Leather Repairs. Repairing Leather Info

Most repairs to leather are based upon the surface being loss of colour, split, rough or cracked. The key to making perfect repairs is the preparation, making the repairs carried out blend in seamlessly with the surrounding areas..

Rough or Worn Leather: first step is to deep clean the leather to ensure all dirt has been removed from within the grain. The next step is to lightly sand the offending areas with 320 grit sandpaper, This will remove most of the heavy roughness to the leather surface. This can then be followed with a 1200 grit paper making the areas perfectly ready for repairs and nice and smooth. Now you can use a tack cloth to remove any dust or small particles of leather that may have come off during the sanding processes, if the leather surface is left with small indentations or roughness you can follow this up with some heavy filler either standard white or a coloured heavy filler, this is best applied in thin layers drying each layer between applications, once fully applied this can be sanded back with 1200 grit paper.

Cracked Leathers: lightly sand the areas with 320 grit sandpaper. Follow this up with some 1200 grit sandpaper. Now go over the area with a tack cloth to remove any dust. You can use a palette knife to spread the heavy filler over the cracked area, leave this for a few minutes to settle, then using a hair dryer, keeping approx 8 inches away from the surface gently heat up the heavy filler until its dry this may take around 5 to 10 minutes, once dry fully sand this down with 1200 grit sandpaper, if you still have an indentation apply more of the heavy filler.

Leather Prep and Alcohol Cleaner: Before applying any fillers and after carrying out any sanding, next is to wipe over the leathers surface finish with the leather prep, the prep will remove the old surface coating on the leather, making for a much better repair than before. Once you have taken off enough of the old colour and you’re happy with the prepped finish you can allow this to dry and then sand back with 1200 grit paper making this nice and smooth ready for the colourant to be applied. Once sanded back apply with a cloth the Alcohol Cleaner this removes all dirt, grease, waxes and silicones left on the leather surface finish, enabling you to achieve the results of professional, using a DIY Leather Repair Products At Home.

Applying Leather Colourants & Finishing.

BEFORE APPLYING COLOURANT YOU MUST FILTER THE COLOUR FIRST OF ALL.

If you have applied any form of filler to holes or cracks on the leather you will need to blend these in better with the colourant before applying any colour, once you have matched your colour apply to all areas colourant on a sponge dabbing this on so it creates a natural texture like a leather grain. This can then be dried with a hair dryer.

Doing this you make the fillers used blend in better with the leathers colour, this means you will use far less colourant to complete the job fully. The special coloured fillers we manufacture is a far better way of repairing holes, splits and cracks giving a far better result than just colouring the normal white filler.

If you are just re colouring an area of leather that has faded or has colour loss, simply sponge this on to the surface, if it’s a complete colour change that your doing (follow the guide we have produced “ How To Change The Colour Of Leather”) once you have been able to apply two or three sponge coats you can follow this up with a couple of coats using a spry gun or airbrush.

Its very important that between each sponge coat you dry this with a hair dryer on medium heat keeping around 8 to 12 inches away from the dye.

If required you can before applying the spray coats of dye sand back gently with 1200 grit sandpaper to make this nice and smooth ready for apply a couple of spray cats of colour.

Now you can proceed to the spraying of two coats of colourant to the finish again drying between each coating.

The beauty of our products is YOU DON’T WASTE money by having to buy addition promoters or cross linkers as our products are perfect as they are do not require these additional items to complete a truly professional first class finish every single time.

The Final Stages: Before you start the final steps of spraying on the clear coat sealers, get a tack cloth and very gently move this over the surface to remove any dust particles to ensure no dust is in the finished result. If you do see dust in the surface do not be tempted to pick this wait till the clear coat lacquer is dry as it will come to the surface and this can be lightly sanded back with 1200 grit sandpaper to remove it.

Now its time to spray on the clear finish coats to the coloured leather surface. Its best to apply approx three to five coats of clear finish to the colour this will seal this in making it extremely tough and very durable.

The very final coat of clear lacquer that is applied must be perfect and before you do this lightly sand over the finish with 1200 grit paper, this will make the sound for the ultimate of finishes, if the leather surface feels rough, this can be sanded over with 1200 grit sandpaper again before applying you last coating.

The finish takes around three to fours days to fully set and cure to a very hard wearing durable finish, in most cases is stronger than the original finish on the leather. The can be used after 24 hours safely. But can take up to approx 5 days to cure fully.

The clear coat lacquer comes in two standard finishes Matt and Gloss, from these two you can make any sheen level you require, by simply mixing them together. Semi Matt is 75% Matt & 25% Gloss, |Satin is 50% Matt & 50% Gloss and Semi Gloss is 25% Matt and 75% Gloss, But adding small amounts in you can achieve any sheen level required.

For further details on leather repairs and how to guides and videos you can take a look at the Leather Repair Company web site

DO NOT ADD MATTING AGENTS TO THE CLEAR COAT / LACQUER FINISHES. THIS IS ONLY TO BE ADDED TO THE LEATHER COLOURANT / DYE.