Automotive Interior Repair with The Interior Guy

Well I missed out yesterday writing about the Automotive Interior Restoration Training because to be honest I was just wiped out. We’ve been getting some really HOT and Humid days here, which is kinda unusual for this time of year here. Usually weather like this doesn’t hit here until July or August.

But with that said, we have had a really good time, my trainee Bob is really catching on like a natural. Like I’ve said before he’s not afraid to ask questions which is great and has even given me some great ideas in some of my repairs. It’s actually been nice having someone there to talk with and swap ideas considering I’ve always been by myself. 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 »

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 »