Thanks for all the love! The process was mad fun. I was blown away by the outcome. No smears whatsoever, as the can says it’s a flexible coating not a dye. It fills in cracks extremely well.

Ok, here’s pics of the process before the SEM coating. The behind the scenes pics if you will.

Here’s Flexible Liquid Stitch I used from eBay. Stuff is a beast. Just wipe it on with the applicator, it dries flexible, durably hard & most importantly sandable.


I applied liquid stitch into holes then inserted patches then added a couple layers more of liquid stitch about 1hr apart when totally dried. See these in progress pics.




I later cut out the large tear & again added liquid stitch under vinyl fabric patch, which I thought was neater. I then added a couple layers of liquid stitch on cut lines as well to create a bond then sand it smooth after it dried completely.




Here’s the drivers seat patched & ready for cleaning.

 

Nice work. The smell sucks for a few weeks though.

 

Wow, now that's cool!

 

Came out great.

 

Thanks. Actually the smell is gone already. It lasted for about 1 day. Here's an good pic of the a visible patch after 2nd coat. Bottom left you can see the patch indention. Liquid stitch allowed me to sand it down to really smooth it out. I already had sandpaper blocks of medium & extra fine that I used. Then once the 3rd coat went on it really blended then dried totally.



Another interesting note: SEM informed me not to use Satin Black 15243 when its moisture in the air or heavy humidity. Use it only on dry days. Satin Black mixed with that moisture gives the finish a cloudy look like so.



I had to respray on a dry day & it can out great. Loving the new interior.






Yes cleaning carpet is next, it’s filthy, then the sun damage seam tears on back seats, then onto the exterior paint chips damage with Dr ColorChip, purchased the large kit, which is just sitting around waiting its turn.

 

looks good...But

sorry to tell you this bro, that SEM paint is not meant for high contact areas such as seats and steering wheels.

those seats will begin peeling and cracking in no time.


GL

 

I have had SEM paint on my leather now for 8 moths and it still looks good. I guess to me its how much you get in and out of your car and how much you prep and sand, IMO. I hope it holds up well for you.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely let everyone know how it holds up. Even if there's touch-ups to do it's a 1,000 times better than it was.

 

you say you've had just SEM paint on your SEATS for 8 months now???

 

There's a sealer you can put over the SEM dye as well that will prevent it from coming off

 

i dunno if that's even necessary. the paint shop where i bought my SEM landau black paint from told me that SEM holds up pretty well on vynil and dosen't need any extra sealer.

I painted my dash and door pannels and rear quarters months ago and they still look new.

i think the extra sealer might mess up the finish, no?

 

Net that's correct. I just hung up with Jim @ SEM he says as long as the prep was done correctly then there's no need for anything else but the flexible coating. Says its made to be permanent. He also said that you can attempt to seal up a dicey coating if you'd like but it still won't hold up if not prepped correctly.

So far so good. I definitely prepped it so we'll see.

 

I'd be very interested to know if the SEM paint is a true "dye" or if it has pigment. For the light tan spray, it looked like you painted your brown seat belts and they came out tan??? If that's the case that means the SEM dye should have a pigment and you should be able to make your dash and seats any color and have them match

 

Nice restore! Great work!!

Ryan

 

Hey, question for you - I'm getting ready to redo the seats in my SC. Did you mask along each seam and paint each section of leather separately, or did you paint the whole seat all at once? I saw somewhere that it wasn't good to paint over the seams.
I mainly ask because, man, that'll make things take a lot more time.