red leather restoration

cheechy

A2OC Donor
Any solid recommendations for tackling A2 sports seats in red leather?. The seats are generally ok but have the usual signs of bolster wear, scratches and one of the door card arm rests had a few holes.

What colour do I look for and any restore kits that anyone had tried that actually works?
 
So decided to begin the journey of leather restoration today. As a way of testing I've started with the steering wheel, handbrake handle and sport gear knob.

Not finished yet as I started quite late but thus far I've:

- cleaned
- degreased (interesting process for areas of high contact...paste applied turns to powder when it comes into contact with grease)
- used leather prep in a green abrasive pad to remove top coat of leather colour. Lots if elbow grease required here and with items being small it was a trifle fidgity.
- stage I'm at now is alcohol cleaning to remove any surface contaminants. Going by the amount of dirt and colour I'm extracting this could take a while

So once this is complete tomorrow's plan :

- apply filler to any areas that have any cuts or nicks.
- sand all surfaces with 1200 grit
- apply a few coats of leather bind to strengthen the leather
- dab on first coat of black, followed by airbrush of further 2 to 3. Use hairdryer to speed up drying between coats.
- apply satin lacquer using airbrush. Again most likely 3 coats.

I'll report back in with pics when I've completed my small scale test.
 
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So decided to begin the journey of leather restoration today. As a way of testing I've started with the steering wheel, handbrake handle and sport gear knob.

Not finished yet as I started quite late but thus far I've:

- cleaned
- degreased (interesting process for areas of high contact...paste applied turns to powder when it comes into contact with grease)
- used leather prep in a green abrasive pad to remove top coat of leather colour. Lots if elbow grease required here and with items being small it was a trifle fidgity.
- stage I'm at now is alcohol cleaning to remove any surface contaminants. Going by the amount of dirt and colour I'm extracting this could take a while

So once this is complete tomorrow's plan :

- apply filler to any areas that have any cuts or nicks.
- sand all surfaces with 1200 grit
- apply a few coats of leather bind to strengthen the leather
- dab on first coat of black, followed by airbrush of further 2 to 3. Use hairdryer to speed up trying between coats.
- apply satin lacquer using airbrush. Again most likely 3 coats.

I'll report back in with pics when I've completed my small scale test.

I assume there is a colour change from red to black going on here
Sounds like a LOT of work



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It is and not quite.

Just restoring black bits to black (or I could make them red with the dye I have but I'm not brave enough). Will then restore red to red one seat at time.
 
So my trial out was certainly interesting but then that's why it was labelled as such.

I had in effect to do the steering wheel twice. First time round was really good until I put the lacquer on too thick using the airbrush and due to not understanding fully the properties of the lacquer. The 'hard wear' first pass lacquer is unforgiving it seems if put on too thick and I had to sand back and re paint with no paint left !

Managed to squeeze enough to give the wheel another couple of coats.

The mix of paint was close to that of soul black rather than solid black and I'm happy with it. The final finish is satin. Just to say the finish in the pictures looks a bit more gray than reality due to the flash photo.

IMG_20180102_162317-1632x1224.jpg
 
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If it helps anyone, I went through the Furniture Clinic website to ascertain the best value way of getting a match for the red leather, full kits are around £50 but the "colour matching" service from a sample you send in costs an extra £12:50.

I took a guess and bought the 250 ml. Size of colourant with Code: Red 05 , the 250ml. Size is surprisingly big and goes straight from bottle to wipe onto the leather. It's a great colour match and soon dried to a clean bright (shiny) finish.
I have used paint thinners either standard or 'gun wash' to clean paint/parts/ degrease agent on all sorts of materials (£10 per 5 litres /gallon) for years. It lasts a long time and cleans up leather well, stripping out colour and marks. After a 'thinners' clean the colourant bonded very well and was very easy and quick.
Warning! Thinners have pungent harmful vapours and is very flammable, you must observe all safety warnings. Most people don't like the smell either.

The main helpful hint is that Red R05 is a good match, available for around £15 for the 250 ml. How you prepare is up to yourself. Hope this helps someone.
 
Just to add my cap to the ring I used these..
Bespoke Leathering Ltd

John Brant

Dry Cow Shed,
Old Hall Farm,
(Off Hangmans Lane),
Seckington,
B79 0LA
Tamworth
Staffordshire
UK

07957895468

Email:[email protected]

If any of you watch car s.o.s. this is the interior guy Tim dumps on..

Their leather dye is very good and colour match very good. Do various other products also.

I have no affiliation to them only a satisfied customer.

Here is a list of Audi colours they do.
Manufacturers Colour Name
Aviator Grey
Aqua
Anis
Aniseed
Aztec Yellow
Magma Red
Blue
Black
Charcoal Grey
Dark Green
Ecrue
Grey Titanium
Grey
Indigo Blue
Light Grey
Lemon
Mokassin
Off White
Orange
Platinum (light)
Star Silver
Saddle Brown
Twist Beige
Vanilla
 
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This post is good in that its prompted me to restart the refurb of the red sport leather seats in the car. I've taken out the drivers seat and replaced with the original SE cloth. Thus far I've taken back and started to fill in the (numerous) cracks....likely its going to take a couple of weeks to do without rushing.
 
Right drivers seat done. Definitely not for the faint hearted this..took a lot of time and a lot learned around the process for sure. 2 coats of leather protection cream to finish off before I reinstall this morning.

Might take a while before I can face the passenger seat i reckon :)

55325
55326
 
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