Minor leather seat repair

[musqlar55]

Any advice on small, leather seat repairs? I always use Meguiars leather gel for keeping seats soft and hydrated but have some tiny splits in the driver side right bolster that can be fixed. Thanks.

[Dwight Frye]

Originally Posted by musqlar55

Any advice on small, leather seat repairs? I always use Meguiars leather gel for keeping seats soft and hydrated but have some tiny splits in the driver side right bolster that can be fixed. Thanks.

I have had a couple of small splits also appear in the same place. They are about 3/8" to 1/2" long. The repair that I did was to get a piece of vinyl fabric that closely matched the color and texture of the seat leather from a fabric store. It had a cotton backing to it. I peeled the cotton off so it was just a piece of vinyl, and cleaned the material with some acetone. Also use some acetone very carefully to clean the area of any leather dressing where the patch will go, it is helpful to mask it off first so you don't discolor the area outside of the patch area.
I then used some Loctite brand vinyl adhesive as seen on this link:

https://www.amazon.com/Henkel-Loctit...xible+adhesive

Cut a patch of the vinyl that is a little larger than the split. Put a piece of masking tape on the seat to act as a guide line for where you want to stick the patch as you won't be able to reposition it once you stick it to the seat material. Here's where it gets tricky: Within a few seconds of applying the adhesive it starts to react with the vinyl and makes it curl up. Having an assistant would help, one person to sit in the passenger seat to be ready to stick the patch on and the other to use a brush to apply the adhesive to the material and make sure to get it all the way out to the edges. As soon as you get the adhesive spread on the patch stick it in place before it starts to react and curl the vinyl. Practice with a few pieces so you can see what I mean before making the permanent repair.
The finished repair is very strong and shows no sign of peeling off. It will suffice until I buy some Katzkins or other kind of seat covers.

[mults]

Originally Posted by musqlar55

Any advice on small, leather seat repairs? I always use Meguiars leather gel for keeping seats soft and hydrated but have some tiny splits in the driver side right bolster that can be fixed. Thanks.

Too bad you're not in Cleveland, otherwise, I would turn you on to a guy who fixed my 40th seats a few years ago for less than $200.00...