Dying leather?

[kjunsniper]

I've had a few people trying to talk me into the GenIII seats for my GenI. The only problem is they don't come in black. Someone suggested i dye them. Has anyone, known of anyone doing this. I hear they are comfortable, but really worth that kind of trouble?
I've found a number of people with perforated GenII and I seats. But the solids still alude me. I must have new seats soon, or i'm going to just install a milk stool! headbang

 

[jelloslug]

Go to leatherique.com . It's some great stuff. I'm using it right now to freshen up some nice black 50/50 seats I got. Here is a pic of my black steering wheel I just finished:

It was not in bad shape to begin with but it was not very soft and the die was wearing off in places. It looks and feels new now.

 

[schoobydooby]

Jello, what would you rate that on a difficulty scale?

 

[jelloslug]

6 or 7 out of 10. If you can do body work on a car, it would be a breese for you (its nowhere near as hard). The big thing is to follow the directions. The only thing I did differently was start out sanding the seats with the sanding liquid first. My seats were not cracked but they were very stiff and the oil would not soak through the old dye. After a light sanding the leather drank up the oil as fast as I could put it on. There are a few others that have done that also (he has a feedback section on that site). I got better results spraying the dye than brushing also.

 

[shojuan]

I plan on re-dying my leather interior one of these days too. First I have to find a rear seat with leather in great condition for a cheap price (like my front seats! )

The condition of the finish on my front seats is actually in very good to excellent shape. But I want to redye to A: get rid of that awful "paint" type factory finish and replace with a REAL leather dye that lets the leather breathe and soak up conditioner properly and B: Just to make it look even better and have the front and rear seats match perfectly...maybe change the shade just a little bit to better match my 89's interior too.

The Leatherique redying products are thought of very highly by the Ferrari, Jaguar, and Rolls Royce crowd...people who have high quality Connolly leather to begin with. Good enough for them, good enough for whatever cowhides Ford's lowest bidder put in there I figure.

 

[jelloslug]

The leatherique oils are the only leather rejuvinators that I have ever used that actually do anything. I got jaw dropping results. I have a scrap of perferated leather from a seat the was outside for around 2 years. oiled half of it and it was instantly glove leather soft without any oilyness or stickness. It works.

 

[shojuan]

Also here's another thing to keep in mind: When leather soaks up a conditioner (and the leatherique oil being the best that you've found) it actually makes the leather fibers stronger. Conditioned leather = strong leather! thumb

 

[jelloslug]

I'll post some pics of my drivers seat soon, I'm almost done with it.

 

[ohioshodude]

ooo cool you'll have to do a write up on that too! lol i'm wanting to convert my gray to black, i'm not sure what that all involves but i'm game and its much cheaper then buying new seats! thumb

 

[shojuan]

ohioshodude:
ooo cool you'll have to do a write up on that too! lol i'm wanting to convert my gray to black, i'm not sure what that all involves but i'm game and its much cheaper then buying new seats! thumb

jthomas redyed his entire interior black: leather, carpet, plastic. Talk to him to get his insights! thumb

 

[jelloslug]

I don't think he did the seats.