Leather cloth car interiors are wonderful, they can last really well and make a vehicle feel much nicer and fancier than it may otherwise appear to be. Sometimes, though, the leather car seats are not a colour that we'd like them to be. Luckily, there is something that you can do if your car's leather upholstery is not fulfilling all of your leather car seat dreams.
Table of Contents
Anyone whose leather car seats are beginning to fade or crack, or whose leather car interior simply doesn't match the vibe they're after will be pleased to know that you can dye leather car seats pretty easily using leather dye or leather colourant.
This can give your leather car seats a whole new look, and can help take them from shabby cracked leather car seats to a smooth finish once all the cracks have been filled.
If you're interested in dyeing your leather car seats, you will need the following items to get your car interior upgraded:
For faster drying results you may also want to grab a hair dryer, but this is not essential and will not change the finish of your leather car interior, you will have just as successful results without a hair dryer. Once you've got all of these items ready, it's time to remove each leather car seat from your vehicle.
Place your leather car seat on the protective tarp in your garden or garage, and ensure that if you're indoors that the windows are open to prevent any fumes from affecting you.
Now it's time to begin the prepping and painting!
Step One: Preparing The Leather Seats
Before you can start to paint leather upholstery, the leather must first be adequately prepared. You'll need to remove the transparent manufactured finish applied when the leather was last painted or first made. Doing this enables you to ensure a very smooth finish, whether you're painting a red leather car seat or a leather couch.
To prepare the leather, use a leather prep and the abrasive pad. You should apply a small amount of leather prep to the material and with gentle pressure, rub it in with the abrasive pad. You should notice that the colour is slowly being removed as you rub.
Once you've done this to the entire leather seat, you should rub the leather with a clean cloth to remove any excess prep or colour. Correctly prepped leather car seats will be more matt than before, and, especially near the details like the seat flutes, the colour will be very faded. This shows that you have removed the transparent manufactured finish applied when the leather is made.
Step Two: Clean The Leather Seats
Once you've prepped the leather, you'll need to clean the leather furniture with an alcohol cleaner and a clean cloth. This will help to remove any wax, oil or silicone that may be on the leather seats, making it easier for the leather colourant to properly adhere to the material.
Related post: "how to clean couch".
Step Three: Fill Any Cracks In The Leather Seats
A lot of leather seats, especially in older cars, will have cracked leather. Luckily, there is a way to fill cracks in leather to ensure that you can get a perfect leather finish.
For a few small cracks, you can rely on flexifill or a similar product. Simply spread the filler over the cracks with a palette knife and leave it to dry for 5 to 10 minutes. Then, apply another layer. These kinds of products work best with multiple thin coats that are built up to meet the surface of the leather. Do this for all the cracks in the leather before you begin to paint.
You'll then need to use 1200 grit sandpaper and gentle pressure to sand the car seat. Once it's been sanded smooth, it's ready for you to paint.
Step Four: Apply The First Coat Of Colourant Or Leather Dye
Using your sponge, apply the first coat. You should be sure to work the colour into the hard-to-reach place like the seams. Be sure to apply the colour in thin layers, and once you've achieved a complete base coat, leave the leather to dry.
Step Five: Spray Applications
After the first coat, you should then continue to colour your leather interiors with thin coats of spray-applied leather dye. This makes the process much quicker and provides a much nicer leather finish than using a sponge as it avoids sponge marks. You should spray the colour on using the airbrush provided.
Start with the edges of the piping and between the flutes, then work into the flutes and finally elsewhere. You will save yourself plenty of colourant and time by doing the harder to reach bits of the leather seats first.
Apply the spray colour in thin layers, just like everything else, and between each coat you should let the paint dry.
Step Six: Applying Leather Finish
Once your leather car seats have been painted and are the colour that you like, you will need to apply the finish. It's the very same thing you removed at the start and will help to create a very smooth finish for your car interior. You can choose between a range of finishes, it depends what you're looking for. There's everything from gloss to matt and all the increments in between!
Check out: "car maintenance tips".
