Fixing cracked leather seats.

[songzunhuang]

I have a '96 850 with the taupe interior and I think I'm going to tackle this job. I'm planning on getting the deluxe kit and I am wondering if anyone has found the color that works best. I'm thinking the "VS6992 Lt Taupe" but "VS6969 Lt Beige" looks pretty close too. Any advice?

Mine was also light beige, but the color I got from them was too cool (grey/blue). I ended up sending my rear headrest cover (easy to remove) as a sample and they color matched it. It's MUCH better now.

Hint on application. Use the foam brush or an automotive touch up gun. The Prevail sprayer they give you works like a spray paint can. It laid the finish on too thick and it ran. I also tried a modeler's airbrush, but the pattern was too small to cover the entire seat, and it ended up looking a little blotchy. Automotive finish touch up gun is perfect. You can get them for pretty cheap on the web.

I'll post more pics soon so you can see what I mean.

[songzunhuang]

OK, here's an update after working on this for a while. I've now done my passenger seat, steering wheel, and my front driver's seat. The drivers seat was by far the worst and it seems to have taken tot he repair quite well. I thought I would share a few more pics.

This first one is of the driver's seat right after I cleaned and prepped it. The cracks are kind of brought out even more as the cleaning got the raw leather wet, which darkened it. It doesn't look quite this bad when dry, but it's still bad (especially the side panel that gets the most wear when you enter and exit the car).


After the treatment, this is how it looked. In this picture you can see both front seats. I also re-sprayed the passenger front seat as the match wasn't so good from the first batch of colorant.


Here's a Closeup of the front seat job for comparison. It's pretty darn good!


So the only thing I haven't worked out is the texture. It would be nice to get the grain back. Alas, after the repair, the surface is smooth. I read where they have spray texture, but I didn't want the seat to look like the walls of my home. I can't see how a spray texture would come close to matching the original grain. I decided to just go with the smooth. It still looks pretty good.

OK, the front passenger seat has been treated and used for about 3 weeks now. It's holding up well so far. I'll update if I notice anything weird. Good luck folks.

[songzunhuang]

This is pretty impressive! Your car seats happen to be in the same condition as my mine.
Do you have any idea what that compound does to the leather?
Does it bind onto the cracks, does it seal the leather grain, or is it just a "cover"?
What is the temperature characteristics, cause the car seats can get real hot? So many questions...
Thanks for posting this. I think I will give it a try.

jmmxc
Volvo 850GLT, 1996
150K

Sorry it took so long to answer your post. The compound is a white paste than dries clear. It seems very elastic and does seem to bind to the leather. I have repaired both my front seats now and after 3 weeks of use, none of the repaired areas are showing cracks or anything. So I think it's working as designed.

You do lose the grain after the repair. It becomes very smooth, especially if you sand in between coats like I did.

The car I repaired is parked outside int he sun (the garage is full). So it's exposed to pretty high temperatures. I use the V70 for carpooling kids in the morning so it's gets a good workout. I'll report back if I notice anything un-toward. SO far so good.

[nightc1]

Fantastic job. I had to find this thread after reading the one on the steering wheel repari. I'm not ready yet to do this myself (tons of smaller projects to do), but maybe in a few months if you report back good things this could be the avenue for me as well during Christmas. I have pretty much the same interior leather as you do on my 99 V70. My steering wheel is a black/super-dark-gray color though and has wear right where the sun hits in in the 12 O'clock position. Luckily I grip around 2: & 10: so I don't notice it unless I'm shuffle steering or something (which I don't do often as I don't drive that aggressively.... anymore). Still at some point having an option for repair instead of just buying cheep looking covers would be nice.

[songzunhuang]

OK, for the folks following this thread, I am posting what may be the finale for this one. The last thing to tackle was the rear seat cushions. The biggest issue I have had so far was the smooth application of the colorant. The airbrush I used before shot out too small of a pattern. The result although not bad, was a bit blotchy.

So today I finished the job by doing the back seat cushions so that all matches now. Here's a few photos of the process and of the gun that I used that worked MUCH better. The gun is an automotive touch up paint gun. It worked wonderfully.

Here's the first shot of the seat after a good scrubbing to remove loose dirt and also after the elather prep.


This shot is after two passes with the touch up gun. Notice that I didn't fill all the creases this time. I wanted to maintain some of the texture and note have a totally smooth seat.


Here's a close up picture of the gun I used. It shot about a 8 inch vertical spray pattern.


Finally, here's the entire back seat completed. The rear seats are so much easier to work with as you can just take out the entire backseat cushion. It makes it really easy to move around it to spray evenly.


So that does it for me. The rest of the spots will me manual touch ups. I will also do some restoration work on my wife's XC90. There are some worn spots where the kids get in and out. I now know how to make it look good for not too much money now. If your seats need work, give this a shot. It's not hard and the results are great.

[songzunhuang]

Fantastic job. I had to find this thread after reading the one on the steering wheel repari. I'm not ready yet to do this myself (tons of smaller projects to do), but maybe in a few months if you report back good things this could be the avenue for me as well during Christmas. I have pretty much the same interior leather as you do on my 99 V70. My steering wheel is a black/super-dark-gray color though and has wear right where the sun hits in in the 12 O'clock position. Luckily I grip around 2: & 10: so I don't notice it unless I'm shuffle steering or something (which I don't do often as I don't drive that aggressively.... anymore). Still at some point having an option for repair instead of just buying cheep looking covers would be nice.

After a few weeks of use, the steering wheel is getting better actually! At first I was concerned because it felt kind of like fine sandpaper. But after a week, I put on some leather conditioner. This made it a bit better. As I have used the car, the wheel got smoother until now. It feels great. I think this treatment would work great on your wheel. I've not noticed any kind of peeling or any other separation so far.

Song

[JRL]

No problem
This drivers seat looked about like that 3 days ago and should last for years if applied properly

[rextar23]

I had the same problem with crackin leather on my front driver seat for 98 s70 along with the foam falling apart. I took it to an upholstery shop and they re-foamed the seat and upholstered the seat with vinyl instead of leather and the results were fantastic. I recomment using vinyl instead of leather as it is alot cheaper and cleaning it is no problem at all.

[songzunhuang]

OK, this is a followup since many folks have asked me how this repair has held up. I'll cut to the chase. It's OK, but not super outstanding. There are a few hairline cracks developing and you can see some of the finish is starting to separate. However, it's been 7 months and this still looks way better than what I had before!


Recall that this panel (outside part of the driver seat) was totally trashed. It's not as good as new anymore, but it still looks ok.

The next picture is the main portion of the drivers seat. This area probably gets the 2nd most wear. you can see the hairline cracks coming back, but again it's not terrible overall.


This final picture is the driver's side left side bolster. That has held up very well. In reality, it doesn't get the kind of regular abuse as the lower cushions so I would expect it to do better.


At the end of the day, this is still a LOT better than it was and it was also a lot cheaper. When things start to look bad again, I'll just retreat it and get another 7+ months out of it. It's really not too bad of a trade-off. I would still recommend Leather Magic. Perhaps you can tend to your seats before they got as bad as mine were.

[songzunhuang]

Another 9 months have gone by and I had to refresh the seats again. Now that I have done this 3 times, I am no longer uncertain of the repair longevity. With daily use, it looks to last 9 months on the driver seat. The other part of the car that don't get so much regular wear and tear are doing better. The little hairline cracks do appear though.