How about venturing into a £845 to £1000 auto leather job like this repairing to cracks, rip and refinishing it too!
A: Prep Cleaning
#1: This 19 years old front seats need restoration to cracks and rip.
#2: The entire seat was prep with dInk7.7 with a 3 inch foam brush and leave to dwell overnight.
No solvent or alcohol was used as to prevent deteriorating the existing finish further and also not to flush out existing fatliquor causing the leather to dry stiffer and weaker.
#3: A light mist with dGrease4.9 were applied and agitate with leatherBrush1, nubuckBrush2, 3M white pad and anilineEraser4 thereafter extract with dry absorbent towel.
#4: The sticky residue were clean off with clean3.8 with appropriate tools and dry towel extracted until towel shows clean.
#5: Thereafter were acidifier rinse with rinse3.0 and dry towel extract until towel shows clean.
B: Hydrating & Fatliquoring
#6: The leather internal structure was further hydrated with relaxer3.3 to relax the leather so as to reduce the stresses.
The cause of the crack is the diminishing of the original fatliquor.
As the leather fatliquor continues to dries through the years it widens the cracks in the process.
#7: The entire seat was wrapped with plastic sheet to control evaporation to dwell overnight.
#8: fatliquor5.0 was thereafter introduced into the leather structure, wrapped up again and was left to dwell overnight again.
C: Dry Prep
#9: Excess surface non-penetrated fatliquor was clean off with clean3.8 follows with rinse3.0.
Thereafter when dry the surface went through a 1000 to 1200 grit sanding process to remove deteriorated finishes.
All dust was removed with compressed-air-gun.
D: Repair
#10: All cracks were strengthen with impregnator26 a protein resin that becomes part of leather when it cures.
#11: A leatherBond3D is further applied to fill the deep gap to add strength.
#12: For cosmetics leatherFill90, leatherBond3D and color were mixed to further fill the cracks.
#13: As for the rip, a thin 0.04mm vachetta leather was used as a sub-patch for added strength, and bonded with leatherBond3D.
This is a cold cure bond just like silicone without using heat (iron heat will further shrink the leather that makes repairs stiff and subject to cracks when flexed).
#14: leatherBond7A helps cleanup excess and smoothen the bonding seam too.
E: Refinishing
#15: When all were sand and clean up, the first finishing coating was the adhesion coat with adhesion73 with padding or foam brushing.
Then pigColor64 custom color with thickene48 were spray, followed with pigColorTop56M matte.
The end result besides the aesthetic, the leather was soft and supple.
If the leather was not soften and strengthen again, all the aesthetic effort will go to waste as the leather will soon continue to crack!
Besides the customer is happy with a 3 years warranty against material and workmanship on condition they purchased a leather cleaning & conditioning kit and use it too!
What do you think?
Roger Koh
Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification #942
Leather Care Technician
Master Textile Cleaner
Master Fire & Smoke Restorer
Journeyman Water Restorer
Since 1973