Rejuvenating (very dry) leather seats

Phil,
in my impatience waiting for my Meguiars super degreaser to turn up, I bought a shed load of proprietary brands of cleaners to attempt to clean the vinyl elements of the seats...

nothing worked. I then spotted a product called elbow grease whilst in Home Bargains. It was brilliant, and at 89p a bargain.

the drivers seat is cracked scratched, scraped and has small rips in it. Fearing for it’s future I decided to use the elbow grease on the leather aspect, accompanied by a sponge with a scourer attached to one side ( 75p for 10 )

with little effort it stripped all of the grease and dirt away, along with the majority of the colour. It says to wash off the solution with wet cloth. I used wet wipes to great effect, then dried the seat.

the elbow grease smelled like the oven cleaner my wife uses, but not as strong. I washed the solution off with yet more wet wipes and ensured it was dry.

it now feels clean and looks clean. No residual smells. I now intend to do the rest of the seats in the same manner.

i will then follow to fill steps, treatment and colouring steps.

got my little niece coming over to show me how to post pictures
 
Phil, just for info, I purchased a parts bath and have been using Gunk. I find it slow and laborious.
today I am cleaning parts I have just removed from my TC.
They were caked in oil and dirt, and the gunk was making little impact despite me scraping as much of the rubbish off.
As a thought, I sprayed them Elbow Grease. Very impressed, so will be using this from now on for anything oily or greasy.

Off to home bargains tomorrow to buy a shed full of this, as my engine, due out of the car this week, is caked with oil and dirt on the outside, side and abetted by copious amounts of black Waxoyl, which has been sprayed everywhere some 30 years ago. It has preserved the car, but it is horrible messy stuff to shift.
 
Just googled Elbow Grease tip buy a job lot ( cheaper in home bargains )

there is a link to 21 things you can use Elbow Grease for.

it will now be my go to product
 
It looks like I'll have to revisit parts of the passenger seat, but hopefully the rest will be OK.

I had a go at this a week or so ago & decided to strip the new colour off the worst area:

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I was sure that I'd overdone the hide feed / oil on this part as it didn't really dry properly before I coloured it. I gave it several liberal wipes with thinners & left it to dry out again & it seemed much better.
 
Phil,

great detail and a brilliant read.I am not far behind you, and your experiences are truly helpful.

Did you use the same cellulose thinners on the vinyl too?

My vinyl has cleaned up a lot using a propriety degreaser but it does not look as good as yours. I am keen to get that almost new look.

I have the leather patches, glue, filler etc. to treat the drivers seat, and will order some Lincoln leather dressing To feed the seat.

Onto colour, I have no pieces of different ( original ) colour to use as a sample.

The build colour of my seats was buckskin ( as far as I can make out )

Does this original colour have a technical colour spec I can use to order a colour?

I am toying with the idea of two tone seats. My car is sage green, so a very light green colour on the fluted Part of the seat and back panels with a little Darker green for the more solid and wider edge parts.

Does that sound discustping?

nothing too dark, but subtle and different.

i will keep the original carpet colour ( which is a dark beige )

all thoughts would be really appreciated ( whether positive or negative )
 
Islaboo, see the recent thread about an orange car from Thailand, featuring a two tone leather interior.
Personally, I would be inclined to restrict use of a second colour to perhaps just accent piping. Although even that can look a bit garish. How about just re-trimming in the one colour, and then garnishing the rear seats with a couple of extra cushions in a complimentary fabric to add a splash more colour? I sense that am becoming more conservative as I get older!
 
After several brushed-on coats I've got this, which is a very good colour match to the rest (the light does seem to vary with my photos):

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I haven't yet 'sealed' this part again with the paste provided, but it's holding fast so far & it has been sat on a fair bit. I may have to work on those seams a bit more as they look a bit dark & untreated, although it's not as noticeable in the flesh as the colour is quite a bit richer. (You may have to concentrate on this more with Buckskin, Islaboo).

I'm not going to pretend it's the best seat refurbishment ever, but overall it looks better than in the pictures & should improve a little with age when it gets some patina back. Importantly though I don't think it will detract from the general impression given by the car when it's finished & it is now several leagues above its as-found condition. Also I've succeeded in keeping the original interior which I especially wanted to do with this early car.

One point I would make is that using a household fine-bristled paintbrush was perhaps more effective than the spraying, & how it's meant to be done with a cloth (per the instructions) I'll never know!

Did you use the same cellulose thinners on the vinyl too?
My vinyl has cleaned up a lot using a propriety degreaser but it does not look as good as yours. I am keen to get that almost new look.


I did use the same thinners on the vinyl, but you must be careful as it will start to melt the surface if you leave it on too long.

Onto colour, I have no pieces of different ( original ) colour to use as a sample.


I found some unfaded leather under the front seat where the edges are wrapped around & clipped to the frame, so have a look there Islaboo.

As regards two tone colour, I agree with Mr Task!
 
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I'm not going to pretend it's the best seat refurbishment ever, but overall it looks better than in the pictures & should improve a little with age when it gets some patina back. Importantly though I don't think it will detract from the general impression given by the car when it's finished & it is now several leagues above its as-found condition. Also I've succeeded in keeping the original interior which I especially wanted to do with this early car.

I took this unusual panoramic shot the other day when our son was driving, which effectively demonstrates the overall ambience of the interior:

IMG_7376.JPG

It's certainly a much nicer place to be than when I got the car 16 years ago!
 
Phil,
where do you intend to buy your colour paint from?

I have been looking at two sites: the leather clinic & Carbusonic ( the leather colour doctor )

just wondering if past experiences point your to either of these...

waiting for my Lincoln Classic to arrive to start feeding mine.

keep your blog going as it is great to see the steps involved and the final outcome.

after seeing the two tone seats of the Thailand car, I have scrapped that idea, and will stick with the original.

thanks to all that responded. It certainly helped me make up my mind
 
I used a Woolies kit (top of 2nd page above). I ordered it online & sent a leather sample.

Overall I’m happy with the results. There’s a lot of work involved with the preparation & I’m sure a specialist would have done a better job, but I’ve got it looking pretty good & retained all the original interior which is what I set out to do.

I would recommend using a good quality paintbrush though to paint the colour on; this gives consistent results in the least time (but still requires many coats). The driver’s seat was done this way & is practically as good as the rest. I painted colour on each evening for about 5 days. Each application is quick this way.
 
Phil,
apologies. After I hit the button I saw the woolies reference
my brother used to coach paint buses, so I have some beautiful long haired brushes that will be ideal for the task in hand.
just spent an hour on the Woolies site. Some good stuff on there, giving plenty of food for thought.

thanks once again Phil...Really appreciate your help and support
 
Just another couple of pics:

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As I say, not perfect, but much better than they were. Remember also that apart from a lot of my effort, this cost relatively little.

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The rears look the best, but they had a lot less wear on them of course:

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Whether they'll need more treatment in due course I don't know. We'll see how they go over the next few months & I'll report back.
 
Phil, The rear seats are excellent. As you say, the front seats take the hit, especially the drivers seat.
g
Given what the looked like at the start, there is an immense difference.

If mine turn out that good I will be more than happy.

Big thanks for sharing with us.

great work Phil
 
Phil,
what size tin of paint do you need for the leather parts?
see what you mean by the old leather drinking the conditioner. The Bach seats are now happy with 5 coats, but the fronts are still absorbing the oil very quickly.
i have my leather patches, glue and filler ready for the next steps.
reading an honest account such as yours is a long way away from the sales pitches of the various product sellers.

keep it coming, as it is a really informative read, and by the sound of it, you have the avid attention of manu fellow enthusiasts.

stay safe
 
Phil,
apologies for the repetitive questions. My eyes are rubbish at the moment, and have only just spotted the page buttons....duh oh

did you have enough paint in the end?

i have just highjacked some of my wife’s make up brushes. They leave a superb finish using thinned down emulsion paint on a test surface, so may attempt my colouring wish these.

7 coats of oil on the front seats so far, and it still soaks in. I have left 48 hours between coats. The back seats seem done after 4 coats.
my luxury is that the seats are all on a bench so there are not the time constraints of a daily driver.

looking forward to your next instalment

Take care and stay safe
 
That's OK Islaboo - I've just been a bit busy over the last few days.

I used the 'No 2' kit (see near the top of the second page of this thread) Rejuvenating (very dry) leather seats & have only got about 1/2 an inch left in the bottom of the bottle, so just enough for a few 'repairs' if needed in future. Remember that I've only coloured the leather seat facings; all the vinyl was deep-cleaned with thinners.

I'm sure those brushes will be fine. From my experience, a big brush will give at least as good results as a small brush & will take much less time :)
 
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