Renovating cracked leather seats

[Alec Pringle]

Hi Guys,

 

a request, wondering if anyone has solid personal experience to offer, please.

 

The Big Bomber, my old Humber Super Snipe, has light grey leather bench seats the size of small aircraft carriers - those who recall the V8 Lady and I getting hitched will remember the 4 abreast front and rear in the Humber. We were all slimmer then, mind you !

 

From 1959-1978 the car covered few enough miles, but spent every sunny day for nigh on 20 years parked outside Worthing Bowling Club . . . . I kid you not. Net result, the seats are seriously cracked and in need of improvement.

 

The previous owner utilise some sort of renovation kit back around 1980, which evidently costalot but achieved notalot - beyond slightly altering the shade.

 

During the 1990s a local car trimmer had the seats for quite some time, repaired a couple of stitching issues, and supposedly tackled the cracked and dried leather. Initially it looked like an improvement, but a year or three later after being stored in a cool dark garage the seats looked little better than they had before. Another costalot to achieve notalot.

 

I have slurped on a couple of so-called revivers over the years, liquid stuff, but for all the good it did I might as well have anointed the seats with Watney's Red Barrel.

 

As the Humber is now being renovated for my son's wedding next year, we really do need to improve these blessed seats . . . . . so, has anyone recommendations of products that have actually achieved a decent result, as opposed to costalot for notalot ?

 

Cheers

 

Alec

[stillp]

Sorry to say this Alec, but if they're cracked then nothing will mend them for long. Autoglym leather restorer will make the bits between the patches more flexible.

 

Pete

[Alec Pringle]

Hi Pete,

 

you could well be right !

 

This is one magic jollop process that speaks highly of itself . . . . . but has anyone come across it ?

 

http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/How-To-Restore-Leather.php

 

Cheers

 

Alec

[barkerwilliams]

Alec,

 

We have horses so lots of leather experience(?), if leather is dry and cracked but not too late to save buy 500ml of Belvoir Leather Balsam made by Carr & Day & Martin less than £12 from any Equestrian or farm shop or Ebay. One tub probably enough for four or five cars. Plenty left over for your leather boots to keep them supple and improve waterproofing. Don't put too much on, it's clear and soaks in, but don't put on your seats and climb in the car later that day in your best white suit leave it a couple of days.

 

Found this ad on google

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/161039559591?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&rlsatarget=&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

 

 

Alan

[AndrewP]

Hi Alec,

 

Having recently restored the interior of the Jensen, I can give you a few pointers.

 

Ill come to the cracking later...but if the leather is dry and stiff, you need to get some of the flexibility back by 'feeding' the leather. You cant really feed leather..as its dead, its just a general term but you want to replace the natural oils that have been lost.You have to be careful putting products not designed for car interiors as they, whilst are suitable for other uses, may stink and the car smells more like a stable than a car. Worth noting as well, some products can in fact rot in the leather after a time making the whole thing 100x worse.

So, first you need to clean the seats. Don't use any harsh chemicals yet...get a good cleaner that has glycerin in. It should lift the dirt without drying the leather even more. Use a soft nail brush in a swirling motion to lift the dirt from the grain and then use a damp clean cloth to wipe away.

Then feed using neatsfoot oil. In my experience, this produced the best end result in a short space of time bar none. I would use a more conventional car leather cream once you have the seat treated and in its final state, but for repair and fast results...use neatsfoot. Keep wiping over the seat with the oil on a lint free cloth. The oil will get absorbed into the leather (a warm day helps). Keep going until no more oil gets absorbed. You are now at least at a point where over a few weeks, the leather should soften and become more supple.

Now, the tricky bit.

If the seats have been previously 'done' then you might get away with a coloured matched cream that will fill in and 'lift' what colour you have on the seats.

If the seats are worn, bad colour but generally ok, then you may need to recolour.

If the seats are really knackered then you may need to coat with a flexible top coat.

 

This is the product i used. Perhaps have a read http://www.liquidleather.com/re-colouring.htm

 

Either way, if they have been coloured or coated, you will need to assess the adhesion of the treatment and either apply on top of, or strip off the old treatments. Depends on how far you want to go unfortunately.

The only way to make 100% certain is to strip back to the hide (remove all colour, back to the brown leather), clean and key the surface, and reapply the colour. This way you ensure the colour binds to the leather.

You can apply the colour using a sponge, but I found the best results was to use an airbrush using a 1mm nozzle and thinning the colour down to get a really nice even coating for the last few coats (e.g 2 coats using neat colour with the sponge and 2 using the airbrush).

 

If its 'for the big day' and if you can get away with it, then recolour on top of the existing colour after cleaning and a wipe over with methylated spirits (to remove grease). It might last 6 months,maybe 6 years. All depends on use.

 

Finally, cracks. If its cracked then there is very little you can do. It means the leather has dried and cracked the top smooth surface. You can get flexible filler, but to get it to adhere and stay put, you need to clean, prepare and degrease the crack without making it worse. The filler then would need colour, so you'd end up having to recolour the whole seat. Its a bit like car body paint, you generally can't do a patch as the colour match won't be 100%. Saying that though, it can be done for small cracks, and if its in an area where it doesn't take a load of abuse (I.e not the bolster), it can work out really well.

 

So, for mine I used the liquid leather products. The re-colouring kits are good value and come with cleaner and dye etc.

You'll see they also do the 'knackered' leather kits and the info around it. If your seats have already had the treatment, then it may be that the only option you have is to strip it back (using thinners) and reapply.

No association either..their kits worked well for me, but I'm sure woolies, furniture clinic all offer similar products.

 

Finally, might be worth talking to a local upholsterer. For all the faffing, products, chemicals etc, it might be worth getting it done properly. I'm sure someone you know, knows a bloke?.

 

If you need anything from afar...more than happy to have a chat or help where I can.

 

Cheers

 

Andrew

Edited July 16, 2015 by AndrewP

[oldtuckunder]

Hi Pete,

 

you could well be right !

 

This is one magic jollop process that speaks highly of itself . . . . . but has anyone come across it ?

 

http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/How-To-Restore-Leather.php

 

Cheers

 

Alec

Hi Alec

 

I used their colour kit to match a pair of leather MGF seats to the rest of the interior of my Vitesse about three years ago and they still look stunning, and I have just finished restoring all the interior of the XJS with their kit, and it now looks as good (if not better than) new. NB to do it properly you do need to split the seats into two and remove all trim, and mask carefully before applying colour. As a guide I think the complete XJS interior was about 40 hours work, but the results are impressive. However I have seen a lot of interiors ruined because people didn't take the time and tried doing seats and panels without removing them, the result then tends to look like someone let a few kids loose inside the car armed with paint aerosols!

 

The following link is to one of their car seat treatment examples, however it doesn't represent the time involved!

 

http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/How_To_Restore_A_Leather_Car_Interior.php

 

Alan

[Alec Pringle]

All helpful comment, many thanks guys . . . . . here are a few photos of the current state of the Humber seats

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Alec

Edited July 19, 2015 by Alec Pringle

[RogerH]

Hi Alec,

they don't look that bad. There appear to be no tears.

 

Why not get one of the feeding/cleaning/colouring kits - this will at least make the cracks look a similar colour and will not notice as much.

 

Roger

[DaveN]

I can highly recommend furniture clinic. I purchased a colouring and repair kit from them, also had a quite lengthy chat as well. Very helpful.

If you can send them a small piece of the leather they will be able to match the colour.

[oldtuckunder]

I can highly recommend furniture clinic. I purchased a colouring and repair kit from them, also had a quite lengthy chat as well. Very helpful.

If you can send them a small piece of the leather they will be able to match the colour.

I would concur, they are very helpfull and will give advice at any stage if your stuck or unsure, I'd also recommend sending a colour sample to them. I'd also recommend going one step down on the finish coats, i.e. if you think the finish should be gloss go satin, and if you think satin go semi-matt, nb you can reaply different finishes on top of each other so you can go shinier or matter if you don't like your first choice. I'd also recommend that you buy 50% more leather prep solution than in a given size kit.

Also don't go for their aerosol propellent cans. it not that they aren't good its just that you will use a lot, if you have a compressor then buy an adaptor on ebay (£2) to connect to the pipe on their supplied air brush. NB much to my surprise I found it far better using their hobby air brush rather than a good small spray gun as it encourages you to build up the colour thin layer by layer. Also buy your wife a new hairdryer before you start, you'll be amazed even on a hot day how usefull it is to be able to dry a coat in a couple of min's.

 

PS. From the pictures I'd class those as an easy restoration job, and their leather binder and filler will make a dramatic transformation of those cracks. I recon a couple of days would see both those seats done (excluding removal and refit time).

 

PPS. I'm in no way connected to furniture clinic just a very happy customer.

 

Alan

[Alec Pringle]

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions of last year, much appreciated . . . . time for a follow-up !

 

The Humber spent the first 20 years of its life sitting in the sun in Worthing, St Peter's waiting room as it was in the 60s and 70s, being bleach dried when the seats weren't being squashed by seriously overweight occupants - which didn't do a lot for the seats, one way or another.

 

The subsequent owner had attacked the seats with a 're-connolising' kit back in about 1980, the end result wasn't exactly wonderful. Some twenty years later a local trimmer effected some improvement to the seats - the restitching was OK, but he didn't manage much by way of improving the surface.

 

So, last year I spoke to several leather renovation specialists . . . . . explaining current condition of seats and past history. Sharp intakes of breath, wringing of hands, wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the endless list of caveats that resulted from the seats having been previously treated. Not to mention that bench seats are more prone to problem than individual seats. And Humbers especially. And etc etc etc.

 

Bottom line, I'd be better consigning the seats for expert specialist treatment, diy was probably not a good idea, but either way there didn't seem much likelihood of any sort of warranty . . . . . despite a four figure suggested renovation cost.

 

It all began to sound too much like an upholsterer's rewrite of DC's book of racing driver's excuses.

 

Well, bugger that for a game of soldiers. I didn't want the seats looking like shiny new replicas, I just wanted to improve what I'd got - you know, it's an old car, for driving again, and not a concours entrant nor yet a museum showpiece. The idea of stripping the surface right back and starting again from bare leather did not appeal . . . . . and nor did a grand plus for someone else to do the job, given the litany of reasons why the job might not last well . . . .

 

So utilise what was to hand - several coats of 'Astonish' leather cleaner/reviver, 99p from the local swag shop several years ago, and some other reviver that my son had for his leather coats. The seats kept sucking up the stuff, didn't seem to do any harm, and they feel more like leather and less like cardboard. Follow that with several applications of Cherry Blossom light grey wax shoe polish, brushed well into the cracks. Then Cherry Blossom renovating shoe cream, light grey again. By now it's all blending in quite nicely. More Astonish, then an old tub of Connoly's Hide Food rubbed in generously.

 

We do seem to be winning - they still look like old seats, cracked and worn and with a modest variation of shade and grubbiness here and there, but they seem a good deal more flexible and look a great deal more respectable than they did before. Cost of notalot, plus a fair whack of elbow grease.

 

A few more judicious applications of jollop to go, two tears to repair yet, and then I'll add some neatsfoot oil . . . . then I'll refit and photograph them. Fingers crossed !

 

Cheers

 

Alec

[hpremote]

Alec: a bit of a caution re. Neatsfoot oil.

I used quite a bit on my old flying jacket, a couple of years ago. It was fine for the leather, but I strongly suspect it of having attacked the thread in the seams.

I ended up having to do a lot of restitching shortly after the application...

 

Cheers,

Tim.

[Alec Pringle]

Many thanks Tim,

 

that's very useful to know, the Humber stitching has proved a weak point previously - I'll do a bit more research before committing myself.

 

Touch wood, so far the amateur budget approach has done quite well.

 

Restitching I could live without !!

 

Cheers

 

Alec

[Lebro]

+1 I have had some problems with neatsfoot oil as well, from memory it softened the leather to the point that it started to fall apart.

Possibly corrosive ?

 

Bob.

[stillp]

I don't know about attacking stitching, but it stinks, and comes off on clothing. I recommend Autoglym Leather Cream.

 

Pete

[Alec Pringle]

A little internet research throws up an awful lot of conflicting views about neatsfoot, whether it's 'pure' or 'compound' oil . . . . .

 

It does seem as if it may cause a problem with older stitching thread, but a very unclear situation with more opinions than hard evidence being thrown around.

 

As for smell, anything that pongs like horse saddlery or whatever I can live without, in my book the best application for a horse is in pieces on a plate - one thing the Frogs are good at.

 

On balance, the current approach is working well enough (touch wood!) so I'll stick with it and avoid adding any more compounds to the Humber seats.

 

Cheers

 

Alec

[Don H.]

In the interests of achiving information on the subject of leather rejuvenation (not recommending you change tactics, Alec), here's a system that gets very good reviews over here. I've tried it and it seems a nice system. My test cases were either too far gone or too good to give theLleatherique two-step system a real test, but what I've seen has been encouraging.

 

http://www.leatherique.com/do_it_your_self_instruction/rejuvinator_pc_directions.html

 

Available various but not numerous sources. I got mine from Amazon.