Has anyone had any luck repairing their leather seats? I’ve got some fairly worn saddle leather seats. I got some crack repair and dye from seatdoctors. I tested it and the color is way lighter than my seats. Not a good match. I reached out to their customer service but have not heard back yet.

This is my driver seat. You can see I used some of the crack filler. On the perforated panel, I tested the leather dye. You can see the dye is on the left portion and the right is not dyed.

 

I've never used leather dye since the repairs I've done were on seats with a coating not dyed. But the repair process is the same, fill, sand, clean, apply coating. Are your seats significantly faded? But it would seem if that were true the dye would be darker.

 

i got the dye from seatdoctoors.com. They match by vin. I have read that these seats are coated and not dyed. A lot of people talk about how leather conditioning product is pointless with coated. I’m very unsure about the sanding part. I tried some 600 grit. It did not do much at all. I went down to 400. I am wondering if I should apply a wet sand sort of approach? I’m trying to not touch the existing leather because it seems to scruff the original color up. My seats are not faded at all. All the windows have nice UV protection. The leather just seems to be a darker/richer orange color than I received.

 

Seat repair is just like auto body repair. Yes you wet sand but be careful you don't want to "suede" up the surface. There is much debate when it comes to conditioning coated seats some say nothing can penetrate the coating so any conditioning is useless. In practice, using Leatherique does a spectacular job of cleaning and conditioning the leather will look and feel amazing. I always use Leatherique before I do damage repair it's nice to start with a perfectly clean seat.

If the colour they sent doesn't match then it's simply not correct. I can't tell if you have coated or semi-aniline maybe the brochure will say.

 

I spoke with the dye company. They said they have seen several instances where the vehicle build says dark saddle but it is more of a camel color. They are sending me another batch to get it closer.

Good to know it is just like body work cause that is how I have approached it. The stuff even dries quickly like bondo. I have applied a few thin layers and it is starting to looks really nice. I’m excited to get the new color and test out the match. By the time that arrives I should be done with the repairs. I will most some photos when I get done. In the meantime, I did get my hands on the 2004 brochure. I included a few pages.

 

I just pulled the trigger today and ordered the Seat Doc kit - and used the VIN and gave it to seat doctors - Door Vin Tag says LA07 - seat doctors says cashmere - Looking at the color chart I say cashmere is the same situation as you - Will see how this goes - thx for the post -

 

If you are interested in custom made(non-genuine) seat covers:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...l#post11847910

 

Here is the update on the Seatdoctors dye
Here is the before

This is a 2004 LS430 Cashmere
Here is the after

 

This arm rest was a mess

After

 

Driver door card and seats are next

 

Nice job.

 

Very nice

 

After working with this cashmere color during the last 48 hours this cashmere mix is not 100% spot on - it's close - but not a perfect match -
Its close enough to be ok and to where you don't notice - but again in a 20 + year old car perhaps the mix is correct and the rest of the car aged to perfection - I don't know.
Yesterday I sprayed a section of the door panel and forgot to shake up the bottle and the color appears to be off - I am re-preping the area and redoing the door panel and respraying tomorow. ( and yes - shake the bottle)
To Prep: you HAVE to sand all of these items with 600 before spraying - the dye will not bind to unsanded interior parts. I use typical degreaser deluted and alcohol to clean prior to spraying

Does anyone know what to use on these door panels to patch a deep ding? I used my heat gun to get part of the shape back. But the seat glue from Seatdoctors is not enough for a deeper ding?
I don't want to use Bondo - was thinking epoxy - anyone else do this? Thx