Fixing worn leather on seats... - BMW Forum

Ocean02 · 01-18-2006, 12:31 PM

Hey everyone. My next little project is fixing some very minor imperfections in the leather on the seats. It appears that over the past 4 years of wear, the color has worn off a few spots on the gray leather, leaving some yellowish spotting. The leather itself looks fine, but I am going to re-dye the faded spots.

I ordered a leather dye kit from Leather World Technologies in VA. I got the kit, but the dye was the wrong color. After much trial, I figured out that the only way to get an exact color match was to send them a sample. I had tried calling the BMW dealer and using the VIN # to get the stock color code, but Leather World Tech can't use BMW codes to match colors. So, I took out the rear seat and snipped off a litte piece of extra leather from the bottom side. I am sending that in to the Leather shop and they will exchange the dye and custom mix the exact match for no addition fee (I had to pay for shipping, of course).

when I get the correct dye, I will post my results. Sounds like it should be just the thing I need though. Here is a pic of "before" worn leather on the front, passenger seat.

Wish me luck...

Ari

drz · 01-18-2006, 11:21 PM

The fron passenger seat always suffers the most. Mine needs work badly. In all honesty, your "before" picture would make a decent "after" picture for my seat.

Furious · 01-19-2006, 02:33 AM

try this stuff called leatherique (or something like that) suppose to be the best leather restorer out there, not cheap either, but apparently well worth it.

Ocean02 · 01-19-2006, 10:42 AM

Yeah, my seats aren't bad. But I am anal retentive about having my car perfect. I will let you know how the Leather World Tech dye and restore kit works when I get it. (The photo's not so good, it doesn't show the yello very well. In actuality, the faded part is pretty obvious.) P.S. how do I attach a photo without it being the size of a football field?

Furious · 01-19-2006, 04:05 PM

you need to resize the picture using any sort of photo program (ie-microsoft photo editor, photoshop etc) you can even use microsoft paint

drz · 01-19-2006, 04:53 PM

Leatherique can be purchased at www.leatherique.com

I was going to suggest them, but desisted, given that you already have something in the works. Let us know how it works out.

Ocean02 · 02-14-2006, 02:41 PM

I fogot to mention last week that I got my color matched dye back and fixed all the worn spots. The leather looks brand spankin' new! I am very happy with the result and even happier that I waited for the exact color match and that I did it myself. There were lots of little spots here and there where the color had worn and you could see the yellowish leather below.

I used the LeatherWorldTech leather dye kit and it worked beautifully. However, they give you a spray bottle and an arosol can that yo hook up to the bottle. I applied the dye by simply dabbing a clean cloth and spotting it onto the worn parts. You do thin coats and let each coat dry. You then wait 24 hours and apply a conditioner to the leather and it feels so nice and supple. The result is at least what I had hoped for. I will post my pics as soon as I get my camera back.

I recommend this easy-to-do-yourself kit to anyone with worn leather. Here's the link: http://www.leatherworldtech.com.

Pics to come...

Ocean02 · 02-14-2006, 11:06 PM

Here's the before and after pics. Note: my camera is a 2 megapixel and sucks, but you get the idea. The result is fantastic. My car feel much, much nicer now!