Automotive Interior Repair with The Interior Guy

I got an email here a while back from a gentleman by the name of Cesar Alexander Chavez Flores in Mexico a local upholstery professional asking some advice on leather restoration,what leather dyes to use and how to apply them ect. We passed emails back and forth for while on different stuff . Well a few months went by and I then got an email from another gentleman from the same area asking for advice an my training program and had found my site from a link from YouTube on some videos that Cesar had made. I guess my point here is I had no idea he had videos, and he had a link coming back here (by the way Thank You Cesar)! And I’m here to tell you, some really nice ones too. 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 »

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 »

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 »

You get into your car on an average of three to four times a day and the first thing you grab is your worn out leather wrapped steering wheel. Yuck, huh.

The cause, well can be a few things, dirty hands from work, lotions you put on your hands, or if your a nervous type and like to rub your steering wheel. All of these and probably a few more that I haven’t mentioned can damage the waterbased dye applied to your leather steering wheel cover.

The fix can be simple if you have the right products and the know how.

Read the rest of this entry »

You just bought you a new car with a leather steering wheel and are wanting to keep it in tip top shape, so you go to your local automotive store and go shopping. You look for a cool looking steering wheel cover, find one, take it home, put it on and think you’ve done a good thing by saving you’re steering wheel from major abuse for the next few years. Wrong…really what you’ve done is more harm then good. Steering wheel covers and leather don’t mix, the oils in the leather grab any little piece of dust, dirt or grime and keeps it there tucked nicely between your steering wheel covers backing and your nice leather wrapped steering wheel. The grime is now stuck which eats into the dye of the leather and creates a sticky goo that is almost Read the rest of this entry »