start dyeing the larger sections of the
seats. Once you start dyeing these areas, work quickly to make sure
that the dye is applied evenly and dries at the same time. Apply the
dye in a right to left or up and down direction and be consistent
with the way you apply it. Tip #4 - apply the dye in the shade on a
cool dry day (summer) or inside in a controled environment. If you
apply the dye in the sun it will dry too quickly and it will look
streaky. Tip #5 - Be careful about bubbles - lots of bubbles form
when you shake the dye, so be sure not to get the bubbles on the
leather or else you will have a bumpy, irregular look when they dry
on the seat.
I'm pretty sure I covered all the bases as far as the process is
concerned. If anyone has any other questions, fire away.
BTW - I'm a total novice at auto restoration, and I was very pleased
with the way they came out. Certainly a heck of a lot better than
they were, and much cheaper than buying new seat covers. I'm not
looking for my car to be a showpiece, just a weekend driver that
looks halfway decent.
Cass
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