Interior colouring

rockdemon

Administrator
Staff member
HI guys,

I Have a complete interior which I'm thinking of swapping in. I would like to colour the leather and the vinyl so I was wondering what has worked well for other people.?

Thanks in advance!
 
If you mean, colour changing, well, if you can avoid it, avoid it.
Other than that, there are some decent products on the market, and the time that you will invest in cleaning, preparation and painting, pays off. You will be rewarded by a nice result, but for heavy everyday use don't expect it too be as wear proof as the original upholstery was.
Also as a rule, a change from a light colour to a darker works always better than a change from a dark to a lighter one.
 
I used furniture clinic products. I didn't recolour, but did reapply the finish. They colour matched to an off cut I sent them. Happy with the result.
 
I used the Leather Repair Company in East Yorkshire. Tell: 01482 606864. Or web: www.leatherrepaircompany.com
I found their products excellent. I sent a sample to them and they matched the colour perfectly. I used their cleaner first, and then sponged on two coats of the colour then used their sealant - you can choose whether you want a matt/silk/gloss finish. I was keeping the seats the same colour but needed to get them looking better. Only took me an afternoon and the seats have been transformed. They are not cheap but their products are good in my opinion.
 
I used Gliptone, Liquid Leather : Leather Care - Gliptone Leathercare
my 1970 leather was worn (front seats beyond what they would recommend for the rejuvenation product, they have another more paint like product but I opted for the former). They supplied 1970 Rover Buckskin from their menu of original colours. (and also a 2005 MX5 Limited Edition red touch up kit, again from menu)
Being in Oz we communicated by email, they answered all questions immediately. It would be even easier from UK.
Products were easy to use but one needs to take time and care.
Result was excellent. Thoroughly recommend.
 
I used the Gliptone and it did work out well - also in the Buckskin colour they had on file (they had two actually, this was the earlier one and the match is perfect). I literally had no colour left only the brown/grey of the raw hide. In other words the leather was knackered. It worked well. If I was to share my experience it would be as follows:

1. If you can, avoid doing this at all because even if as in my case the results are good, the feel isn't really the same as before. If you have genuinely good items of one colour, try and trade them if you can because you are effectively destroying them. For "honestly worn" items, learn to love the patina rather than trying to make them as new. For faded rather than worn items, there are alternative ways of dying directly into the leather to bring back colour rather than the techniques here which effectively build up a new layer on the "connolization". The old fashioned "Feiblings" does the job here. Just don't wear a white linen suit for a few months ;-)
2. Changing colour light-dark is far easier than dark to light. Yeah, should go without saying for anyone who has ever painted anything but it is true. If you are going lighter with leather, then you'll need to strip the dark colour off with cellulose thinners first. With vinyl if you are trying to go lighter, you will need so much of the product, you'll lose some of the gain effect.
3. The same product won't work for leather and vinyl. The vinyl product permeates the surface, the leather is a new "skin". This unfortunately does not allow the leather to "breath" as before and you can't condition it easily in future.
4. By far the best way to apply the leather colour is by airbrush. I used mine with an ordinary air compressor. Build it up in light coats. It takes patience as coverage is terrible to start with. Took me about 10 coats, the result is flawless where the leather was good and prepared properly. You can speed drying up a little with a hairdryer but the process done this way will take several days. At the end I left it for a week to dry thoroughly. A blow gun is also useful for cleaning and blowing the dust you create sanding.
5. Seams are really awkward, tape them back to allow the colour in, otherwise you will get voids and shadows. They are also vinyl even on leather seats, so do these first with the right product - the leather one won't stick.
6. Condition and clean thoroughly. Ideally treat the leather weeks or months in advance. It will be more difficult to condition seats in future so do this well. This is really important.
7. Ambla as in the P6 has a very distinctive effect on the grain as in it looks "dirty" (you know what I mean by this). You will lose this which may or may not be desirable, the finish will be uniform and "clean". With the exception of black, even if the colour match is perfect, it won't look original. Nothing you can do about this. It does however make door panels and the door pull match properly, which is nice - mango owners take note...
8. If you use a light colour (like buckskin), avoid wearing jeans, except really old or bleached ones as you will get dye transfer.
9. For leather filling buy the Furniture clinic product: It actually comes in a sensible size for not much money. Forget the silly Gliptone little pots.
10. Really concentrate on softening the creases and cracks and then fill these. You'll find many creases simply disappear and don't need work - work conditioner into the leather with you hands. With cracks, soften the edges with sandpaper a little BEFORE filling. You can really work miracles here. You need a lot of patience and work on sanding the leather surface even compared to preparing panels for painting.
11. Like panel work your results will depend on how much effort you put in. Practice first on say the rear arm rest until you get the feel for it.
12. I found no matter how much I cleaned some items I got areas in which the product wouldn't stick very well at all. Obviously in the last 45 years I have no idea what potions were used to clean or what nasties were spilled on it; there were definitely dog-based remnants in mine....
13. Order more than you need of the vinyl product as you will get scuffs to touch-up. The leather colour has a shelf life of 6 months apparently so you can't do this for that.

In conclusion, for me this is only a stop gap and I will get them recovered. The colour kits are great products but I have very mixed feelings about them. I kind of like an honestly aged car to one that tries to be perfect. Like I said, my situation was the seats were nearly fit for the dump, as such I'm pleased they are now serviceable and almost "good" except on close inspection. I would recommend this for my situation of extreme wear and also as in a new car for touching in scuffs, marks etc. There's a whole field of patina and wear between those two extremes I would probably not use this on, I would just deep clean and condition. I probably wouldn't choose to recolour any item unless I could not avoid it.
 
now that's thorough! Thanks. I have a very faded sandlewood set of seats which are otherwise in very good condition to go in and replace the current buckskin. The car was meant to have sandlewood. Somebody has swapped all the doorcards etc to buckskin too, The current buckskin seats are close to disintegration...
 
i also used furniture clinic and am happy with the results. I even repaired some small holes and tears with their products. They even have a filler which works well. Send them a sample and they matched the color well

CIMG3910.jpg


before with the large hole repaired. The white line is filler.

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After

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Before

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After

The P5B seats have on some places foam chips which i replaced by normal foam. Also restitched the 2 seams. Also the vinyl painting went well. Furniture clinic also has some sort of primer which i used

Peter
 
i also used furniture clinic and am happy with the results. I even repaired some small holes and tears with their products. They even have a filler which works well. Send them a sample and they matched the color well

CIMG3910.jpg


before with the large hole repaired. The white line is filler.

CIMG3980.jpg

After

CIMG3902.jpg


Before

CIMG3979.jpg


After

The P5B seats have on some places foam chips which i replaced by normal foam. Also restitched the 2 seams. Also the vinyl painting went well. Furniture clinic also has some sort of primer which i used

Peter
Suggest you give up whatever you are doing and go into business as an upholstery repairer! Great results. Although I stained my seats ok, I have previously tried to do seat rip repairs (on a different vehicle) and was hopeless at it. Well done!
 
Sorry for the almost year-old thread resurrection, but I thought it was better to continue this one than start a new one.

After much deliberation and reading threads like this one, I decided to order some Gliptone Buckskin Scuffmaster from Liquid Leather. I don't have any trim in good enough condition to provide a reliable colour sample and I want to refresh the whole interior, so the fact that Liquid Leather had Buckskin on file (as noted by Peter and Mike above) appealed. I confirmed with their customer services before ordering that they had a suitable colour on file. Very disappointed therefore to be told, after ordering, that they have "disposed of" their sample and can no longer mix Buckskin!

Does anyone know if any of the other suppliers can do Buckskin off the shelf, or if any of you have swatches of Buckskin leather/vinyl that you used to get custom mixes done and could lend me for a couple of weeks? Or is there a modern car colour that's fairly close? The vinyl on my car is dirty (but coming up well with patient scrubbing with cellulose thinners) but much of it has faded visibly and doesn't resemble photos of Buckskin interiors, either from nicely restored cars or period brochures etc.

Any suggestions welcome as ever. Kinda wishing I'd got one with a black interior at this point!
 
Pity, one wonders why they would discard it, certainly had a couple more Buckskin orders from Australia after mine.

Not sure if this would help them formulate the colour, but on my label following "Rover Buckskin" there appears what I assume is a code for the colour "70S" also the box for "Standard pigment" is ticked. May be worth trying.
 
Telford81, if all else fails I reckon you could pretty easily transform your pale interior into a black one! I wouldn't want to try recolouring a black interior to turn it into a Buckskin one, but with the exception of the furflex trims you could dye or paint everything else black. Just a thought.
 
Try looking behind the rear seat backs. There was some surplus leather behind there on mine, where it’s pulled round and secured to the frame. You might have some there too that you can trim off and send to be matched. I sent off a vinyl sample when I did mine and the colour match wasn’t quite spot on. I think a leather sample, with its constant colour, will be better to match to than original vinyl, which has a slight printed pattern.
 
Try looking behind the rear seat backs. There was some surplus leather behind there on mine, where it’s pulled round and secured to the frame. You might have some there too that you can trim off and send to be matched. I sent off a vinyl sample when I did mine and the colour match wasn’t quite spot on. I think a leather sample, with its constant colour, will be better to match to than original vinyl, which has a slight printed pattern.
Hi Tom, I considered doing this, but my rear seats seem to have been coated with something brownish at some point in the past. I don't know if it's a paint, or some sort of treatment gone wrong. I'm not sure if I'd trust any bits of "buckskin" found anywhere on the car.
I have ordered free leather and vinyl samples from several upholstery manufacturers, in various shades of cream/beige. I'm hoping to choose from one of these when they arrive, and get it sent off to one of the leather restoration kit suppliers for a colour match.
After cleaning and feeding the leather for months, I'm looking forward to seeing the seats actually starting to look better. I did a DIY repair on a split seam at the edge of the passenger seat cushion yesterday. I'm not going to make it as an upholsterer, but very pleased with the result.
 
I've sent off to The Furniture Clinic for an Extra Large leather colour kit, based on colour match to a "cream" leather sample from a beanbag manufacturer. It seems to be a reasonable match for the cleanest bit of vinyl on my car (parcel shelf after scrubbing with cellulose thinners), but a touch darker to take account of fading over the years. Hopefully there should be enough in the kit to do door cards, shin bins etc. to make sure it all matches when I'm finished.
 
Just a quick update on some of my comments above. Hopefully you can see attached a few images of my completed interior. Far from show standard, but the Furniture Clinic kit has rejuvenated a very dilapidated interior that in many areas was fit for the bin. The colouring material is easy to apply with sponge followed by airbrush/spray gun. The sealer coats are runnier and hence a bit trickier. I went for fully matt and it's really too flat - semi-matt or satin would probably have been better. However with the use of a bit of leather treatment stuff a bit of shine is restored and it looks OK to me. Very happy to recommend the Furniture Clinic repair and recolouring products.
 

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