The Reverse Grain – Graining Your Repair
This is gonna be kinda a quick post today. Sorry for the lapse in info lately I’ve had other duties to attend to lately and haven’t had a lot of time to write. But I did want to throw a little info out to all of the automotive interior repair professionals. This little trick gives you a pretty good grain pattern when done correctly. I call this “The Reverse Grain“.
This graining technique is actually pretty easy and gives you a light grain on a leather repair when a little more hide factor is needed.
Now you can do this with pretty much any air dry leather repair compounds on the final layer before the dye is applied. Or with a compound that isn’t really a compound but a gel. It’s called Leather Gel. I get it from Viper and works really well with this technique. Leather Gel is just that a clear thick gel, it kinda reminds me of hair gel but of course it’s not. It used as a final coat over your repair before your dye to help blend your repair or can be used to lay down frayed leather like around the seams of a leather steering wheel. It’s pretty amazing, flexible, and durable stuff. Go check it out at ViperProducts.com, and don’t forget your promo code IG1100.
Spread your final layer of compound over the leather repair area then heat the grain side of your matching grain pad with your heat gun, this is the reverse part. Get it as hot as you can, then press the grain pad into the compound, hold it on there with a towel or something to protect your hand from the heat. Lay your chill bar over the grain pad to pull the heat out of the repair and so your grain pad doesn’t stick to the compound. Gently pull the grain pad off and there you go, grain in your leather repair. Sometimes you will have to sand lightly with a 600 grit to take the high spots off, but not to much, you don’t want to mess up the grain pattern you just did.
Well hope this helps in graining your leather repairs, this might even work with a low heat compound too. I’ve been experimenting a little with this one. That’s what a love about this business is theres a challenge in everything I do and with a little imagination and the right materials I get to make a bad thing a good thing.
Oh and one more thing before I go. The economy might be tough right now but WE have to get tougher and work smarter to survive. Only the strong survive! Keep your head up and just keep plugin away. Start looking into different avenues besides just automobiles, like aircraft, trains, buses, golf carts, marine vehicles of all type, hot tubs tops, furniture like bars stools or dentist office chairs. All these things have either vinyl or leather seats and will need a repair eventually. So I just thought I might throw a few ideas out there for you to help keep you going in tough times.
Good luck with graining your leather repairs, and let me know how it goes.
Talk to ya soon,
Mike “TIG”
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