LexusNAZ

Here is my DIY leather repaint guide that I did on my high miles LS400. The seats are in great shape to start so that helps. The reason for doing this is the bolster and the part of the cushion that gets sat on the most has cracks. Once the dye of the seat has been compromised the leather will start to crack and fray causing rips and holes. So by re-dying the seat and using the crack filler/bonding agent it will prolong the life of the seat. I got my kit from Here: Leather Renew I do not have a sprayer so I got the cheapest foam brush kit.

Here is the kit all laid out on the counter. The only thing not included was lacquer thinner to prep the seats with along with tape and masking materials.




Here is a close up of the dye its ready to go and the bonding agent is in the smaller bottle.






As you can see my seats are in great condition except for the wear from years of getting into the car. The leather is cracking and you can see the light brown in the cracks that is where the dye is completely gone.
I have started to sand down the leather in this photo and I have my tape and gloves ready so I do not get oil on the seat.




Here is a close up of the bolster and the wear from getting in and out of the car over the years. One can better see the wear and the missing dye from the cracks in the leather that needs to be addressed before
the leather rips all together.





I have taped off all the leather that I do not want to paint. I have also masked off all the other trim that I do not want to get the color on. I have used the lacquer thinner to prep the seat so I can start applying
the crack filler to the leather. I have also used the included sand paper to smooth down the cracks so I do not have to use as much filler down the line.




More tape prep showing the leather after cleaning with lacquer thinner.



More close ups of the cracking before filler. You can see from the sanding more of the old finish has come off of the seats.




Its not the best photo but here you can see the crack filler that has been applied to the seat cracks. I waited till it was dry and I did another light sanding to get the seat as smooth as possible. The key
here is to get the leather as smooth as possible. Granted you will still see the cracks but do not freak out since you want the aged look to carry through on the car.




As you can see here I have filled in more of the cracks and wear marks on the bolster from years of use. This photo shows how more of the initial finish has come off from sanding and that is ok you
want as much loose dye to come off prior to applying the new finish.





Here is the included strainer as I mix and prep the paint for painting the seats. Key here is to get any clumps out and have the paint as contaminate free as possible. I don't know if it matters as much
since I was foam brushing it.






Ok, so the key is to do light coats since this product goes along way. This is the part where I freaked out since it looked terrible I was really worried. I just kept going and just smoothed it out as best as
I could. I did use a hair dryer in between coats to expedite the process.





Here you can see with the second coat its looking more solid.






By the third coat the seat was looking amazing. I was really happy with how the seat was looking I just kept on applying the thin coats and taking my time. The key to this process is to not rush it at all.
That is where things go bad.








As soon as the paint was kinda dry I took off the tape and let the car sit. I ended up painting the whole leather section and side section so it would look consistent. Since the rest of the seat was dirty and
with 19 years of weather and use it does look dingy compared to the freshly painted portion.








I ended up cleaning the seat again to try to get the dirt and grime off. Now the matches much better and I am happy with the results. I will probably end up re-dying the whole seat so it matches 100% since
there is a lot of paint left over.





I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if I can paint a car seat you can paint a car seat! The biggest thing is the prep and getting all the grease and grime off so the paint sticks. Not rushing is also key as well
to ending up with a nice finished project. I ended up dabbing the stitching so it would be consistent with it all being filled in that is probably the only excessive use of paint. Key note this is not a cure all the
seat will wear so you have to be easy on it. The kit also comes with mesh to fill holes as well so I do not know how that all works long term. If anyone else does this let me know how it turns out.

spuds

Well done LexusNAZ

All thats left is to see how it wears.Bookmarked,color me impressed.

Superfast1

Very nice. Good job!

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Very nice, thanks for sharing and showing your process!

Fit1too

That looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing the link to the kit. Let us know how it holds up.

Giorgio13

Good stuff and great job...keep up the good work.

LexusNAZ

This product should hold up as if I paid a professional to re-dye it. I am going to order the clear coat for leather from this vendor so that should help too. For the cost I can always re-dye haha.

Fit1too

Exactly! That is the beauty of it, you can redo it yourself, it's inexpensive, and it looks better. Plus, now that you have done it once, the next time will be a lot easier.

nate101

Looks really good thanks for sharing the results.

Legender

That's really nice and thanks for making this tutorial. I know it takes extra time to stop and take all the pictures.
Send me your address so I can ship my driver seat to you.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

good work here and thanks for sharing! hope it doesn't come off on your jeans or vice versa.

Fit1too

I thought the same thing, especially new, dark jeans (the ones that have not been faded out for you). Just watch for stuff like that and you'll be fine.

spuds

Agree.The follow ups on this post should be fascinating.

Bylan

Please post how the clear coat works out, I'm playing around with re-dying some interior bits in mine and am interested in how to seal in the new dye.