Leather repair/Fibrenew
 

Noob question- tried search and couldn't find an answer. Does anyone have any experience with Leather re-dying/ repair. I'm thinking about having Fibrenew do both front seats, but I'm worried about how well it holds up over time. The before and after pics look great, but if I need to do it every 6 months, it'll be a no go.

I had them come out and repair a leather couch once that my german shepard puppy had ripped up at the bottom...the guy did a pretty bang up job on it, I was very happy with the outcome.

That said, I haven't used them for my car, although I'd be interested to hear others' experiences.

I think I'm gonna go for it- waiting on a few answers from an email earlier today. They quoted $400 for both front seats, which seems worth it to me. If I ever get out of Newbie Lockdown, I'll post some before and after pics.

That doesn't sound unreasonable - my couch I think cost $275 to fix, and it was just the lower portion.

By the way, you can post pics. Just host them on photobucket or Flickr and post the image links.

I had a guy come to my house for my TL when I first got it used to repair stretch marks on the seat side bolsters. Cost me $100 to do the outside bolster on the passenger and driver's seats, plus repair and fix some of the stretch marks on the ventilated leather.

They did a superb job of fixing it.

where does one go about searching for one of these stretch marks on the bolsters repair guys??

I did my couch awhile ago and it held up for around a year. Not the vendor you are talking about, someone local in NJ. I think they basically sanded off the bad spots/damage and re-dye/paint it. Are your seats black or tan? I would think matching the tan ones would be hard to do.

If they are replacing bad panels on a cover then I would say thats the better way to go.

Does the work come with warrantee? I should have got that when I did my couch.

Are all the seat covers (bottoms/back) looking bad? If its just one then maybe a junk yard search would be in order...

Attachment 23985

Puppy in back of 07TL on the way home on day 1

6 month old couch, meet 6 month old german shepard:

Attachment 79948

Better angle:
Attachment 79949

Don't have an after shot, but Fibrenew did make it look basically good as new.

Fabrion.net. I used them.

It''s mainly the seat bolsters and the bottoms. The seats are "Parchment", but the whole seat will be resprayed and blended. The work comes with a 6 month warranty, which seems a little short. All the reviews from a Google search seem very positive though.

My seats aren't even that bad, but I'm just obsessed. I think the dealership did a shoddy respray before I bought the car but didn't prep them sufficiently. The wear marks are very peculiar. They have this kind of crazed look like fractured glass, and the color doesn't seem to match the coating underneath. This may be partially (or entirely) my fault, as I cleaned them pretty aggressively thinking they were just dirty. It never occurred to me that they'd respray seats with 35k miles on them. If they had left them alone, they'd probably be fine. I think now I may have a combination of dealer respray and shoddily prepped original surface.

Here are some links to pics (If I've done it correctly- Thx to KJ TL-S for the pic posting info)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/222872...57645841743307
https://www.flickr.com/photos/222872...7645841743307/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/222872...7645841743307/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/222872...7645841743307/

Yes- Thanks, I remember seeing that post but I couldn't remember how I got to it. You're the one that inspired me to look into this. As I recall, Fabrion was only in New Jersey, so I looked into Fibrenew instead. How did your seats hold up over time? The repair looked fantastic.

Flickr is a finicky beast...gotta click the right-pointing arrow at the bottom, click BBC Code, select a size, and copy the URL, then paste that entire thing here.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3872/...8bc39899_b.jpgDriver lower by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5555/...8990cdd2_b.jpgDriver bolster by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3924/...04180ee9_b.jpgPassenger bottom by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3905/...dd875966_b.jpgPassenger lower outer by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

Thanks again- This was my first Flickr anything. The bigger pics make my seats look extra awful. This is after a Leatherique treatment. Otherwise the car is immaculate.

This is one of the reason I hate taupe interior, I knew it that some how honda tan ish color always crack and would not last long as black leather. I drove a 2014 tl loaner from Acura before with taupe interior the car has only 1100 miles and yet I can see cracks already form on the bottom of the seat.

I am having the same issue except my seats are faded in certain areas. You can tell it was re dyed but it just has gotten worse. I am very particular with my interior and this is really aggravating. I wish I paid more attention when I bought the car a yr ago. Hope it can be repaired. .

I feel your frustration. I've had other cars with leather- VW, Lexus, Mazda- none of which have this issue over 100k miles each. I can't imagine the Acura leather is that much different that this would have happened without someone messing with it.

I'll let you know how it goes with Fibrenew. My appt is Wednesday the 20th weather permitting.

^^

The reason is that the side bolsters aren't even real leather. They don't absorb anything you put on them because they're synthetic. Only the perforated portion of the seat is leather.

They came this afternoon and did it. It looks really good- the only obvious issue is that the process paints over the stitching, so where the paint layer is heavier, it can look a bit like the fake stitching on a Toyota dashboard Not really any way around it that I can think of. I've attached pics. The color reads a bit orange, but in person, it's an excellent match, and I'm unable to tell the difference. There may be a slight difference in the glossiness of the top coat, but I can't really tell. It still hasn't cured fully, so that may change. The tech said that currently the most durable leather in the automotive industry is from Chrysler, which is expected to last around 75,000 "rubs" This Fibrenew top coat should be double that. I'm pretty impressed so far. We'll see how it holds up.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5563/...fd6c99eb_c.jpgphoto 9 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5551/...8b414988_c.jpgphoto 8 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5595/...299f2314_c.jpgphoto 10 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3911/...b46cbbe4_c.jpgphoto 1 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3893/...a5204033_c.jpgphoto 4 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5563/...3b8efc51_c.jpgphoto 2 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5551/...e4be5b93_c.jpgphoto 7 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3890/...2d723864_c.jpgphoto 6 by alexanderdgeorges, on Flickr

Looks fantastic!

Btw how much does it cost? Cost per seat or per piece? Thank you.

It cost me $325. They had originally quoted $400, so it came in below estimate because they didn't need to redye the whole seat. The $325 included the repair and redye of the entire seat bottom and seat back outer bolsters for both seats. Also included a new topcoat over both entire seats.
I also want to mention that the stitching looks better after curing overnight. I'm giving the car a few days to sit and rest before I drive it, but you only need 24hrs.

This stuff looks fantastic! I called the local dealership today. They're coming out next week to give me a quote. This seems like a no-brainer, though.

Wow this look fantastic OP! I need to research that Leather re-dying/ repair since my black leather seat is showing a lot of wear.

Thats not correct.. It doesn't absorbe because it is coated leather as is most leathers in todays cars.

I may consider this option since my seat is cracking kinda bad on the driver side, form what I heard past experience they sand down a little bit then reapply the dye is that right?

Looks great. Thanks for posting the results. Cheaper alternative than buying new oem covers that's for sure.