So, I finally got around to finishing the repair I mentioned in my above post. Just a recap, basically there was normal "scuff wear" on the left drivers side bolster black nappa leather seat on my 2008 BMW M Roadster.
The repair kit, filler, and sand paper finally arrived from Furniture Clinic after waiting a month. The time wasn't in shipping, basically they said I didn't "pick a color" when ordering. Although I know I did, and I sent them three emails they never responded to. Basically it took a Pay Pal dispute to actually get them to ship myself. Because of this, I can't recommend ordering anything from them. Although all products arrived safely and were high quality.
Anyway, when the stuff came, the kit included colorant, gloss and matte top coats, white/red/blue tints, a mixing cup and stirrer, an application sponge, and alcohol cleaner. I also ordered the sand paper they recommend and black leather filler. Right away a I could see there was plenty of colorant (50 cc); but very little top coat (15 cc each). 15 cc does not leave a lot of room for do-overs. Getting it right the first time was key.
The products:
I also picked up 2 Preval Sprayers. To anyone not familiar with these, these are like refillable spray paint cans powered by a little aerosol tank. I planned on using these with the colorant, however, once I looked at the product it looked too thick to spray and I didn't know what to thin it with correctly and didn't want to waste any product - so, they got returned unused.
I also got a Martha Stewart Visual Paint and Palette Knife Set. This was to apply the filler to fill the indents in the leather with the leather filler product and smooth it over
The idea of the kit is to basically clean the area with alcohol, sand and/or fill cracks if needed, color with colorant using supplied sponge, then correct sheen with gloss or matte top layer. It sounds pretty easy. The problem is, there is an infinite amount of tinting and sheening (gloss / matte) that can be done and I finite amount of product and tries.
Never trying this before I wasn't sure what to expect. I quickly learned that applying any product in straight lines (wiping it on) lead to a "striped" appearance. This could be fixed by dabbing the sponge instead. This is what the stuff looked like
Colorant:
Filler
Gloss and Matte Solutions Mixed to make "satin" top coat
Here you can see the colorant, mixing cup, and mixing stick:
First I cleaned the leather with Leather Masters Soft Cleaner, after that I used the alcohol solution supplied with the kit on the repair area only. This was nothing exciting, as I recently cleaned and sealed the seats with G Techniq L1.
So after cleaning, you have the option of sanding and applying the crack filler. I bought a spare piece of leather at the craft store and practiced this a little bit. On the car,Ii first sanded the color to try and smooth the area a bit with 1200 grit sandpaper. I was amazed at how EASY the color came off the BMW leather, compared to the leather I bought at the craft store. In fact, I was a little sickened. If anyone has ever priced BMW factory leather seat coverings, you know they cost thousands of dollars new. I'm wondering how come the $6 piece of leather from the craft store had a much tougher and abrasive resistant finish. The difference was significant. And the finish on the practice leather was almost identical to the BMW leather.
After sanding I tried smoothing the leather indentations that were left with the crack filler. This worked well enough, however, the quantity of product you use to do this is tiny. I'm talking about as much filler as is the size of a head of a fly to fill an indent. I'm really glad I got those little knives to do this, as you really need a precision tool to do this right. After that, you can wait until it dries or dry It with a heat gun, I choose the latter.
This is the area after its been lightly sanded and the crack filler was applied and knocked down flat and dried (yes hard to see - filler is black):
After I was confident the indentations were filled, but not overfilled, it was time for the color. Basically, you just dip the sponge in it and pat it on. Here you want to do several light coats, drying with heat in between. Again, it takes very little product each time, probably less than 1/10 of an ml for an area the size of your fist.
When the coloring was done, I was left with a spot on the seat that looked like black patent leather. It was very shiny and didn't match at all. This is where the matte/gloss solutions come in. There is no science how to mix them. Basically the middle between matte and gloss is called "satin", and this is what most seats resemble on German cars. However, this isn't as easy as it sounds. It's very hard to mix the correct proportions to get it just right. Also, you have to keep in mind that the color you laid down prior is not an exact match. It's easy to look at your color and see its slightly too dark, and confuse that with being slightly too shiny, and vice-versa with light and matte. You can apply light coats of these solutions as well, drying in between with heat.
So when I was all done, what was I left with???
Before:
After:
It's hard to tell in the pictures, but in person it looks OK. Up close, you can kind of tell something was done there, but from 5 feet away it is very hard to tell. As simple as this sounds, it still took me about 4 hours to do the whole procedure. The texture is a little off, the sheen is a little off, and the color is slightly dark.
However, looking close up at similar type spot repairs on the internet they all seem to look slightly off. I guess it's like painting part of a hood or door and expecting it to be undetectable.
If I was going to recommend a product to do a similar repair I'm not sure I'd recommend this kit. It's a little hard to mix color and sheen to match perfectly. Swissvax makes sort of an "all in one" product called Leather Healer. For $125 they will mix you an exact color (and I'm assuming matte/gloss sheen) based on the year, make, and model of your car. For $90 they have generic colors. But, if you buy all the Swissvax products they recommend to do the job your looking at close to $400.00. This may have been an easier, but not cheaper, route to go.
I was looking for perfection, but I didn't get it. I figured I would give it a try and use it as a learning experience. If the leather was in worse shape, the improvement of the repair would have been more drastic.
I'm trying to find a leather repair guy now who will say he can fix it to look almost perfect. I brought it to one guy and he told me to leave it, and that he wasn't sure he could get it better looking than I did.
