Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[petelang]

I am about to begin the winter restoration list and one major job this year is the leather upholstery on the 33 Siddeley. its original colour was green but, some dick has recoloured a substantial part of it in a very dark blue (all front seat and door leather panels. I wold like to restore to the original colour. Is this possible?
The rear seat is original and has been stiched unside a muslin bag. The leather is almost as hard as plywood. In such a condition will I be likely to be able to restore it or is it a lost cause?
The remaining leather on doors and front seat is basically in good supple condition but just dirty apart from the stained colour. Is there anything that bleaches the dark colour without damaging the material?
I am a complete novice on this subject so any advice helpfull. Based Nottingham, if anyone nearby would like to drop in and take a look be ever so grateful.
Peter

[peter scott]

Hi Pete,

I think both the dryness and colour of your seats can be sorted. I know from experience that the seats in my '39 SS were very hard and dry when I bought the car 18 years ago but with a few applications of Hide Food and having warm bodies sit on them the seats became nice and supple again.

As to colour changing I don't have personal experience but have seen the results of a friend's efforts on several old cars using materials from Furniture Clinic and I must say the results have always been excellent. http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/Leather_Dyes_Restoration.php

Whilst both these products have impressed me I'm not sure about the order of application. I would think you would need to make the leather supple first and then clean the surface in preparation for the re-colouring but I would suggest that you take advice from Furniture Clinic.

I have no connection with either Hide Food or Furniture Clinic.

Peter
_________________
http://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[traction39]

I have a set of red leather seats that someone in their wisdom decided to colour brown. Not sure what they used to colour them but I removed it by applying Woolies leather cleaner, actually copious amounts and a soft nail brush. I followed this with hide feed and they came up very well.
If you go this route....try the cleaner on a small area first!
I reckoned I couldn't do any more damage if I tried to clean them this way.

A further set of 30's seats are very hard. I feed them with hide cleaner and are slowly softening up..good quality leather then!
An upholsterer suggested aqueous cream to soften them up...have not tried that yet.
Alistair

[imfinlay]

I've had a lot of success using Nikwax to soften leather, mainly old WWII belts, boots etc. A friend even heats it up to get it to be more runny and soak in, but I've never tried that. It can darken leather a little, but I just keep painting it on again and again until no more is absorbed.

Obviously, test it first - I'm not sure how well leather would take colour after.

[Rich5ltr]

Everything that you want to achieve is possible. Even if you want to do the work yourself I would also consult a professional trimmer with experience of old leather-work. I know that sometimes they can use very fine emery paper to remove the old colour from the leather and re-surface it by spraying, sounds harsh but is apparently very effective and you retain the original leather. They will also be able to patch in any repairs using old leather to match the thickness of the original. It sounds as though you want to do something similar to me with my Aston. I want to retain the original leather seats and door leather but glued to new door cards. The seats need re-stuffing and one side bolster panel needs replacing. All other bits sundry leather trim will be replaced. This together with new Wilton carpets and headlining should refresh the interior nicely but retain the patina of the original seats and doors. Quotes for all this work are around £3-£3.5k