Automotive Interior Repair with The Interior Guy

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 »

Mixing your colors to match the automotive interior your working on has got to be the most crucial part to any repair. We are challenged everyday as a professional with not only having to repair a tear or a worn out seat or door panel but the color has to be spot on or we might as well have left it alone.

Lately I’ve been getting calls and emails from people wanting to know how to mix a color, what colors do what, and what colors they need to have with them.

As far as color matching, I match all my dyes by eye, meaning I use no formula, no mixing chart, just knowledge of colors and what they can do.  So if your looking for a formula for how I mix my colors your looking in the wrong place.

What I’m going to do is give you the basics of colors and what colors will do when 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 »

A little over a year ago I started a business adventure online. It started with a company called Clickbank. This company provides the internet with over 10,000 eBooks and computer software programs that can be downloaded safely and securely right to your computer. They provide everything from business and internet to family, fun and health. These products are all top of the line, in fact chances are you probably have a program or an ebook on your computer right now that you have downloaded from Clickbank and didn’t even know it. Read the rest of this entry »

I came across these airbrush kits through TCP Global and just had to throw them up here. Airbrushing is a great hobby and one that I love to do in my spare time.  Now being around paint all day you would think I’d want nothing to do with airbrushing, I mean I use one pretty much on a daily basis, but it’s different.  When you sit down to create a piece of art it’s completely different then repairing a leather seat. Yes you do use your artistic abilities to do any type of upholstery repair, but when your creating a piece of art you kinda go into a different zone, at least I do. Read the rest of this entry »

I Just got this email from one of my suppliers today and thought I’d pass this little jewel onto to you my readers. I’ve got one of these and if your into airbrushing and art of any sort then an image projector is an awesome little tool to add. Read the rest of this entry »

Well that time of year is here again. The cold weather has arrived and here we go with trying to get our automotive water based dyes to dry in a reasonable amount of time.

Painting in temperatures less then 40 degrees makes it almost impossible to yield a perfect repair without a little preparation first.

The first and foremost thing is to heat up the area where the repair is being made. Now the best way to do this is with a hairdryer, not your heat gun. This will heat the area just enough to make it easier to work with and not damage the area any further (like a hole in vinyl getting larger due to to much heat being put to it).  Heating the area will also help your compounds work like their supposed to along with giving you a warmer surface for the dye to stick to helping in curing time. Read the rest of this entry »

Heat guns have got to be one the most used tools in my business. I use them for heating my repairs on a daily basis, whether it be a vinyl repair, a leather repair, melting plastic when needed, or just heating up a piece prior to repair.  Having the correct heat gun to do these repairs is crucial to your success.

If a heat gun breaks down while your doing a repair it can cost you time and money in the long run. So Read the rest of this entry »

I get questions on occasion on whether seat covers are needed to keep a cars leather seats looking new. This is one question that I have to ask a question back before I can give a truthful answer.

” Are you going to leave them on all the time? ”

If they answer is yes then I have to say that their seat probably won’t look new when they take them off say a year or two from now. Read the rest of this entry »

I get into so many autos that the buttons on the radio are peeling off and what your left with are white buttons that just look awful. At night it can be at the least distracting. Have you seen one of those? Well Viper Products has done it again and has come up with a fix for those peeling buttons. Its a two part film. A translucent film and a black film with cut outs for the lettering. All you do is sand the peeling radio button to give you a smooth surface to put the film onto. Prep, then lay the film over the radio button and heat it to reform the coating to button. The lights from the radio still shine through the lettering and the finished product looks, as Viper Products always does, factory. Read the rest of this entry »

I used my new heat tool today and WOW what a little wonder this thing is. It looks like a weapon from Star Wars and you have heat control, pinpoint control. This is probably got to be the neatest heat gun I’ve ever purchased, and really it’s not a conventional heat gun but an ultra torch equipped with a pistol grip fan motor. Read the rest of this entry »

Your as good as the products you use…Have you been searching for the right automotive interior products to get the job done right the first time? I know I have. I have been in the automotive interior repair business for a long time and have used a lot of different interior products in my repairs. I have used different water based dyes and leather repair compounds from different suppliers with so many different results, some good and some really bad. I have over the years learned one thing and that is your only as good as what products you use. If the products you use to do a repair fail then you fail. It doesn’t matter if it looked good when you left, it has to last. Why would someone call you back to do another repair for them if the job you did before didn’t last or looked like your kids did it. Well they wouldn’t. You have to have the top of the line products that you can stand behind and for lack of better words, guarantee. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most asked questions I get is what to put on the leather seats to keep them soft and looking new and how to do it. Read the rest of this entry »

Paint prep is the key to success in any paint project. Whether your painting the outside or inside of your car you need to have a good grease and particle free area for your job to be a success, and success is what it’s about when your trying to make money at what you do. Here a few tips for you to use in the interior of your vehicle, where most of your “slime” is located. The “slime” as I call it is all the silicone dressing that has been put on your cars interior to make it look new, and I use the word “new” very loosely too, to me if your car is clean you don’t need all that slime juice sprayed all over. Besides some of the new dressings are ruining the interiors, thats a whole other article. Read the rest of this entry »