OOT - leather dye

[928ram]

Ok, I know this is more of a tech question, but I wanted to reach the widest audience.

I've just obtained a very nice full leather interior for one of my cars, the parts are brown and I might rather have them black. Still on the fence about color for the car's repaint; If I go with black the brown will be fine, but I'm thinking of converting it to Guards Red for which brown isn't the best interior color for my taste.

Has anyone done an interior re-color and found the results to be of the highest quality? And what products did you use?

Does anyone have pics before/after?

I've got the idea in my head that leather dye should soak into the surface, but it appears that even the factory color is very thin and perhaps a surface-only treatment. So far I've only gotten recommends for Leaterique(sp?) products, but they seem more of a paint than a dye to me.

Thoughts, education, recommendations?

[id10t]

Red w/ tan interior is nice, at least on a 356 I saw...

[BGCarrera32]

Dunno that I can help but if you pick up the August issue of the Ferrari magazine "Forza" there is a pretty good write-up on leather repair and dying. No pics, but 2 pages of good info.

I used SEM product to convert my tan interior to black...I did the headliner and rear vinyl pieces. It is like laquer spraypaint- easy to use, smelly for a week or so, decent durability and you'd never know the difference. I wouldn't recommend it for seats as they get flexed an awful lot, but I've never tried it on seats.

[Rot 911]

928, do a search on the 911 tech board. As I recall there are several threads about DIY leather dying.

[jbripps]

OK,

I've used Surflex in the past with great results. I know others have as well. Here is the website with instructions and prices. It's a pretty easy job.


http://www.colorplus.com/frameset_products.html

Regards,

[red-beard]

I've used this stuff for dash and interior. i didn't use it on the seats, because I had the seats redone instead.

http://www.leatherique.com/

[928ram]

Red w/ tan interior is nice, at least on a 356 I saw...

I've seen a few 911s with a tan/black interior combo, my favorite look on a red car. If I don't use these seats, I'll likely redo whats in there in that combo.

I used SEM product to convert my tan interior to black

This is what I used on the current seats, it's doing just fine but I cringe at the though of painting the brown seat as they are like new.

928, do a search on the 911 tech board

Thanks, I did just that which turned up some results, mostly what's also been suggested here. Again, these parts are so nice I'm feeling that an odd color combo is the lesser of 2 evil compared to a recoat.

I've used Surflex in the past with great results

I'll look into this product to see if it meets my needs any better/different that the leatherigue or SEM.

I've used this stuff for dash and interior

I'll likely use their rejuvinator product at the very least; rave reviews.

Thanks for the input guys, I'll have to toss around all of my options. The car the parts came from was wrecked, but the color combo was awsome. Sadly, the wreck didn't seem to have done the car in, but the sad attempt at fixing the slight frame damage did.

[cbeers]

I've seen a few 911s with a tan/black interior combo, my favorite look on a red car.

You mean something like this?



I am actually in limbo on this as I want to slowly convert to black....I think


-Chris