billycuth
Active Member
I posted this on another forum, so I thought I'd share here too:
Hi Everyone. I can't complete the project yet because I don't have the color flex yet (leather dye), but I've prepped the surface.
First things first. You want to clean the surface really good using rubbing alcohol. Not too much rubbing though, or you'll remove perfectly good leather dye. You just want to remove dirt.
Then, if you have major bumps like I did, you will need to sand them down. I used 220 grit sandpaper and some elbow grease. Take your time and make it as smooth as you can.
This pic give you an idea of what I was up against but I forgot to take a before pic before sanding the first time. This small bump represents about 1/10th of what I had to sand down. It was lumpy and sticky and gross. Really irritating to have to grab this part of the wheel.
Here's the view from outside. I am debating using filler on the little pits.
And here it is after sanding. You'll notice some of the grain of the leather standing up. That's OK. As you'll see when I dye it, this will get smoothed out and covered up.
I ordered both the medium and light parchment color from leatherrepairkits.com. I used them to repair the armrest in my Acura TL and the color match and repair was superb. I highly recommend them. It should come in this week and I will finish up this DIY then.
One other thing. If the color or sheen isn't similar to what's on the wheel when I make this repair, I can go over the good leather dye with the color flex so that it all matches. But I am pretty sure it will be close.
After just one coat (that's still wet mind you)... Very pleased with the early result.
Hi Everyone. I can't complete the project yet because I don't have the color flex yet (leather dye), but I've prepped the surface.
First things first. You want to clean the surface really good using rubbing alcohol. Not too much rubbing though, or you'll remove perfectly good leather dye. You just want to remove dirt.
Then, if you have major bumps like I did, you will need to sand them down. I used 220 grit sandpaper and some elbow grease. Take your time and make it as smooth as you can.
This pic give you an idea of what I was up against but I forgot to take a before pic before sanding the first time. This small bump represents about 1/10th of what I had to sand down. It was lumpy and sticky and gross. Really irritating to have to grab this part of the wheel.
Here's the view from outside. I am debating using filler on the little pits.
And here it is after sanding. You'll notice some of the grain of the leather standing up. That's OK. As you'll see when I dye it, this will get smoothed out and covered up.
I ordered both the medium and light parchment color from leatherrepairkits.com. I used them to repair the armrest in my Acura TL and the color match and repair was superb. I highly recommend them. It should come in this week and I will finish up this DIY then.
One other thing. If the color or sheen isn't similar to what's on the wheel when I make this repair, I can go over the good leather dye with the color flex so that it all matches. But I am pretty sure it will be close.
After just one coat (that's still wet mind you)... Very pleased with the early result.
