Automotive Interior Restoration Training – Day 2
Today was a definitely a weird weather day in the Automotive Interior Repair Training Day 2. We started the day off with some pretty severe storms and didn’t really get to our first job until around 10am. As we were walking the lot we just about froze our butts off, pretty chilly I tell ya. But by noon the sun came out and the heat came in, thank goodness.
Well we had another good day of teaching and learning. Not a lot of vehicles done but some good teaching tools were presented. We started the day off with a leather resurfacing on a Chevy Tahoe. This one was another good example of the wet sand technique on the bolsters. Not cracked up really bad but just worn. On this one Bob got some hands on prepping. He’s taking to this like a pro! Next we worked on a Chevy 1500, a steering wheel repair and a vinyl repair. Now this one was a great example on using super glue to repair vinyl. These rigs have an area in the door pocket that get torn from finger nails snagging the vinyl. The only way I’ve found to fix this is with the super glue repair. The reason for this is the cloth insert in the door, if a conventional vinyl mend is done then burning the cloth is inevitable. Lastly at this lot we worked on some cigarette burns on a Ford F150, a great example of using pencils to draw the pattern back in the area.
We headed out and stopped by one of my other accounts to find out that the vehicles we were to work on had been sent off to auction, this kinda peeved me a bit but kinda out of my control. So off to the next account we went.
Now this next car was an ’05 Cadi CTS which had been basically trashed. All four seats need to reconditioned and the stereo bezel was peeling. A great teaching tool for the use of Sems Sand Free on water based coatings, although it didn’t work as well as I wanted because of the heat. One thing I learned today was when using Sems Sand Free, the air needs to be around 70 degrees or so, not 90. The heat causes the chemicals to work too fast and the blend didn’t work like I wanted, so I had to basically strip the entire bezel then resurface.
All in all we had a great day of repairs. Looking forward to a good day tomorrow, we have a pretty busy day planned!
If your looking for a new career in the Automotive Interior Repair business and a personal touch to your training, feel free to contact me anytime!
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