Hi everyone, When I first psoted in the Introduction forum, I was asked to provide you all with some information on how to resotre and repair leather. So here is the propper methods and techinques: To restore the colour of your leather you will need a leather colourant kit (Leather Colourant Kit). The kit is a 4 stage process, starting with cleaning the leather down with the leather prep & alcohol cleaners. This cleaning process will remove the old finish from the leather, indicated when you see colour rubbed off onto your cloth. This process (as it removed the finish) will also remove any minor creases & cracks from the leathers coating, making the surface softer and smoother. Any severe cracking can be filled in using the heavy filler if necessary. You then proceed to sponge a coat of colour onto the leather, followed by a spray on coat (spraying equipment included in our kits) to give a nice even finish. You can either use one of our standard colours from the website or send a piece of leather into us for an exact colour match. If you’re just restoring specific parts of the leather then it is best to have us match the colour for you. The colour is then sealed in with the super seal finish for a very strong long lasting finish, and you can then match the sheen exactly by applying either a matt, satin or gloss finish afterwards. You can either select a standard colour from our colour chart (Standard Colour Chart) or if you want an exact match you can send a sample of the leather in to us and we can match this for a fee of £10 (there is no fee if you order the extra large kit). If you are only colouring a small part of the furniture we would recommend having the colour matched to ensure the restored area blends in with the rest of the leather. The kit is available in four different sizes, small, medium, large & extra large. The leather colourant kits are designed to be as easy to use as possible, having been made specifically for amateur use. Our business was originally established to provide these kits to the general public, as a result of this, we also started supplying professionals and offering the service ourselves. We have a lot of testimonials and user reviews on our website, it's always worth having a read. Here are some links; 1. Leather Colourant Kit Customer Testimonials 2. Leather Colourant Kit Customer Reviews 3. Leather Repair DIY SOS There are also many reviews on the website where magazines have bought and used our kit with good results, and as a result, have written features on the kit. Hope this clears up any questions anyone has had or have. If you want any more information, just ask and I'll be happy to help :thumb:
You need to be very careful with products designed to remove the old finish off the leather as this makes a very unstable surface to recolour on. Creases in leather are a natural part of the wear and cannot be 'coloured in'. Using a filler on high wear areas such as seats is very risky and should be used with caution. Using good quality restoration pigments will fill any cracked areas much more successfully than a filler. In our experience and through tests that we have done we have found that fillers do not sink into the leather fibres as well as pigments do and so do not form a very good bond. This leaves the filled area much more unstable and liable to recracking. Pigments flood the crack The correct process for recolouring is: Clean thoroughly with a foam cleaner Clean with Alcohol Cleaner (this will not remove the finish but will leave a pristine clean surface for recolouring and remove any residues left on the surface from cleaning) Apply BRIT restoration colour (specifically formulated for restoration work - a professional product not a DIY one) This is applied with a cloth and then roller coated to help form a good bond with the existing finish. A spray coat can then be applied to even out the finish if necessary. Apply Satin Gloss Finish Apply Matt or Semi Matt Finish appropriate with the sheen of the leather The process can be seen here http://www.leatherclinic.co.uk/admin/assets/brit restoration process.pdf Hope this helps
There is no 'correct way' to refinish leather, there are many different ways that leather can be restored or refinished - there's more than one way to skin a cat! :thumb: We use the prep to remove the old finish because this reduces chances of problems occurring when the leather is coloured. With pigmented leather, which all cars have, after years of use, the pigmented and lacquered layers crack & craze. The leather prep removes these layers restoring the leather back to its original state. This removes the need to fill with pigments or fill with fillers. In addition, it greatly improves the softness of the leather as it is removing old/worn finishes that would other wise just add to a build up of layers if colour was just applied on top. Our process, mentioned above, is designed to be bullet proof so anyone can buy a kit and successfully restore leather. Our products can be applied to leather without the need to use the prep, all the leather needs is a good clean. However, we generally leave those type of methods to professionals who use our products all the time to avoid any adhesion problems that might occur if we just recommended everyone to use this method. Leather can be in so many different states of wear, have been cleaned with various incorrect chemicals, could have had numerous silicone or waxed based products applied to it - all of which can cause problems after restoration. This is why our 4 step process is so thorough to ensure problems don't occur. As with the filler, I can only assume whatever filler you have been using is not suited for repairing heavily cracked areas. We have a 2 stage filling process for heavy cracking; 1. Apply leather binder. This thoroughly soaks into the leather strengthening the fiber structure and flattening the damage. The leather can be sanded smooth. This process creates a better surface for the next filler to adhere to. 2. The flexifil is then applied with a palette knife and spread over the cracks. Dried with a hair drier and then sanded smooth with the leather. This product is an extremely flexible filler and will withstand numerous flexes in the leather without cracking out. We designed these products when we noticed a similar flaw in our original filler - just like what you mentioned in your post with the filler cracking out. When it comes to finishing the leather, we supply the same product to our professional customers as we do to our domestic customers. We do not feel it would be good to sell an inferior product to anyone!!!! For professional use though, with the leather finish, you can add 10% cross linker to the finish which will extremely toughen it up. Basically, when mixed with the finish and the leather has been sealed, you will not be able to scuff or scratch the colour off! Here is a video showing the process; http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Aston_Martin_Video.htm
