Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Finally thought I'd post a few pictures and details of the leather repair and re-die from my interior. When i purchased the car it had a rather worn looking dark blue interior. The driver seat bolster had three nasty looking rips. I thought about going for a complete re-trim but the costs were horrendous. I then looked into the leather repair and re-die kits you can get on the internet. After looking at various you tube video links on the procedure I thought I'd give it a go. After taking the seats out first you rub them down with a solution that takes of the top protection layer and some of the old die. This gives the new die some thing to key on to. This was a very messy job. Then you have a special compound to repair the rips. First you lay some hessian behind the rips and glue the edges down. Next you slowly fill the rip in with the compound which is a kind of very wet putty. You slowly build it up layer by layer until it sits proud of the suffice. Next you sand it down until it's level with the suffice trying not to sand too much of the surrounding leather away. This is a very slow process and it took me many times to get to a reasonable state that I was happy with. When I was finally done with all the filling and sanding it was time for the re-die. I decided to go all out and completely change the color from dark blue to light beige . I had the firm custom match me a color of my choice. First you dab the die which is more like a very very thin paint all over with the provided sponge and leave to dry. Then you slowly build up layer after layer by spraying on the die with the hobby air gun provided. This turned out to be very slow and nearly useless. I'm lucky enough to be in possession of a compressor and spray gun so i used this instead. All though this gets the job done quicker it is much more thirsty on die. I used 5 liters to do the full interior all though i did do the dash, door cards and center console as well.. The hardest part was between the back and bolsters and seat back and cushions. I had to press down with my knee to open the gaps between cushions and bolsters and spray a little at a time, drying with a hair dryer before releasing my knee so the two parts did not touch and stick together. What a pain in the A****. I lost count of how many coats of die I sprayed but it was at least six. Finally I sprayed on a protective sealant which gives it a gloss, matt or semi matt finish. I then did the lower door cards, lower dash which I replaced because the old one was cracked and the center console. I finally replaced the whole interior back in the car while adding a new illuminated gear lever, blue illuminated leds in the instrument cluster and air con controls, some aluminum instrument bezels, a carbon fiber dash kit and a new steering wheel. The whole job took two very long days to complete I know some of you may think its too bling for their liking but I just wanted to show what could be done with £150 worth of leather repair kit as apposed to a £2000 re-trim.

great job, great result. post the details of the supplier you used for others to give it a go.

Cheers thanks alot. Leather repair kit came from http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk

That is brilliant Gary, exactly what I want to do to my front seats. They're linen/beige colour already but have dirty black cracks across them. What company did you use? I've been looking at furniture clinic and liquid leather, 1st one looking the more promising. Well done and thanks for giving me the inspiration to get on and do this part of the restoration on my car, hope I can put a similar post up soon after I've finished the turbo s spoiler fitting and spraying

Sorry just seen it's Furniture clinic so thanks for confirming the company I preferred to.

Just seen your rear spoiler Andy. I'm well jealous. Where did you get it from?

Hi Gary,

My seats have some wear, but what is worse is where some previous owner has used a leather paint in places to cover up previous wear. Its not widespread, but enough to be an issue.

Do you think its possible to use this kit to sand the paint away and make a better job of the seats as a whole?

Wondered what you thought.

Thanks
Regards
Paul

My bargain Ebay find, I still can't believe it myself. Came from Strasse Porsche in Leeds off of one of there race prepared 944 S2. Apparantly they have to use genuine factory kit now and obviously this isn't. You can buy the kit at Design 911 for £450 quid and fit it yourself. I got this and the whole glass hatch for £155 + fuel to travel up there and get it so under £200. Straight swap over with my hatch so 4 bolts, job done and this hatch open and closes way better than my old one which I've grumbled about in other posts and never got it to fit and operate very well so I'm well chuffed. Been cleaning up the spoiler today getting the old sealent out ready for spraying and refixing on. I'm going to have a go at the seats next after seeing your results, they really do look fantastic.

Andy

From what I gather you sand the paint back to clean leather and reapply a fresh coat or six like Gary says over the top. Looking at the website they've done this on several cars and have pictures showing the procedure. As Gary is the man to have actually done this he can confirm.

Wow! Results speak for themselves. I think these furniture repair clinic guys did a stand at last years MPH show. The results looked good there. I will bear them in mind as and when I need to do mine.

Ben

I did the same a few weeks ago ,I bought a set of black hard back sportseats then sent off a colour swatch of marble grey


Great results ,the only thing I changed was to buy a better Airbrush than the one supplied
















I will have a very nice set 993 seats to sell shortly,Once I have refurbed them,although they dont relly need it

wow i'm impressed with the ability to change from a dark to a light colour eith those results

7 evenings hard graft and and the patience of a saint then letting dry for a few days

It the sealants that make it possible and a very light wet and dry 2000 grit (done dry)and few more coats and wait 10 days then condition the leather with Zymol Leather conditioner

I'm busy printing off all these tips coming forth They look fantastic results. What spray gun do you need if the supplied one isn't that good and where do you get it from?

That looks great, really nice job. It's a really hard messy job and not for the faint hearted but I think the results speak for them selfs even on damaged seats like mine. The only thing I would say is I think it would be better to do the whole seat rather than re-die say just a bolster. I used an industrial compressor and professional spray gun which I had but I think you can hire these from the Furniture clinic.