Dying leather.
10-22-17, 10:44 PM
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Dying leather.
I purchased my 2010 RX450h about 4 months ago from a private party and got what I felt was a good deal. The trade off for a great price was a dirty / cluttered interior and less than perfect leather. It took my daughter and I a good day to detail this inside and get it all Lexusy feeling. I ordered some leather dye and leather glue from Classic Dye Products. After missing a product in the original shipment then the replacement getting lost in the mail Classic Dye products made the order right. This weekend I finally got around to repairing and dying the leather.
The passenger seat was the worst with some scratches and a small rip connecting two of the vent holes in the sitting surface of the seat. I used the leather adhesive and a small 3/4" piece of fabric to back the small rip. Then I used the Leather Soft Fill to level out the small divet. After it dried some 600 grit sand paper smoothed it out nicely.
Today I decided to do the dye job on the seats. I started with a thorough vacuum then a very thorough cleaning with acetone. The acetone not only took all the grease, oil and dirt off the seats but also took off a good amount of factory finish. I used a mini roller to apply the dye mixed with the Classic Dye Products SuperLink Crosslinker. The dye went on a little lighter shade of gray than the factory leather but it dried to an amazingly perfect match. A hair dryer helped a lot to dry the dye in the back seat where the seat is covered by the seat belts. I was able to hold the seat belt off the seat, roll the dye on then dry it with the hair dryer in about a minutes time.
I am very pleased with the results and incredibly impressed at how easy the whole project was. A good interior detailing takes most of a day. Dying the front and rear seats took about 3 hours. I died all the seating surfaces twice, the side surfaces once and I did not do the back of the chairs that were perfect. Under direct bright light I can not tell where the dye job stops and where the original finish starts. I am also very impressed with the satin finish of the dye that blends perfectly with factory leather finish. The seats look brand new!
If you have some less than perfect leather I would highly reccomend this project! The supplies were about $150 and I enough left over glue and filler for another 20 vehicles. I don't know of any used car dealers that don't do quick half *** dye jobs on their vehicles. I am confident in the quality dye products I used, my attention to detail and the quality of the finished product. I believe the new dye will hold up very well... but only time will tell.
The passenger seat was the worst with some scratches and a small rip connecting two of the vent holes in the sitting surface of the seat. I used the leather adhesive and a small 3/4" piece of fabric to back the small rip. Then I used the Leather Soft Fill to level out the small divet. After it dried some 600 grit sand paper smoothed it out nicely.
Today I decided to do the dye job on the seats. I started with a thorough vacuum then a very thorough cleaning with acetone. The acetone not only took all the grease, oil and dirt off the seats but also took off a good amount of factory finish. I used a mini roller to apply the dye mixed with the Classic Dye Products SuperLink Crosslinker. The dye went on a little lighter shade of gray than the factory leather but it dried to an amazingly perfect match. A hair dryer helped a lot to dry the dye in the back seat where the seat is covered by the seat belts. I was able to hold the seat belt off the seat, roll the dye on then dry it with the hair dryer in about a minutes time.
I am very pleased with the results and incredibly impressed at how easy the whole project was. A good interior detailing takes most of a day. Dying the front and rear seats took about 3 hours. I died all the seating surfaces twice, the side surfaces once and I did not do the back of the chairs that were perfect. Under direct bright light I can not tell where the dye job stops and where the original finish starts. I am also very impressed with the satin finish of the dye that blends perfectly with factory leather finish. The seats look brand new!
If you have some less than perfect leather I would highly reccomend this project! The supplies were about $150 and I enough left over glue and filler for another 20 vehicles. I don't know of any used car dealers that don't do quick half *** dye jobs on their vehicles. I am confident in the quality dye products I used, my attention to detail and the quality of the finished product. I believe the new dye will hold up very well... but only time will tell.
Last edited by MikeInOr; 10-22-17 at 10:51 PM.
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