Re-colouring seats made of leather and vinyl

[Vitesse1965]

Hi

Wondered if I can pull on your experiences. I am about to change the colour of 2 MGF seats to fit my vitesse. Red to black. The seats are leather fronts with sides and back of vinyl.

I have almost bought the furnatureClinic system, then read the info on the Gliptone pages. FC system seals in the leather under a finish coat, Gliptone have 2 systems one that does the same and one that does not seal the dye but both G systems have leather softening before dyeing stage.

Have any of you used either system?

Thanks in advance for feedback. :)

[Dion]

Seats in an Jensen Interceptor dyed from black to magnolia here: http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11183

[TedTaylor]

In the early '90s I decided to change the light green interior of the Mk1 to black because it was being built for rallying and as a period (1964/5) style 'clubmans replica'.  It also matched the black Corbeau GT seats (new/as new) that have been dated as about 1968/69 that I acquired from an autojumble.

The paint is still as well attached as when I did it some 20 years ago after 5 years of pretty regular use, albeit not from rallying because I was so busy organising a club and an association of clubs, and the rest just standing around.

The secret is to get the surface to be painted CLEAN.  All panels and seats etc were removed as far as practical and I used hot water and liquid soap (hand soap) and nail and tooth brushes.  Taking great care to scrub thoroughly into the creases before I washed the soap off with fresh running water.  Repeated this 3 times with the final wash showing no signs of dirt.

Light wipe over with panel wipe degreaser (use of paint thinners can cause the plastic surface to be spoiled) and then use of Vinylcote in spray cars.  Used quite a few for about 3 coats, being very careful not to apply the spray too heavily to maintain the leather grained effect.

Allow to 'dry' thoroughly before use - I let it all stand for nearly a week.

It is very important to use the proper leathercloth paint which has solvents designed to etch into the leathercloth.  Leather paint is very often water based and totally useless but thought the leather Jensen job was brilliant.

Ted

[sparky_spit]

I've used Vinylcote on 2 occasions in the past, once for pale blue Cortina seats to black, and more recently for lime green Mini seats to black.  My son has also used it for light brown door cards to red.  All worked really well except for some wear on the door cards under the pull handles where people's fingers scratched the red off a bit, as they pulled the doors shut.

As with Ted, good prep and about 3 coats were used.  Not dirt cheap at £10 for a 300ml/400ml -ish rattlecan, as about 4 or 5 were needed each time, but cheaper than buying new seats, etc