Hot Rod Forum banner

changing leather seat color

2K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  bullheimer 
#1 ·
so I have mint leather seats from an 02 Chrysler sebring sedan in my 64. they are the wrong color. id like to change that.

the seats appear to be leather, I should say. im pretty sure the fuzzy parts are suede. I am not certain. is there a way to be definite?

now, id like to dye them to match the rest. all the trim has been shot with SEM Portola red, and the door panels matched to that. I have used tons of SEM products on plastic/vinyl interior parts over the years, and always been pleased with the results. however, I have never done leather.

is SEM the best stuff to use? ive looked through every single page in the interior section here, and seen many references to a SEM classic coat for leather, as well as other products. im pretty sure ive been using SEM color coat. same stuff?

anything better than SEM?

heres pictures to help you guys identify just what im working with and what to do to turn it red.


 
See less See more
2
#2 · (Edited)
No, SEM Color Coat is different from Classic Coat, and there is a third product called Sure Coat. SEM recommends using either Classic Coat or Sure Coat on leather, all three on vinyl, and either Color Coat or Sure Coat on rigid plastics. SEM is not a paint, it is a flexible coating which can bend with the movement of the leather or vinyl, and is actually drawn into hard plastic.

Your seats are not 100% leather, the perimeter pieces are made of matching vinyl, and the parts you sit on or lean back on are leather. The "fuzzy parts", they are probably not suede, they are probably an imitation suede. Real suede has a grain to it, and when you rub it, it changes color, but so does imitation suede. The imitation suede parts will be a problem to re-color. You can't re-color fabrics like that, only enhance the color they already are. If it was me, I'd replace the imitation/real suede parts with real leather, but that will add a lot of expense to the job. For the leather and vinyl, Use either Classic Coat, which comes in aerosols, or Sure Coat, which comes in bulk containers and requires a spray gun. Sure Coat will be cheaper for coloring a whole set of seats.

Your job will only be as good as the preparation you do before re-coloring. However you do it, use only SEM cleaners, adhesion promoters, and prep products, and follow the instructions TO THE LETTER.
 
#3 ·
No, SEM Color Coat is different from Classic Coat, and there is a third product called Sure Coat. SEM recommends using either Classic Coat or Sure Coat on leather, all three on vinyl, and either Color Coat or Sure Coat on rigid plastics. SEM is not a paint, it is a flexible coating which can bend with the movement of the leather or vinyl, and is actually drawn into hard plastic.
I have not had very good luck at all trying to dye seats , especially on vinyl. The main problem is the stuff always tends to rub off within a week. Maybe OK for the passenger seat but not the driver's seat.

I installed some seats from an 87 Honda CRX in my 80 Fiat Spider. I tried using the SEM fabric and vinyl dye. The fabric tended to accept the dye much better than vinyl but I found after a week or so the stuff started to rub off.

I've used SEM on door panels and center consoles with no problems. Just seats.







I ended up buying some custom fit seat covers from CoverKing.



Incidentally, the leather seats in my 2006 Explorer look horrible. Apparently Ford got really cheap and painted everything, including the steering wheel! I "fixed" the steering wheel by buying one of those steering wheel wraps.

Here is what the wheel started to look like:



My stepson borrowed my Explorer one day and got grease all over the driver seat and his kids got juice or something on the other seats. I used Purple Magic to remove the grease and it removed some of the beige die with it! Now the seats look like crap. You can't really tell from this photo.

 
#4 · (Edited)
If you had trouble with dyeing vinyl with SEM, you didn't prep the vinyl correctly, or used cleaners and prep products that weren't made by SEM, or used the wrong SEM product for the job at hand.

The SEM Color Coat is the only one of their products recommended for cloth, and it is NOT intended to change the color of cloth or carpet, only to enhance the color that's already there. It says so right on the container. Their instructions are very specific, and if you don't follow them, you will end up with a poor outcome. I have never had any of the repairs I have made with SEM products fail.
 
#7 ·
Try a black dry erase marker. Put on the thread a little section at a time, wait a while, and wipe off the excess that gets on the leather, it should darken the thread and come right off the leather.
 
#9 ·
Re: the steering wheel cover. i got ink on my NON painted seats once and used Goof Off, and it did the same thing, took some of the die out of the vinyl. nothing somebody else would notice, but you do.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top