Automotive Interior Repair with The Interior Guy

Automotive Interior Repair is an on going learning experience and I have to say that is what makes this business such an incredibly rewarding business. I just got done with another training session and would like to welcome Mark Nussbaumer with Top Grain Leather out of North Carolina to the business. I have to say this training session went really well, in fact I learned a few things from him too. He really did his research beforehand and had also attended the IICRC certification program right before coming to meet with me, which was a huge advantage, not only for him but also for me too. He opened my eyes a bit to the repair of leather and helped me to look into a few new ideas in making our repairs last even longer and the leather itself last longer too. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a roller coaster of a time here in the Automotive Interior Repair business here in Missouri. The weather here as been ruthless! One day it’s snowing, the next it’s warm enough to actually get some stuff done, then right back to the freezer we go. Business is really good though, it’s been hard keeping up with the weather but at least the work is there and I have that to definitely thankful for.

Well today I wanted to give you guys a little tip on getting a grain pattern into you next leather or vinyl repair using the “Wet Grain Method“. This little trick can be used with just about any air dry or heat cured compound on leather or vinyl and really could probably be used on plastic but never really tried it yet.

This process has saved me a couple of times and has enhanced some of my repairs and made them basically disappear. It’s kinda a last resort to getting it right. Read the rest of this entry »

Making a repair on Vinyl or Leather hold and last for years is an ongoing quest for all of us automotive interior professionals. Lately I’ve been playing around a bit more with my iron in my repairs and have found it really has saved me on some of my repairs. It’s a tool that to be honest with you I haven’t used much but I guess had forgotten what I was missing.

Getting a vinyl or leather repair level and smooth can be tricky with the different foams and backing materials. By using an iron can better your chance of getting that repair level and smooth without bulging or pushing in the vinyl which can happen with doing your repairs with a heat gun and pressing your grain pad with your hand to achieve your grain. Read the rest of this entry »

I got an email here a while back from a fellow automotive interior professional wanting to know if he could “wipe on” the water based leather dyes we use to restore the worn automotive leather seats. I of course responded with a big “yes”. This is one of the many little tricks of trade that will get you just one step closer to perfection in doing an automotive leather restoration job.

Believe it or not I myself just really caught on to this just here recently. I have always wiped areas with my hand but not the way I’m about to tell you.

The “Wipe and Spray technique” is a technique that has improved my final result in my leather repairs immensely and will yours too, I promise.

All I do is in addition to my paint gun is to add a moist paper towel to the process of dyeing the seat. Now what I do with this paper towel will save you some time and money. Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote a post a while back about how to repair a worn leather steering wheel and have gotten a lot of traffic to it but to be honest with you it’s what I call a quick fix, not a good permanent fix like what a person really needs in this business. So today I’m gonna write it a little different and give the right way to repair a worn leather steering wheel.

All the leather in today’s vehicles are being dyed with a water based dye. It’s not only safer for the environment, which we all know is really big right now, but it’s also more flexible and better for the leather itself.

My last post I wrote I gave you a quick fix using a solvent based dye. Now I’m not syaing that if you were in a pinch that using a solvent based would be a bad thing, but like I said it’s a quick fix, nothing you would really want to do for a customer that’s expecting a long lasting repair.

The basic’s are the same as far as the use of a drop cloth to avoid over spray getting on the instrument panel, and the prepping is kinda the same too. But what I’m here to do is to show the right way to do this.

So with that said here we go. Read the rest of this entry »

The guys over at Detailing World have been chatting a little about an article I wrote a while back about wet sanding a leather seat. Some didn’t know this could be done and others were disappointed that I didn’t put any pictures up. I’m not one to disappoint anybody so today while out and about doing my usual leather repairs I came across a Chevy Suburban that I thought would be a perfect example for showing someone this little trick of wet sanding cracked leather. Read the rest of this entry »

Just wanted to put this color chart up here for you do it yourself people who are looking to match a Sem Aerosol vinyl and leather colors to the interior upholstery parts of your automobiles. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a phenomenon that has really got me kinda stumped on how this happens. A wear line on the edge of the lower bolster on a leather seat. The leather seats really not worn like you would think, the seat looks basically new but with this line running right along the seam of the seat. I know what the cause is which is sliding in and out of the vehicle but you would think it would wear a little different then a line that in some cases looks like someone has taken a router and carved out a line nice and neatly right down the side of the leather seat. Pretty wild if you ask me. But something I run across on a pretty regular basis and repairing the infamous wear line in a leather seat takes a little time and and know how to achieve a leather repair that you can be proud of and stand behind.

Now you first instinct is to grab your leather filler after a good prep and fill the area in, well don’t.  There is a couple of reasons for this.  First is if you go for the filler on a deep wear line, it won’t last and your wasting time and product. Second why would you want to load it full of filler when you can sand most Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been working lately with different leather repair compounds on leather wrapped steering wheels. There are so many different compounds used to repair leather but few that work really well for a leather steering wheel. The steering wheel takes more abuse then just about any other part in your vehicle. Think about it, you have to touch your steering wheel to drive and most of us don’t realize the damage until its already happened. There are some of you out there that have got to have a nervous habit or just like to rub the steering wheel a lot or something due to the shape of some of the steering wheels I repair, wow. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve run across this one a lot lately. Leather seats turning a shade of Blue on the lighter colored tan and gray leather seats. It’s what I call “Suit Blue”.

What this really is, is when the leather turns a blue color where your back, butt, or arm rests on the wet leather and the dye from your clothing is then transferred to the leather.

The dye from your clothing is actually dyeing the leather in your car. The leather soaks it up like a sponge, like I’ve always said “What you put on leather stays in leather”, and as you see it’s true.

Whats really bad about this is there’s is no cleaner to remove this from the leather without damaging the leather or the leather’s original dye, at least not one that I know about.  Your only solution to this is to have the seats, armrests, ect. resurfaced or dyed to bring it back to it’s original color. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

This was a fun one….Actually it didn’t give me to much of a fit. The leather laid just right, I was able to pull it together quite nicely.

I first cleaned the leather seat thoroughly with my prepping solution, I know I always say this, but I can’t stress prepping enough, it is the only way to a top notch job. Read the rest of this entry »

Today was pretty much a lazy day, didn’t have a real busy day. Did mostly leather repair with a few cloth repairs thrown in. Didn’t get any pics today though.

I wanted to talk about a Volvo S70 that I worked on. This was a definite cracked leather repair. The drivers seat was the worst as usual, but this one I also did the passenger seat and the rear seat base where someone decided to dye it the wrong color. Gotta love the people that think they can cover up dirty seat with a rattle can of dye, what they don’t take into consideration is the customers that buy these cars, it’s pretty sad. Read the rest of this entry »

As you’ve probably noticed on a lot of the newer cars on todays market with a leather interior have a nice little twist to them. A two tone look on the leather seats. Although this looks great and all, dyeing these two tone wonders can be tricky, and can take a while, but if you know the right tricks and use the right materials it can be a breeze. So with that said, heres a few tricks on how to dye a two tone leather seat. Read the rest of this entry »

I had a little glitch yesterday when I went to upgrade my WordPress blog and lost my forum. I had to do a little work to get the whole thing going for a while, it was all messed up. There were a couple of WordPress plugins that I had to maneuver around and eliminate to get my blog going, but I’m back but with no forum for now. I am in the process of installing another forum that is going to be a lot better and easier for me and you, so stay tuned for that. Read the rest of this entry »

You left the car window down or the sunroof open and there’s a water stain in your car’s leather seat….or your girlfriend spilled here red wine in your leather car seat on a night out on the town….or your kids decided they were a soon to be artist and tried their techniques out on your leather car seat with a pen, arrggg. Got kids myself, so feel your pain. Stain removal in leather seats can be tough, heres a few tricks to help get you going. Read the rest of this entry »

This is definitely not a quick fix or a temporary fix that I’m going to talk about today. This is the way that I repair leather on a daily basis that has been worn or cracked.

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Resurfacing a leather seat in your automobile with today’s leathers require a real technique and the right leather dye to achieve a professional job. There are 2 types of leather that I have seen and worked on in today’s leather car seats. You have Nubuck leather or as some call it the soft leather and you have the finished leather which is mostly what you see. The leather dyes you use are completely different too. Aniline dye is used with the soft stuff and a water borne urethane dye for the finished leathers, both mixed with premium tannery pigments. Resurfacing leather applies to the finished leather, when you dye suede the aniline dye is a penetrating dye, so here’s the right way to apply dyes to a finished leather seat. Read the rest of this entry »

There are so many different types of automotive leather seat repair, all with different situations and applications. There are holes, scratches, gouges, cuts, scrapes, worn or cracked, and just down right grungy looking leather seats. I think I got them all covered, well in this article we’re going to talk about how to repair a small hole in a leather seat lean back, for those of you who don’t know what a lean back is well it’s the upper part of the seat.

Now when I say small this can apply for a tear up to 1 1/2″ to 2″, probably might go a little bigger, but lets not push it, if it needs to go to the upholstery shop for an insert then that would be better then a crappy looking leather repair on something that probably wouldn’t hold anyways. When in doubt, insert it. Read the rest of this entry »

Color Matching is a huge skill and a must in the leather repair industry. I’ve been coming across a few vehicles lately that have been dyed with not so good color matching. Knowing that it’s usually someone either color blind or just down right…well I won’t go that far, but if the color isn’t right then your repair will look worse then if you had just left it alone.

Good lighting does help and pretty much a necessity. Natural lighting is better but in the garages we get stuck in the winter months it doesn’t help much, but what do you do, you improvise as my wife says. I use a dent light, which works pretty good, but I have also have used a under the hood light bar then hooking inside the car that stretches the width of the car and hooks on the door jams, they work great. Shorter light bars are great for light in a small places. Be careful with using florescence they sometimes throw your tinting off, if you can get some natural light to your project then great. The customer sees the the car in natural light mostly anyways so your color needs to be spot on.

Read the rest of this entry »