Leather Repair - How To Repair Torn Leather Seat

 There are so many different types of automotive leather seat repair, all with different situations and applications. There are holes, scratches, gouges, cuts, scrapes, worn or cracked, and just down right grungy looking leather seats. I think I got them all covered, well in this article we're going to talk about how to repair a small hole in a leather seat lean back, for those of you who don't know what a lean back is well it's the upper part of the seat.

Now when I say small this can apply for a tear up to 1 1/2" to 2", probably might go a little bigger, but lets not push it, if it needs to go to the upholstery shop for an insert then that would be better then a crappy looking leather repair on something that probably wouldn't hold anyways. When in doubt, insert it.

Prepping a seat is the key to success in any leather repair, and a lasting leather dye job. So, prep the whole lean back, and while your at it just clean the whole seat, why not, but you don't have to, with your prepping solution removing all grease, dirt, and grime. You need a clean surface and a well prepped area to work with. When I prep, I use a solution of rubbing alcohol, acetone, ammonia, and a small amount of TSP substitute, with water in a spray bottle. Spray the seat with the solution and scrub with a scotch brite pad to scuff the leather seat for leather dye adhesion and remove any grime that's on the seat, then wipe clean with a clean lint free towel. Once your clean, apply a grip base primer to the seat, I usually in most cases will dye the entire lean back when I do a repair or the entire seat, but sometimes it's not necessary, so you may not need to prime the whole seat, but do clean the seat good this cuts down on the amount of leather dye used and the ending result will be a premium leather repair.

Now to the hole. Lets say it's in a V shape, just for example. Like where you've gott'n out of the seat with something in your back pocket, ouch! I know the feeling, back in college I had a 1986 Mustang SVO, very rare and nice car (man I miss that car) and I got out to go to class with a pen in my back pocket and ripped about a 2" V shape in the seat, I about puked right there, and of course at the time I didn't know anything about leather repair. But now I do and here it is.

Sand the area around the tear with a 240 grit sandpaper, this gives a little more for the low heat compound to grip to. Take a piece of underpatch material and slide the under patch under the tear with a pair of tweezers, allowing about a 1/2" on the inside all the way around. I usually cut my patches in a circular shape, it makes it a little easier to slide under. You can use different types of under patches, I like the kind that is coated on one side with a heat activated glue.

Now take a drop of leather glue and spread a thin coat on the patch on the underside of the leather repair area. If the leather will lay down smoothly and match up then great, but sometimes it just won't. In this case we will use combo of the glue and your low cure leather repair compound and smooth a small amount over the patch then lay the leather down. Spread a small amount of low heat compound over the area and smooth it out with your pallet knife, remembering to keeping your area as small as possible, the smaller the better. Now heat the area with your heat gun, hold the heat gun out away from the leather repair and slowly move it into the repair area, this will give you just a little more control of the heat, you don't want to burn and shrink the leather. The idea is to cure the compound and get it to adhere before you cook the leather, it's a skill thing, practice makes perfect. Once the compound is cured immediately press the grain pad in your palm onto the repair, don't press to hard, but firm.

Shearling Bomber Leather Jacket

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