Hi, I'm seeing some ads in Jaguar World magazine for seemingly miraculous leather restoration products such as Liquid Leather (page 24 Sept issue), just wondering if there's anything readily available in North America. LL ships world wide but i'm trying to avoid shipping and customs charges which can sometimes double the cost of the product.

Btw, i;m currently using AutoGlym's leather cleaner and balm and they're so-so.

thanks!

 

I've always had good luck with Leatherique products.

Home Page | Leatherique Restoration Products

No financial interest, etc. Just had good luck with them.

Lots of folks like the original Hide Food (if you can find it).

YMMV

 

Whilst the kitty is in the vet having her transmission overhauled, I spent some quality time with the Leatherique stuff to refinish a rear console extension I picked up along the way.

My rear seats do not have wiring for the heaters, but the console extension had the switches; obviously, having non-functional switches is pretty lame. And, these days, it's more useful to have charging outlets for the various toys we carry.

And, the woodgrain insert was a bit scratched up. So, all in all, while the winds and rain were howling outside, figured Saturday afternoon was an ideal time to work on removing the switches, recovering the mount, polishing up the insert panel, and redying the replacement leather (I have about half a hide of real Connolly left over from an interior retrim of a Lotus Turbo Esprit a few years ago...).

So...long story short...removed the switch mount from the rear extension piece. Pushed the switches out. Gently removed the hyde of nauga cover. Sliced off a hunk of leather large enough to cover the bare metal, and, using high-strength contact cement, coated both the back side of the leather and the metal, let it flash off (helped it a little with an electric heat gun...) and proceeded to fit and trim the leather to fit, leaving enough to wrap around the edges and give a clean edge.

Took some 2000 liquid polishing (liquid ebony) compound on my orbital buffer pad, buffed out the surface scratches in the clear coat of the wood grain insert.

Following the instructions that Leatherique provided, prepared the surface of the new leather: Cleaner first to float any dirt or grit up, wipe dry, 1200 grit wet paper with the Prep Agent to break the lacquer surface (lightly sand with copious prep agent...all the liquids are based on the same chemistry, so, the treatment is additive), then light coats of dye to bring the color up (note, the color was being changed from the original blue to the cashmere in the car...

Let it dry for a couple hours. Buffed with a fine microfiber cloth to bring up the satin gloss.

Yeah, the color is a bit lighter, but, totally acceptable (try matching color in aged, sun-exposed upholstery with fresh dye..it's an art, I'm thinking) unless you Really Really look very closely.

Note: one of the photos shows a piece of scrap I tested the process on to make sure the color change could be accomplished...you can see, from the backside what the original color is, and how the front surface turns out...

Hope this provides some visible gauge of how the kit from them works.

 

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to Interior forum. This is where you'll also find other threads on this and similar topics.

Graham

 

Here's a couple extra shots.

First one is the driver seat. I took this before finishing the inboard bolster and seat bottom itself. The front bolster has been cleaned, lightly sanded with prep agent, cleaned again, then 2 light dye applications. I could have used their crack filler to take all those 'creases' out, but actually like the look of somewhat 'experienced' leather, so left them in.

The second one is the completed passenger seat. It was in close to the same condition as the driver (obviously not as 'experienced', but just as in need of attention).

Slowly but surely. It takes a while, but if you break it down into manageable chunks...at some point, you look up and there's no other part to refresh...