Leatherique

[davegtst]

Been looking at this site and it seems perfect for changing the colour of leather. I've got a blue leather interiour that i don't really like too much and thought this stuff might allow me to change it. Has anyone used it before and is it as good as it looks? Is there a supplier in the UK or will they ship here?

[Tony K]

For preserving and conditioning leather, they seem to really know their stuff.

As far as the dye goes, I don't know what, if anything, it has that makes it different from any other industry/commercial use leather dye. I have heard people say good things about it, but I have always been under the impression that it is intended for refreshing the original color, not changing the color.

To be honest, I wouldn't try to change the color of a leather, because you will inevitably get the old color showing through as it wears, just as you get the natural color of the leather showing through as the original color wears.

They are popular here in Jaguar circles. I will be using their water repellant on my white S1's fresh aniline dyed/full grain interior, and intend to use their Rejuvenate as the conditioner. Will have to see how it goes . . .

- T

[superdavelotus]

Hi Dave,

It will be extremely difficult to change you colour from dark blue to any other other than black. Even black will be quite hard to do. Have you seen the guide on my site for changing colour etc? leatherique is purely US based, no UK suppliers. I went for www.liquidleather.com instead.

Here's my guide

Click Here

I've changed the colour of a grey interior to black and red. Did this about 3 years ago, still looks pretty good now!

Dave Walters

[davegtst]

Thanks, i was only going to change it to black. The seats and door card inserts i am going to get retrimmed in a silver/grey colour but i want to get the dash and other trim black. A retrim of all the leather would cost a fourtune so im hoping dying it black on the low wearing parts would work out ok.

Dave your seats look really nice, does liquid leather do a dye that will change blue to black?

[Simon350S]

What do you class as a fortune mate.....???

A good retrim can cost less than

[davegtst]

2k is a bit too much for me to shell out atm. I've been quoted

[Simon350S]

Thats pretty cheap..

The price i've quoted is only a guide and is cheaper but its not for me to say, and that included EVERYTHING..... carpets headlining, dash, seats, doors absolutely everything

Oh and thats with the car supplied to him for him to strip and refit and return completed. So its obviously cheaper if you dismantle yourself as you loose some of the labour costs...

Simon

[superdavelotus]

Hi Dave,

Their black will cover blue. It will take many coats, the trick is very light coats. Each coat takes about 15 mins to dry so it doesn't take long. Once you've finished your last piece you're ready to do your first again. If you try to cover in less coats then the dye will fill the leathergrain and it will look like PVC!

I've change grey to black no problem!

It's pretty cheap to buy, don't buy a kit, buy a 1ltr of black some conditioner 250ML. You may want to buy 250Ml cleaner. Use an airbrush or spraygun if you have one.

Dave Walters

Thanks, i was only going to change it to black. The seats and door card inserts i am going to get retrimmed in a silver/grey colour but i want to get the dash and other trim black. A retrim of all the leather would cost a fourtune so im hoping dying it black on the low wearing parts would work out ok.

Dave your seats look really nice, does liquid leather do a dye that will change blue to black?

[davegtst]

I'll be dismantling everything myself and sending the seats and door inserts to get retrimmed so it should cut the cost a bit.

Dave is 1 litre enough to do a whole interior apart from the seats?

[red vtec]

http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Cleaning.htm these have products that allow you go go from dark to light colour on leather

[Mark Blanchard]

I'd still use Leatherique after you've done it, as it'll preseve the leather. I've used it for 5 years now and it's great stuff, stops it cracking.

[DanR]

Leatherique here too and impressed. Better than other stuff I tried on a number of cars.

[Bibs]

Add another to that. You can get it from http://www.liquidleather.com/

[davegtst]

So Liquidleather sell Leatherique? I though you could only get it from the states.

Edited December 4, 2007 by davegtst

[CNH]

The only caution about leatherique is that it does lift dirt and grime from the leather to the surface. On black or grey leather with dark or black stitching it works well. But in tan or light color leather with light colored stitching the thread if it is light will turn dark from the dirt and grime as one tries to wipe it up. It will make the light colored stitching stand out against light tan leather as will other cleaning agents.

[Bibs]

So Liquidleather sell Leatherique? I though you could only get it from the states.

Yup, there's a case of it in my garage from them

[davegtst]

I'm a bit confused now. I thought Leatherique is the brand name eg Leatherique dye, Leatherique Rejuvinator oil, Leatherique Prestine Clean.

[DanR]

I'm a bit confused now. I thought Leatherique is the brand name eg Leatherique dye, Leatherique Rejuvinator oil, Leatherique Prestine Clean.

Yep.

http://leatherique.com/

[CNH]

Most use the pristine clean for really dirty or mucked up leather.

A lot of people do not really use the dye unless the color if off the leather. I have not heard of anyone changing colors. To get an acurate color match one snips of a piece of leather from under the seat and sends it the them to get a good color match. Most refer to the oil as Leatherique as it will clean and rejuvinate lighty soiled leather which most of our interiors fall into this catagory. Even a light scratch in the leather will be blended in with just the oil treatment. It will leave the surface tacky for a while after application and that will go away after a period of time. Do not wipe hard or it may lift some color off.

[Quicker]

just bought their 'christmas special' - 3 sets of the Rejuvinator + Prestine for $100.

[davegtst]

Just searched and found Artie's interiour. Looks fantastic, im going to have a go at this after christmas.

Edited December 5, 2007 by davegtst

[docf]

I did this as my winter project last year. I used SEM sure-coat mixed to a "camel" color to match some ultrasuede i was putting in the car. One thing to remember.. these products are not dyes.. they are an "elastomeric coating" which is fancy talk for elastic paint. This works out ok if you are touching up some faded seats but to be honest the color change that i did kinda looks like ass once you get up close. It takes many many coats to get a solid color you will be left with leather that looks and feels like its been painted. I did this more as a learning project then anything else and at the time i really couldnt afford new leather. It is an ok way to fix otherwise trashed leather but keep in mind that it is nothing like real new leather.

On the plus side.. the SEM products generate no smells (leatherique smells like crayons on hot days), did not fade at all, has not cracked or peeled and did a beautiful job of filling cracks and wrinkles.

Better yet.. let me go into the garage and snap some pics!

Sorry in advance for the pic quality.. my camera battery is dead so i had to use my phone (no flash)

Passenger door panel

Passenger seat

Console and dash

I pulled a headrest off and brought it in to take some pics:

Original color underneath

Closeup.. you can see the paint actually fills the seam between the leather and the cheap plastic lotus piping.

again.. from a couple of feet back it looks great and feels just like real leather. But if you are a perfectionist spend the extra bucks to have a shop redo the leather from scratch. Also if you want to do this the right way use the SEM products. I found a local paint supply house to mix the color i wanted and bottled it up for me in a couple of hours. Their prep products are also second to none. I learned about this stuff from friends that owned car dealerships.. they use it to restore the original color so it goes on very thin and is almost impossible to notice. To put things in perspective there are probably 10 coats on any given area in my car.

[wiseraven]

http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Cleaning.htm these have products that allow you go go from dark to light colour on leather

Are you sure you haven't have mis-read this:

There are 21 colours formulated for use on leather from a dark to light shade

I take that to mean the range goes from dark to light, not that you can change a dark colour into a lighter one.

Apologies if I'm wrong, in which case I'd be interested to see some examples.

[red vtec]

Are you sure you haven't have mis-read this:

I take that to mean the range goes from dark to light, not that you can change a dark colour into a lighter one.

Apologies if I'm wrong, in which case I'd be interested to see some examples.

It's hidden a bit in the site (took me a while to find it) but here is the proof dark to cream:

http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Changing_...ar_Interior.htm

[davegtst]

Have you used them before Chris? Is it any good?