Leather Dyeing recomendations

[kenpac]

Does anyone have any recommendations for leather dyeing? The interior leather of my 79sc is a bit tired and blotchy and I'd like to attempt dyeing the leather to spruce it up.

Looking for recommendations, brands, where to buy, etc.?

Thanks in advance.

[koollay]

Ken, I am just putting my car back together I should be able to post pics of my interior in the next few weeks, yet I redyed my entire interior with a product from World Upoholstry. My Interior looks awesome and the dyeing came out GREAT.
Koohttp://www.worlduph.com/hubpagePORSCHE.htm

[CarreraS2]

Do a search on this site for "leatherique."
Also try a Yahoo search for "leatherique."

[rlane]

I second the Leatherique recommendation. I purchased but have not yet dyed their combo of a prep and a dye for the cork leather in my 78SC..but I found a great used set in Cork from a fellow Pelikanite and in fact just got thru cleaning and using Leatheriques Restore oil on them...wonderful stuff.
Call them and give them your interior color and they custom mix for you
Richard

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

The basic thing to remember is that "dyeing" is a misnomer. None of these aftermarket things do anything but _paint_ the leather. I'm sure there are ways that leather manufacturers, or whatever you call them, might "dye" leather, but basically, even in production Porsches, the color is painted on; it's superficial. So to change the color of leather, or to rejuvenate it, you need to very seriously clean/scrape/sand the old color off, expose pure, fresh leather, and paint the new "dye" on. And just as with painting metal, there's a big difference between spraying it on and brushing it on. If I had it to do over again (changed my babyscat brown leather to black), I'd spray rather than brush, even though I used a supersoft, broad camel's hair brush. The bristle marks show.

As with any painting job. 90 percent of the finished product is in the prep work.

Stephan

[KTL]

Alright, everybody's gonna laugh at this one but here goes.

If your interior is a simple color like black? Shoe polish. I kid you not.

The standard black seats that came in my 87 were in excellent physical shape but looked a little tired as far as color was concerned. The driver's side bolster had the typical scuffing that you always see. My buddy Mark said to shoe polish them. "Get outta here" I said. "Just do it" was his response.

They looked outstanding after a couple applications of Kiwi black paste shoe polish. I had a hard time selling them after they were all spruced up.

And no, the shoe polish does not come off on your clothes. Follow the directions and it works great.

[koollay]

Ha funny you mention that....Shoe polish is what I use on my blk rubbers. It will also hide any white from waxing. It gives blk a original rubber look as apposed to the wet armoral or shinny silicon look.
Good point Kevin.
koo

[GrindingGears]

I did it last week with Kiwi black leather dye (show polish). I of course tested the product on a non-visible area and it worked.

I applied it to all the areas that were faded and it came out great.

Be sure to buff the dye real good after you let it dry so you don't get any residual rubbed onto your clothes.

If nothing else try it, it is a really easy and inexpensive way to get your seats looking better.

Cheers,
Grind

[jbripps]

One word.......SURFLEX. Nothing better. Just degrease seats, then condition, then use surflex. Very easy. See link below.

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

regards,

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

I used Surflex to turn my diarrhea-brown leather black, and it worked adequately, though next time I'd spray rather than brush, but it does tend to come off a bit in very high-stress areas. As I say, it is paint and not "dye." And to say "just degrease them" might be true if you're simply recoloring an existing color, but if you're trying to change a color, it's a huge job, and there's no "just" about it. You need to remove every bit of the original color.

Stephan

[jazzbass]

Originally posted by Formerly Steve Wilkinson
I used Surflex to turn my diarrhea-brown leather black, and it worked adequately

Stephan -

Did you use the Surflex on any of the vinyl in your car (knee pads, door tops, etc)? I want to do a color change and wonder how well it would work on these peices.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Those pieces actually happen to be leather in my car, so the Surflex worked on them, and I replaced the original leather glareshield with a new black vinyl one. Everything else in the car that was brown was leather. I don't think the Surflex would work on vinyl, but you can ask em. (See link in a previous post.)

Stephan

[RickM]

IMO, both Leatherique and Colorplus have excellent products. Although I've used "Stock" colors I've heard over the years that ColorPlus has the edge on matching color samples.

I've also tried to use black shoe polish and it just didn't "hold". Did you guys use as a touch-up or do the degrease and sanding procedure?


http://www.leatherique.com/
http://www.colorplus.com/

[KTL]

My shoe polish job was a touch up job. I made sure the seats were clean by using a cleaning solvent to remove any dirt, skin oil, etc. Then I went over the entire seating surface with the shoe polish, doing sections at a time. I didn't do any extensive prep work to remove the old color and expose fresh, unpainted leather.

They looked great when done. I can't comment on the durability because I didn't reinstall and use the seats. I cleaned them up to sell them. Replaced them with RS America cloth seats. Even if I did use them after the shoe polish treatment, my comments about the durability would be not too useful since my car is not a daily driver.

[ken_xman]

You might want to try
www.colorplus.com

[RickM]

Yup, it's revive old threads week.