I´ve put a new set (well, 2000) of leather seats on my -54 Chevy. They are light gray and I want to paint them mid to darkish brown. Succestion on a good paint and a good/easy way to do it? Car will be a driver, so the seats shall not look like new...
the words rat rod is going to hurt. but i had a paint store mix me some dye for a steering wheel it has held up for 3 yrs
Hi. I really have no clue on the effectiveness of painting on leather seats but would think there is too much flex in the seats material for paint to work very well. I would think DYE would work much better. They already have grey leather dye on them. Try whatever you want on a small part that will not show first. Just so you know, on this complete set of forums here we readily discuss cars up to 1966. What we do not discuss here is rat rods. So for future post just mention it is about a 1954 Chevy and omit any reference to RAT styling & you will be ok. Jimmie
Dye them. GM used to carry a line of dyes. I used them on C-10 and they held up great. I do not know if they still have them. I am sure someone on e-bay will have it.....
Seen this done with a standard spraygun using a special paint. Needs some fairly aggressive prep but when done it lasts well. http://www.kolorbond.co.uk/vinylkote-paint-leather-vinyl
Look for SEM products they make some really good vinyl and leather dyes. https://www.semproducts.com/markets/6-upholstery-trim
Well, you're on the other side of that big ass lake from us and I don't know what product lines are available to you. PPG has a vinyl and leather "paint" that works like regular basecoat. As would be easy to imagine, PREPARATION is the key to a successful application. There's a material that I frakly can't recall which is the final application before you go to color. It's a milky white stuff that gets sprayed on and left to sit 5 min before color coats. Durable? You tell me if this was a good test; We needed a specific color to match the leather in the 1941 New York Auto Show Packard Darrin. We used the PPG material to dye/color a hyde to make the top boot and all the binding. Now that means we had to SEW THE STUFF TOGETHER after coloring it. What say you all? Tough enough? In all fairness there was 1 spot where the binding scratched off a little, it was a really tight corner. I saw that car a month ago, some 6 years after it was done. It's not a daily drive by any means but that work held up so far. So remember PREPARATION is the key to success. Also, try to cover in as few coats as possible, that means very low mil thickness to maintain flexibility. Since it's a seat you WILL wear through the color getting in and out all the time. Nothing can stop that. Good luck, and I hope this helped more than the O/P. Quick edit: Thaks K13 for rattling my memory. SEM makes the prep material.
At one time there was a product called Mar-Hyde automotive vinyl dye and it did a pretty good job. HRP
If you Google leather dye several brands will come up. I have used MAR-HYDE on various projects for the past 30 plus years. It is perminate if the fabric is properly prepared.
Don't screw around with spray-can crap; get the real thing, an actual leather dye. I've used Angelus brand dye a couple of times and once applied it doesn't wear off, period. Depending on the color and/or change, you can wipe it on or spray it. Most darker colors can be wiped. For prep, first clean the surface using a mild soapy water solution on a damp rag, then rinse and let dry. Then scrub the surface with acetone until your cloth comes away clean. Check for scratches/flaws, you can 'blend' those using 600 grit wet/dry paper, using acetone as 'water' but don't try to completely remove them unless they're very minor. Wipe down with acetone again, let dry. Apply the dye and let dry. After letting it dry as per the instructions, rub it down with a clean dry cloth to get off the excess. Repeat if needed until you have even color. If any part of the seat is vinyl, best results may come with spraying. DO NOT GET THE DYE ON ANYTHING YOU DON'T WANT THAT COLOR! INCULDING YOU; WEAR GLOVES. Once dyed, apply their sealer by wiping it on. Let dry, wipe down to get any excess off and let dry for 24 hours. Again, two coats is recommended. You can get the sealer in different 'glosses', from shiny to flat. I've used this on a couple of sets of car seats and it worked great. I've still got an expensive leather chair and ottoman set ($1500 retail) that I picked up cheap because the owners let their large dogs scratch the hell out of it. After prep and re-dye, both pieces still look near-new after six years of daily use. For a pair of seats, I'd get a quart of dye and a pint of sealer. https://angelusdirect.com/collections/angelus-dye-1 The fly in the ointment is Angelus doesn't directly ship out of the USA, so you may have issues finding it in Europe (although you may be able to find a distributor). To find an alternate product source, check with shoe repair places or upholstery shops that restore Jaguars and other high-end cars.
Use a regular leather dye. I'm assuming this is what you meant instead of "paint"? Don't paint leather or pleather.
There must be several good brands of leather dye available in Finland, that we never heard of over here. Buy a good brand and use it according to manufacturer's instructions. If you have the old seats PLEASE put them away somewhere. The next owner of your car may want them, or you may want them yourself after you try driving the car for a while.
They actually make dye for leather that would probably work real well. You can probably buy it at Wally World or any good leather shop. Paint is a bad idea.
To all of you thanks and also yes I ment dye not paint. Poor choise of words on my part. I went through some stores on the net and found a few possibilities. Not an easy task to find good products in Finland, or at least good ones are expensive (as is everything here). I´ll let you know later what I desided.
Hi....Crazy Steve is on the money......I also have changed the color on leather seats....Must spend time on the preparation......every thing must be super clean or it will fail ...(flaking off)
I actually like the dye made by Kiwi.it is inexpensive and it extremely durable. I died an old motor cycle seat black from brown and rode it for several years without the ye wearing off, rain shine snow and freezing weather seemed to have no effect on it. I didn't garage that old bike ever.
I have used products from a company named Leather Renew. They have a website and offer both furniture and auto kits.
Need to use waterbased products on leather because solvent will dry out leather and make it too rough. Make sure you know the material first. Most seats are not true leather. It's a vinyl, and even still you need to test the bottom side of vinyl to see if you have any plasticizers leech out. If it's loaded with it, your Coating you use will keep a tacky feel 2-3 days after you applied the Coating. But vinyl can be dyed, painted etc a good vinyl Coating is perfect quick and inexpensive fix for vinyl seats, dash pads and door panels. I wrote a technical how-to for interior repair , I can email to you if interested. Sent from my SM-N920V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hello, I needed to cover a couple of scratches on some grey leather seats. I went to the leather supplies store and then a shoe repair shop. I picked up this bottle of actual, grey leather paint. The paint did not dry hard like most paints. It had some flexibility and covered the scratches as well as can be. The leather store said they would have to sand, buff, re-apply the leather dye, and do a final buff of the leather to make it look like the original. Of course, the charges were quite high and was not worth the effort. The disassembly, transportation and being without seating for two weeks was just a little too much. But, if your project is quite extensive, then you might want to consult an upholstery shop for more details. Jnaki
The high end leather product is Leatherique. It is universally used for restoration (and new) leather on Ferrari and similar classic cars. Worth reading if you are serious. Click
... With high end prices. Great product, and if you're trying to color-match what you have these are the go-to guys, but lo-buck they're not....
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