Leather "dye" surprising results.
 

The Oatmeal seats on my XJ8 had seen better days and I have a good friend that does stitchwork so I plan on having him re-do the seats for me at some point. I have other cars taking priority at the moment so I was looking for a quick solution for this casually driven car.

Now let me preface this post by saying I usually do not agree with shortcuts, and most of the time I take the longest way around just to be sure something is done right. However, this project was purely cosmetic and I had to come up with a short term fix.

I found the repairwizard, a UK company that sells a leather paint/re-dye/repair kit for leather and happened to have the proper AGD Oatmeal color which to me meant they must have done some research. My goal was to dab a bit on the cracked areas of my interior so it would look a bit more presentable, however once it arrived I fell in love.

I bought 2 pots of it, which it states one pot does one seat and I only planned on doing the cracks. I ended up doing more but it matches the factory color so very well that I did not have to to them top to bottom.

I ended up doing the seating surfaces of the front seats, the entire bottom of the rear and the centers of the back of the rear seat. It feels and looks great. No word on longevity yet but this was quick and simple - if I had to do this once a year I would.

Anyway, on with the pics.

BEFORE
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AFTER
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OMG what a difference, i must do this!! can you post a link to that UK Company, also how long per seat did it take you?

I wasn't sure if links were allowed or it was advertising.

The company is therepairwizard.co.uk but I purchased mine via eBay from them as that is how I stumbled upon their products.

It takes about as long as conditioning the seats, the rear bottom I took out and then I folded the fronts all the way down. Less than 30 mins per seat.

I must note that my seats are very clean in the before pictures, they were washed, cleaned with Lexol leather cleaner and also conditioned just a week before. The before's are as good as I could get them with typical cleaners, they were worse than that when I got the car.

Looks good. Did you use a spray gun? Is this your first time doing leather repairs? Did you have to sand down the leather first or did you just apply the dye?

No its put on with a foam pad, yes first time and no sanding, just cleaned and applied.

Nice - may have to look into this instead of new seat leather covering

I did this recently as well, just dye and foam pads, what method did you use as I noticed your cracks are quite well covered.

Best way I found was to wet dab the worst bits and to dry dab your way out to blend in. The only problem being its doesnt seem to last a vast amount of time I dont use my car much and I need to top up once every 6 months to stay on top of it. Also did the leather wear on my steering wheel as well.

Heres my results

I used this company, sent them my VIN number and got a perfect match

Leather dye for JAGUAR xk8 xjs x300 x type s type xj8 x320 XF XJ colour matched | eBay

I started this process this weekend and am impressed with the results. It doesn't look like new but, took at least 6 years of wear away. I'm using a foam brush and multiple light coats. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a before picture.

I just heard back from the seller moments ago and he gave this advice:

So long as you put a barrier on the leather like leather conditioner every three months or so the pigments will last several years it has a built in finish that seals the pigments in for you.

Used a simillar dye and the Gliptone cleaner and Gliptone conditioner on mine and it looks great.

Got mine from Sevelewissaabs.co.uk who does it for land rovers, jags and saabs. Apply the cleaner, allow to dry then apply the conditioner, allow to dry then apply the dye with a sponge. Use light coats not heavy ones.

I will use the same products when I do the XJC.

I just placed my order. Will post before and after photos when I do it. Thanks for the info.

This is where I got it Jaguar Oatmeal agd Leather Repair Pigment Dyes with Unique Applicator Sponge | eBay

That's the same kit I got.

I thought so, hope I can achieve the same results.

I'm in the process of doing this on my car. How did you keep the paint off of the stitching? Also, do your seats feel as smooth and soft as they did originally? Mine feel a bit rougher so that it is a bit harder to slide in and out of my driver's seat. I'm hoping it will get better after more than 24 hrs of drying.

My Stitching is the same colour as the seats, but I would imagine you would have to carefully mask with sticky tape of some sort.
As for the roughness this is normal, by the time you’ve got in and out a couple of times it should feel like the rest of the leather, perhaps try conditioning the leather after the dye has dried if you've covered a large area.
The only problem I found was that if you wear newish jeans the blue can rub off quite easily onto the dye. Also it doesn’t seem to last very long before touching up either.

Yes as did mine, I waited a week and then applied leather conditioner and they are softening up again. A few more treatments and they should be protected and smoother.

holy cow thats a great improvement!

My kit came in the mail today -- decided to try it right away!

My driver's seat is (was) the worst, so that's where I started. As you can see, the seat was in pretty bad shape, and the result is quite amazing! I've never done anything like this before, so if I can do it, anybody can.

Here are a couple of before and after photos -- this only took me about 1/2 hour or so.

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Amazing results, its taken 10 years of age off your seats! Nice one