Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 09:06:43 -0400

["Milliet, Ron P." <RPMILLIE@xxxxxxxxx>]

- ------------------------------
Date:	Thu, 8 Apr 1999 22:54:57 EDT
From:	BOBINYELM@domain.elided <mailto:BOBINYELM@domain.elided>=20
Subject:	Leather Seat Re-Dying

I imagine more than a few of us have been disappointed with the leather =
on
our cars, especially the scuffing off of the color on dark seats (BMW
leather is surface colored). I have been reluctant to try spray-on dyes =
for
obvious reasons (like, they=92ll ruin the seats, or flake off), but am
readying a 733i I bought at an auction for sale and though it =
couldn=92t look
worse than the well worn blue leather already looked.=20
I bought some SEM brand vinyl spray paint (they have a blue that is an =
exact
match) and was determined to give it a go. I first scrubbed the seats =
with a
lacquer thinner soaked rag to remove any treatments possibly put on by =
the
former owner and to soften the existing finish for a good bond (I hear =
light
sanding with dry 320 does the same, but was reluctant to do this). That =
had
the benefit of disolving the OEM color finish and uniforming it on the
leather. At this point the rear seats already looked 100% better (they =
had
no use cracks, only fading). I heated the can to 125 deg F (this allows
better dye atomization) and applied several light applications to all =
seats.
Wow! Even the driver=92s seat, which had the typical creasing with no =
color in
the creases, looked great! The others looked like new. I did my best on =
the
first one sprayed to see if the finish would flake off or otherwise =
fail. I
couldn=92t make it do so.
One can ($4.00) did the entire car and I couldn=92t be more pleased.=20
Bob
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Bob says that BMW leather is only =93surfaced colored=94.  I say NOT  =
true.  At
least not on my 87 325is with Cardinal/Bison.  When I decided to redo =
the
leather, I bought OEM hides and had all 3 seats recovered with new =
leather.
I actually had the hides and it was easy to see these were vat dyed all =
the
way through cardinal red.  Certainly I agree that the surface has =
something
additional done to it.

Let us know in 6 months to a year if you are still pleased.

Ron Milliet
Georgia-Pacific
New Augusta, MS
87 325is

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