Leather Patch Repair on a 1987 Sport Seat side bolster
Juliet Page (c) 2002
The problem is obvious:
The cause of the problem was the bracket on the bottom of the seat. Over time (some time before 14 years and 98,000 miles when I purchased the car) it wore up through the seat foam, through the backing of the leather and to the front. This resulted in a most unsightly situation!
In the photo below you can see the imprint (upside down) of the above bracket pushing through the foam.
The patch kit is by Leather Magic and I purchased it online from http://www.leathermagic.com./index.html. It included adhesive, sand paper, tubs of colored leather finisher, a gloss restorer, alcohol swab, blending spatula, leather patch and fabric backing.
The first step was to clean the area. I used soap and water. I then scruffed up the surface with the provided 220 grit sandpaper and then wiped it down with rubbing alcohol. I cut the backing fabric patch larger than the patch hole.
I trimmed the edges of the hole as they were somewhat thinned and not clean cut. The patch was applied under the leather, but above the layers of backing material. I squirted adhesive in the edges from the supplied adhesive applicator. You have to make sure there are no ridges or folds in the backing fabric. I was able to reach my hand up from the underside to smooth it out. The adhesive dries in minutes. It has somewhat of a tacky rubber cement like texture to it.
I then made a rough template by placing a paper over the hole and tracing the shape. I cut the supplied leather piece to fit nicely in the hole. Fortunately the thickness of the patch leather matches the thickness of the C4 leather seat covers. :-)
The leather close fit patch is then glued into place from the top side. The slight seam gap between the patch and original seat will be filled with the patching compound. It's important that there is no doubling up of leather.
My first eyeball of the color mixed up a bit too light. This was the grey color from the kit with only a tiny bit of black added. The kit instructions mention that it darkens when it dries to mix it lighter, but the amount of darkening isn't much at all. The first color you can see on the seat below. In the areas where I smudged it a bit to far away from the patch area I was able to lift up easily with a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol. After applying it, I'd let it set for 2 or 3 minutes until it started to thicken a bit. I could then touch it up a bit with the spatula smoothing out some of the ridges. It's not that critical at this stage since more coats will be applied.
My second blend had more black added. I cut the top portion off a 35mm film tub and used the bottom portion for mixing. I could cover it up with the lid and it didn't dry out over the course of the 30 minutes or so between applying layers.
The second match was much closer, however the hue was a little off, so for the third and final coating I added some of the brown from the kit. This gave it the slightly more greenish hue and removed the blueish tint in the kit supplied grey & black tones. The result is shown below.
The next step (after this dries overnight) is to add the gloss refinisher and then carefully, with a sharp large needle, poke the holes into the leather to match the original perforated leather pattern.
I've completed the repair. :-) Here's a super close up photo. I'm quite pleased with the results! Once I sit in it for a 100 miles and get a few more coats of leather conditioner I don't think you'll hardly notice the repair at all. Next I need to get their vinyl repair kit for the gouges in the A arm pillar surrounds on my '70. :-)
One other small section of the seat had a slight portion of the leather pulled off. The leather was not cut all the way through, just the top finished layer was missing.
This was an easy fix with the kit. After cleaning the area, I applied a little of the final blended color and smoothed it out.
Once this spot is buffed out a bit with leather conditioner I doubt if I'll be able to pick it out even after really close examination!
