Seat restoring.

[pisco]

Hellbent! Hellbent for LEATHER! So I now have these black Bertone seats in the 242 and I'm looking at dyeing them where they are cracked. What are some products that will work well for restoring them? I need to find a product that will keep them from drying out further and keep them in top shape.

Grazzie

[sdodd]

Hellbent! Hellbent for LEATHER! So I now have these black Bertone seats in the 242 and I'm looking at dyeing them where they are cracked. What are some products that will work well for restoring them? I need to find a product that will keep them from drying out further and keep them in top shape.

Grazzie

Check out the 700/900 series FAQ and search for leather. There are good suggestions about restoration.

Leatherique is rumored to be the best for such an endeavor, but I've never used it.
Leatherique (http://www.leatheriqueorder.com/salespage.asp)

good luck!
-simon

[pisco]

I checked out Leatherique online earlier and it looks expensive but truly worthwile. I still can't get a good idea of how well it works from the before and after pics. It looks like they give a discount to "volvo owners and drivers" which I believe is a club even though I've never heard of them. A discount would be very worthwile.

[yarsoon]

I re-dyed the black leather in my 244 with the "forever black" stuff from the iPd catalog.. over a year ago now and the seats still look great. I started out on a rear seat that I wasn't going to use and man, it looked good. After that I went ahead and did the fronts and applied another "leather conditioning" type treatment to try and regain some softness... it's the conditioning that seems harder to me. Keep in mind that my seats get baked in the hot cali sun, the dye seems to work really well. Lotsa luck.

[pisco]

I re-dyed the black leather in my 244 with the "forever black" stuff from the iPd catalog.. over a year ago now and the seats still look great. I started out on a rear seat that I wasn't going to use and man, it looked good. After that I went ahead and did the fronts and applied another "leather conditioning" type treatment to try and regain some softness... it's the conditioning that seems harder to me. Keep in mind that my seats get baked in the hot cali sun, the dye seems to work really well. Lotsa luck.

Good to hear about the dye! Did the conditioning make the leather much softer? I get quite a bit of sun here too and a LOT of heat (black car black seats, no garage)

I've seen conflicting info on weather to dye the leather first or to condition it first. Some say that conditioning first helps the dye seep in. Others say conditioning after will protect the newly dyed leather. I guess it really doesn't matter.