ronmanfredi Posted January 3 Report Posted January 3 I recently decided to attempt to repair the leather on our 82 Avanti seats and upper door panels. Parts of the interior had been redyed to fill in the cracks by the previous owner, but it wasn’t a successful repair. I did contact a couple of seat cover companies, but they couldn’t match the upholstery that was in the car. I found an online company called Seat Doctor who sells a leather crack filler and they can make custom dyes to match your existing leather. I cut off a piece on the back side of a door panel and mailed it too them to match. The OEM leather has color variations in it, so I knew a solid color dye would look different. With the seats and door panels out, I began to work on the various cracks and damaged areas. I learned that it was best to cut out any crack edge that was flaking up using some sharp flush cut wire cutters and/or a Dremel tool with a coarse sanding drum on it. Once the rough edges were all gone, then I used 400 grit sand paper to smooth out the edges and roughen up the leather. Next, I applied the crack filler and leveled it out. In some cases, it took more than one coat to achieve the desired results. The last task is to do a finish sand with 600 grit paper. Like a car body, the prep work really makes a difference on the repair. The leather does flex when you are working with it, so you have to take your time to get the finish where you want it. The leather crack filler does have a lot of flex in it when dry, which is good. The dye is a water-based product that does not need thinning. You can use a variety of methods to apply it, I chose a $28 mini HLVP paint gun from Harbor Freight. The seller recommends putting on a couple of coats 30 minutes apart, with a fully cure time of 48 hours. With this in mind, I dyed the back side or underneath of the seat sections and then let them sit for 2 days. Then I dyed the Front or Upper side of the seat cushion and let them sit for an additional 2 days as well. Once the dye had cured, I reassembled the seats and installed them and the door panels. Note: While learning how to do this, I did use the Dye as a 1 coat primer to visually see how the initial repair would look on each part, which was either good or it prompted me to do more work on certain areas. Enjoy the photos!
pantera928 Posted January 3 Report Posted January 3 Sounds like you are doing it correctly. Looks good. I use a company called Leatherique and have achieved similar results. Cleaning and softening before dyeing is the key in my opinion
Stacey Posted January 4 Report Posted January 4 Wow, that is very impressive, other than a bit of money on your part and time, looks like a professional did it. Great Job.
mfg Posted January 4 Report Posted January 4 Your work looks excellent....however, something I learned using the similar 'leatherique' product years ago when trying to improve a tired '55 Speedster leather interior is this... If it doesn't move (a door panel for example) the repair will hold up admirably....but if the leather DOES move (sitting on seats for example) the cracking will reappear rather quickly.
ronmanfredi Posted January 5 Author Report Posted January 5 7 hours ago, mfg said: Your work looks excellent....however, something I learned using the similar 'leatherique' product years ago when trying to improve a tired '55 Speedster leather interior is this... If it doesn't move (a door panel for example) the repair will hold up admirably....but if the leather DOES move (sitting on seats for example) the cracking will reappear rather quickly. You may be right and we will see. I think the prep is really important. I also put a lot of pressure on the repaired areas after fixing them to see if any separation occurred. In a couple of places they did, so I went back and removed more of the area affected. Time will tell !
mfg Posted January 5 Report Posted January 5 16 hours ago, ronmanfredi said: You may be right and we will see. I think the prep is really important. I also put a lot of pressure on the repaired areas after fixing them to see if any separation occurred. In a couple of places they did, so I went back and removed more of the area affected. Time will tell ! Once again.....NICE JOB!!
pantera928 Posted January 6 Report Posted January 6 On 1/4/2024 at 2:03 PM, mfg said: Your work looks excellent....however, something I learned using the similar 'leatherique' product years ago when trying to improve a tired '55 Speedster leather interior is this... If it doesn't move (a door panel for example) the repair will hold up admirably....but if the leather DOES move (sitting on seats for example) the cracking will reappear rather quickly. Agreed and that is why i take the cracks down to the leather. Usually the cracks are in the old dye many times, not the leather in my experience
mfg Posted January 6 Report Posted January 6 2 hours ago, pantera928 said: Agreed and that is why i take the cracks down to the leather. Usually the cracks are in the old dye many times, not the leather in my experience At the time, Leatherique was advertised as a way to repair actual cracks in the leather itself....I found this not to be true. (as far as the seats go)
pantera928 Posted January 6 Report Posted January 6 14 hours ago, mfg said: At the time, Leatherique was advertised as a way to repair actual cracks in the leather itself....I found this not to be true. (as far as the seats go) They have a crack repair but i have no faith in it. I have played with it and not pleased
A83 Posted January 16 Report Posted January 16 I have used leatherique successfully in several areas with success. I did repair a hole in the seat with a new crack filler product that was very pliable and is holding up.perfectly so far as if is in the driver seat. I will see if I can get the name.
A83 Posted January 16 Report Posted January 16 A83 again - the crack filler I used for the seat is Angelus Paintable Repair Filler
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