Seat Recolour/Renovation

Seat Recolour/Renovation

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ukflyboy

Original Poster:

246 posts

115 months

Saturday 23rd May 2015
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Hi folks,

As some of you will be aware, I picked up mep1234's S3 a month or so back. Being an engineer he has it in brilliant mechanical condition, but there were a few cosmetic things that he freely admits he hadn't yet got around to doing. The last week and a bit I have been tackling the (Chimera) seats which needed recolouring from magnolia to biscuit brown to match the rest of the interior. Someone at SCH (can't remember who?!) asked me to let them know how I get on with this so here goes, hopefully someone finds it useful!...
So, I bought the Leather Colourant Kit https://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Colourant_Kit.php from Furniture Clinic up in the NE. They recommend the medium size for 2 seats which is £60 + another £10 if you want to send them a colour sample and have them match it (which is what I did). The kit is pretty thorough with 5 different bottles of stuff, plus all the applicators, cloths etc you need to get the job done. Once I have the seats out it is time to get cracking.

Step 1

Use the Leather Prep (a heavy duty solvent) and a Scotch Brite pad to remove the clear coating all over the seats. They recommend pouring it into some cotton wool and wrapping it in the Scotch Brite but I find it easier to spray it directly on to the seat in small areas and get rubbing! You don't have to remove all the colour, just the clear coating on top so the colouring has something to stick to. Once complete it looks like this; as you can see, the prepped one on the left is dull all over where I have taken the finish off (the one on the right is straight out of the car). I found the supply of Leather Prep sufficient but a bit on the lean side, but that may be because I wasn't using it as described!




Step 2

Get rid of all the gunk you have stripped off with a cloth and the alcohol cleaner. You'll take off more of the colouring as you go but again, this isn't the aim, you just want all the clear coating off with it nice and clean for the colourant to stick to. Nice straight forward step.

Step 3

Fill any cracks etc with the filler (which is an extra purchase for £20) although I didn't buy any. Sand the seats down (yes, you heard me right, you actually need to SAND your nice leather seats!) with some 1000-1200ish sandpaper. This leaves the surface smooth for a nice finish. It doesn't say to in their instructions, but I thought it prudent to wipe it down once again with the alcohol cleaner to get rid of any dust as a result of the sanding. They look a bit awful at this point, but it's almost time for the fun bit!



Step 4

Use the sponge to apply your first layer of the colourant. Pay particular attention to the seams/joins/cracks as this will save colourant and make life a lot easier when you are spraying them in the next step. Also try to get into all the bits that the spray wont, like in between the seat cushion and back. The colourant goes a long way with the sponge so, weary that I might not have enough colourant, I do more than the recommended single coat with the sponge and tried to get them at least slightly even all over. Even with just the sponge they start coming up ok!



Step 5

Time to spray on the colourant. They supply a small hobby sprayer and 2x 500ml cans of propellant to spray on all the colourant, sealer and satin leather finish and for me, it's nowhere near enough. It's all a bit of a pain; when it works properly the sprayer is actually pretty good, but it blocks constantly (which isn't cleared by using the supplied small pin) and it has a small, slow leak which makes it feel like I am using all the propellant just trying to get the bl00dy thing to work! I find the best way around it is to have a bucket of warm water handy (which can also be used to stop your cans freezing as they empty) and wash it constantly. Do half a seat, give it a wash, and repeat. If you are washing it often then it pays to save propellant by turning it off. And make sure the sprayer is dry or wrap a cloth around it so you don't drip water on your freshly painted seat and ruin all your good work! It is slow, sometimes frustrating going, especially when you are waiting on Amazon to deliver more propellant (I went through an extra 2x 750ml cans). You can actually borrow a compressor off Furniture Clinic which will cost you £25 in delivery and pick up charges, but if you are in a work area with electricity (I wasn't) then I would strongly recommend it. I'd recommend spraying the seats and leaving them to dry with the seats leaning back a bit; I folded mine forward at one point to spray the back and when the colourant dried it stuck the back and seat cushion together which then stripped off some colour from the front when put upright again.
The sprayers glass bottle is pretty small but don't be tempted to overfill it, you'll just block the breathing hole on the top and end up with a stoppage. Conversely, don't run it all the way down, or as you get near the bottom it will mix with air and spit blobs of paint everywhere and mess up your hard work (you can dab them off with a clean cloth and then spray over them again). It's a bit of an art form but if you persevere you can actually get some good results! Keep going until you have a consistent finish you are happy with. I have maybe 1/6th of a bottle of colourant left so the medium appears to be enough for two Chimera seats and headrests (though might have been tight if I hadn't done the extra coats with the sponge).

Step 6

Spray on the 'Leather Sealer' which is actually just the gloss leather finisher. Do at least one coat all over but save the majority for the bits you sit on as clearly these will wear the most. The finisher is a lot thinner than the colourant so it actually goes on pretty quick. And it dries quite quickly too so if you have a hair dryer (and electricity, doh!) then you only need to leave 5 mins between coats. The finish is quite glossy, too much so to really match the inside of the car.

Step 7

Spray on your final finish, which for me was satin. More or less the same as the previous step though they recommend using 6-7 thinner coats for a better finish. The sprayer works pretty well with the thinner stuff, but as I have to let nature dry it, I clean it after each coat. Still, it only takes a Saturday morning. As you can see, they come up looking pretty damned good! It might be just an amateur DIY job, but I'm genuinely impressed with the results which look rather professional.



Step 8

They aren't much use on the floor so get them in your car!! They recommend leaving them a day before sitting in them so I leave them that long before putting them back in, in the hope that I reduce the chances of scratching the finisher off before it has had a chance to dry properly. They are pretty much a perfect colour match and have really lifted the interior of the car.



Conclusion.

A bit frustrating at times when dealing with the constant blockages with the sprayer, but the end results are definitely worth it. If I were to do things differently next time (and had a garage with electricity) I would definitely pay to borrow a compressor. It means you can concentrate on getting a good finish, while not constantly worrying that you are going to run out of propellant half way through! If you have deep cracks in your seat that you don't want any more, then I suggest you also buy the leather filler.
Overall the process could probably be completed over 2 longish days, though I did mine a little bit each evening in less than ideal circumstances so hard to know for sure. For less than £100 all in, it really has been a good investment in time and money to really lift the interior of the car. Highly recommended.

TVRees

1,080 posts

111 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
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Job well done. Thanks for a very detailed explanation. I will certainly use this for help when ........ I get around to doing mine.

mep12345

2,061 posts

200 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
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Looks good Pete, glad you've had the time I didn't and the car now matches

Barkychoc

7,848 posts

203 months

Monday 25th May 2015
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When I did mine Furniture clinic said they would lend me a small compressor free of charge instead of faffing about with those crappy cans. As it happens I have a compressor anyway (actually Ken's old one for those that remember our departed friend) so didn't need this.

They said they lend out the compressor free of charge, you pay a deposit and the carriage charges which from memory were pretty reasonable.

ukflyboy

Original Poster:

246 posts

115 months

Monday 25th May 2015
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Yeah, just reading the instructions that come with it, the refundable deposit is £99 and the delivery there and back is £25. I reckon you could probably do a deal with them when you buy it if you ask them to leave out the propellant cans you wont need. Unfortunately that won't stop the sprayer from being a bit crap!

Marc C

128 posts

124 months

Monday 25th May 2015
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Looks really good... inspired me (a bit) to do mine

Did you split the seat base and back apart or do them as a joined seat?

Is there any advantage to separating the seat?

ukflyboy

Original Poster:

246 posts

115 months

Monday 25th May 2015
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I didn't split mine as I thought it would be easier being able to paint the whole thing while they are joined and sitting up. If you have some way of hanging the backs up so you can paint them all while they are separated from the seat, that would ensure a slightly better finish (in the bits you can't really see).

If doing them whole, the only catch is making sure that when they dry the two halves don't stick together. On my Chimera seats I found that if I tilted them back a bit from the vertical they opened up a bit at the bottom (ooh argh!); this also meant that if they were going to dry and try stick together then the colourant would only come off the back of the seat which you cant see.