Leather Car Seat Repair

Everything is bound to breakdown – car interiors are of no exception, especially with continuous exposure to stress and friction and extreme changes in temperature and humidity. The usual victim is the leather seat, as it becomes dirty and shabby and eventually torn as it accommodates the driver and its passengers through time, or through contact with sharp objects, or with just poor maintenance. Leather car seat repair can be done by yourself whenever damage is quite small (scratches or coin-sized tears).

Before doing the leather car seat repair, check the color of your leather. You could send a swatch to the supplier for color matching. Once the color has been matched and verified, this will be used later in buying the repair color kit.

The first step in DIY leather car seat repair is to clean the surface of the leather to be repaired. Commercial leather cleaners can be bought in auto repair stores – use them along with vacuuming and a dust cloth to clean the seat’s damaged area. Usually there are rough edges around the tear or the worn-out area. Smoothen these roughened portions with sandpaper (1000-grit) until the area is evened out.

Buy the repair color kit that matches the color of your leather seat. Sometimes, a mix of colors achieves the correct colour – test it on a small area first. Apply the liquid leather compound onto the seat and then expose it to heat (with the use of a hair dryer) so that repair compound dries evenly over the shabby or torn area. The last step in this DIY leather car seat repair is to put a grain sheet on top of the dried liquid leather to achieve a real leather look. Reapplications may be necessary until the desired look is obtained.