Leather tear repair!
08-09-2017, 02:11 AM
#1
Leather tear repair!
Got about a one inch tear on my front passenger seat, so far it has not got any worse since I noticed it, however if there is any sort of repair option I am all ears.
08-09-2017, 08:11 AM
#2
Senior Moderator
Go to an upholstery shop nearby and get a quote to replace the entire bottom.
08-09-2017, 09:09 PM
#4
I recently fixed mine with some leather repair stuff from www.leatherworldtech.com . They sell leather dye that's color matched to OEM colors, and it's actually pretty close (mine is Taupe Leather World Dye Colorant ). I'm guessing most of the color difference is because mine is 10 year old leather with 10 years worth of grunge on it. 
It's also hard to take pictures of it... the camera/lighting makes the difference stand out much more than it does in real life. They sell a color adjusting kit to get it perfect if you're worried about it.
I had a few problem areas... the worst one was the front seat, which had a couple tears, which the previous owner tried fixing with gorilla glue (which made it look really nasty, hard, and was causing the leather to crack at the hard edges of the glue). I pulled all the old glue off, then stuck subpatch paper ( Subpatch Paper ) under the tear and glued it with leather glue ( WB-1 Adhesive ). This left a seat that looked crappy, but seemed like it had good strength and flexibility. I then used several thin coats of leather filler ( Leather World Leather Filler ) to fill the gaps, and sanded it smooth. Then added some dye to the filler for another thin coat on top. Then I lightly sanded that smooth, and dyed the surrounding area to smooth it in.
The filler filled the perforations, which bugged me, so I used a dremel with an engraving bit and poked all the original leather holes, and created new ones in the filler areas. Since there was a flap of leather that had torn loose and wasn't pulled tight, the holes weren't all totally straight lines, but it looks way better than without them.
My back seat also had a spot where the color was rubbed off from a car seat being installed. This was just a matter of dyeing the color. The front arm rest was the same way... all the color was rubbed off the front top of it.
To apply the dye, I used a leather cleaner to clean the area, then used some rubbing alcohol (just a little bit) and a green scrubby to rough up the surface and prepare it for the dye. Then I used a foam brush to apply the dye. To make the color differences less noticeable, I taped at the seams and applied dye to an entire panel. I did several coats a few hours apart, then gave it a couple days to cure... then used leather cleaner again, and then leather conditioner.
Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out, and none of it was hard to do. I've never done any leather repair before, and had really low expectations (really, just wanted to make sure it didn't get worse). I've only had it on there for about a month, and don't have a lot of passengers riding in the car... but so far it does seem to be holding up.
Attached are some pics... I didn't take before pics of everything, but I'm sure you've seen enough trashed TL leather to guess flaps of leather with foam showing through looks like. :-P
Pat
It's also hard to take pictures of it... the camera/lighting makes the difference stand out much more than it does in real life. They sell a color adjusting kit to get it perfect if you're worried about it.I had a few problem areas... the worst one was the front seat, which had a couple tears, which the previous owner tried fixing with gorilla glue (which made it look really nasty, hard, and was causing the leather to crack at the hard edges of the glue). I pulled all the old glue off, then stuck subpatch paper ( Subpatch Paper ) under the tear and glued it with leather glue ( WB-1 Adhesive ). This left a seat that looked crappy, but seemed like it had good strength and flexibility. I then used several thin coats of leather filler ( Leather World Leather Filler ) to fill the gaps, and sanded it smooth. Then added some dye to the filler for another thin coat on top. Then I lightly sanded that smooth, and dyed the surrounding area to smooth it in.
The filler filled the perforations, which bugged me, so I used a dremel with an engraving bit and poked all the original leather holes, and created new ones in the filler areas. Since there was a flap of leather that had torn loose and wasn't pulled tight, the holes weren't all totally straight lines, but it looks way better than without them.
My back seat also had a spot where the color was rubbed off from a car seat being installed. This was just a matter of dyeing the color. The front arm rest was the same way... all the color was rubbed off the front top of it.
To apply the dye, I used a leather cleaner to clean the area, then used some rubbing alcohol (just a little bit) and a green scrubby to rough up the surface and prepare it for the dye. Then I used a foam brush to apply the dye. To make the color differences less noticeable, I taped at the seams and applied dye to an entire panel. I did several coats a few hours apart, then gave it a couple days to cure... then used leather cleaner again, and then leather conditioner.
Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out, and none of it was hard to do. I've never done any leather repair before, and had really low expectations (really, just wanted to make sure it didn't get worse). I've only had it on there for about a month, and don't have a lot of passengers riding in the car... but so far it does seem to be holding up.
Attached are some pics... I didn't take before pics of everything, but I'm sure you've seen enough trashed TL leather to guess flaps of leather with foam showing through looks like. :-P
Pat
10-01-2017, 01:37 AM
#6
Leather tear appeared out of nowhere!!!!
So I got into my car after work yesterday only to look over to my passenger seat and see a triangle shaped tear on the upper most section of the seat backing. I only have a very few passengers, but now more so my 10 year old son who has upgraded from the back to the front. He told me that he may have placed his elbow into the backing of the seat to look behind him, but didn't feel and sort of tearing. I know the perforated leather on our cars is pretty weak, but I just cant see how a perfect triangle tear formed so easily. Anyway, gonna hit up a few upholstery shops near me to see about getting it fixed, if too costly, Ill prob just do the old super glue fix. I'm just bummed cause I only got 88k on the car and am looking to have it for a long time, but already dealing with tears in the leather. Any suggestions or intel would be greatly appreciated folks!!!!
10-01-2017, 03:37 AM
#7
Yeah, I think the majority of the strength for the repair came from the subpatch paper and glue... if your tear hasn't really opened up (or don't care about making it look perfect), that might be all you need to keep it from spreading. In the pics you can see a few other spots on my passenger seat where the leather had a straight split, and I simply slid a piece of subpatch paper underneath and glued it back together. Overall, the entire fix is still holding up well a few months later.
Alternatively, if you have any similar color leather, you could probably simply slide it underneath and superglue it, like WDPanda did in the post he linked to.
Pat
Alternatively, if you have any similar color leather, you could probably simply slide it underneath and superglue it, like WDPanda did in the post he linked to.
Pat
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10-01-2017, 03:57 AM
#8
You got a few replies to your post from a couple months ago: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-p...repair-961329/
If you want it to look perfect, an upholstery shop can probably fix it (for $$$). If you just want to fix the tear and keep it from spreading (and be ready to fix new ones as they appear over time) I'd slide some material underneath the tear and glue it.
I personally used subpatch paper and leather glue, but in the other post, WDPanda showed his using a piece of color matched leather and superglue. It's quick and easy to do that type of patch... and if you want to spend some extra time making it look better, you could use some leather filler, dye, and redo the perforations to match (I did that on my seat... it took a while to get just right, though I'm happy how it turned out).
Pat
If you want it to look perfect, an upholstery shop can probably fix it (for $$$). If you just want to fix the tear and keep it from spreading (and be ready to fix new ones as they appear over time) I'd slide some material underneath the tear and glue it.
I personally used subpatch paper and leather glue, but in the other post, WDPanda showed his using a piece of color matched leather and superglue. It's quick and easy to do that type of patch... and if you want to spend some extra time making it look better, you could use some leather filler, dye, and redo the perforations to match (I did that on my seat... it took a while to get just right, though I'm happy how it turned out).
Pat
10-01-2017, 08:01 AM
#10
Burning Brakes
Yeah, I think the majority of the strength for the repair came from the subpatch paper and glue... if your tear hasn't really opened up (or don't care about making it look perfect), that might be all you need to keep it from spreading. In the pics you can see a few other spots on my passenger seat where the leather had a straight split, and I simply slid a piece of subpatch paper underneath and glued it back together. Overall, the entire fix is still holding up well a few months later.
Alternatively, if you have any similar color leather, you could probably simply slide it underneath and superglue it, like WDPanda did in the post he linked to.
Pat
Alternatively, if you have any similar color leather, you could probably simply slide it underneath and superglue it, like WDPanda did in the post he linked to.
Pat
10-02-2017, 12:26 AM
#11
Senior Moderator
Mod Edit: merged!