Seat leather colour restoration

[Kevin H]

Excerpts from the BEEF mail list archives
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From Kevin Howard.

I had excellent results with a Woolies kit on the light grey leather in my Bristol 411.

I started on the rear seats which were a little bit worn in and creased and found I was able to achieve quite a good finish by applying the coloured renovating liquid with cloth initially followed up with a fine sponge applicator which came from a craft shop. I believe using the Woolies cleaner first is very important because it seems to act as a primer and leaves the leather slightly 'tacky'.

The leather on the door panels was very smooth and had no grain. It proved very difficult to achieve a good looking finish on this smooth surface. I ended up buying a compressor and a fine spray gun with quite a small spray area. Using the Woolies cleaner I completely cleaned off the leather renovator on the door panels and started again using the spray gun. Three or four very light coats produced an excellent finish. I also cleaned some areas on the rear seats where I wasn't happy with the finish and re did these areas with the spray gun. On the front seats I separated the backs from the seats to allow good access. After cleaning I applied renovator to certain 'difficult to reach' parts in the folds with a cloth first, and I wedged or taped these folds in the seat apart until the renovator dried, so the surfaces didn't stick together. Then I sprayed the remainder of the leather seat surface with the spray gun.

Everything was finished off using Woolies sealing paste.

This process took a very long time, but considering a Bristol 411 would cost 5,000 - 10,000 pounds to re-trim correctly, I thought it was worthwhile.

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More on the Woolies kit.....
From Tim Bullock...

I can also report excellant results from a Woolies kit.I treated the interior of my 409 about 20 (yes,TWENTY) years ago.Before I did the treatment the seats were very grotty,being both dirty and slightly cracked in places(though the leather was`nt split through anywhere). I agree with Kevin, cleaning is very important.Here`s a useful hint:use an old toothbrush to really get into the cracks and all the little folds along the edge of the piping.

By the way, NEVER throw your old toothbrushes away - they're wonderful for a thousand and one intricate cleaning jobs and can even be used to polish small fiddly parts. When I'd finished cleaning my seats they looked terrible, but the colour restorer had a truly wonderful effect. It seems to 'take' only where needed (i.e on the parts where the surface is cracked or worn) so you avoid a nasty plastic-looking finish. My car has spent some time standing outdoors since being treated and has even (I'm sorry to say) become rather damp inside at one point, but the seats remained unaffected.

Anyway, my experience of the woolies kit has been nothing but good. I can wholeheartedly reccomend it.

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And again from Kevin Howard...

I also used an old toothbrush to get into the nooks and crannies. I was horrified at first when all of the original colour came off in places, exposing natural coloured leather, but relieved once I saw how effective the coloured renovater liquid was.

For those contemplating using a Woolies leather renovation kit, I needed to have a second batch of renovater liquid made, at my cost, because the first batch was too light in colour. This was MY fault because I sent Woolies a sample of virgin leather from underneath the rear seat, well actually from the huge piece which covers the prop shaft tunnel beneath the rear seat, which you barely see, (seemed like very extravagant use of Connolly leather!).

It is very important to select a small patch of sample leather which is both clean and has also been exposed to daylight to a similar extent as the leather being treated. This doesn't mean the sample needs to have been exposed to direct sunlight (quite the contrary) but it's unlikely to be a good match if it hasn't seen daylight for 30 years! Anyway before you commit a 'clean' leather sample, compare it to a cleaned area of the seat in good bright daylight (if that's possible in Blighty) to be sure it's a good match. The second batch I got from Woolies was 'spot on'.

Woolies web site is at www.woolies-trim.co.uk
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