Can this leather spot be fixed/redyed?

[Richard Grasa]

`07 Audi A4, the driver seat had what appeared to be dirt right under where your butt would be. Took some Meg`s leather cleaner and started wiping a pot with medium pressure and up came the dye. This is the first time something like this has ever happened and I`m trying to figure out what to tell the customer. I don`t know if he bought this car new or used, but I`m thinking it was redyed at some point and what appeared to be dirt was the dye fading and when I rubbed it, it just came all the way up. Hopefully this pic tells the story, the spot is about an inch long. Can this be fixed and if so, for about how much? It looks worse in person and I am sick to my stomach now because of it.



http://i689.photobucket.com/albums/vv258/rgsales2k/IMG_20120707_125800.jpg

[Roger Koh]

Do you like to do it yourself?



I can help. . .





Roger Koh

info@leatherdoctor.com

[Richard Grasa]

Thanks Roger, but I have never done anything like that before so I don`t want this customer`s car to be my guinea pig. He was pretty upset when he saw it. I ate the cost of the full detail and gave him contact info for an auto leather shop near where he lives. I will probably pick up the cost of that too, or at least split it with him. He was very appreciative that I would do that.



Can anyone tell me what I can expect the cost of that repair to be?

[David Fermani]

Those kinds of things really suck, but they can be corrected with redying. Leather Dr. (Roger) can certainly help.



I suggest everyone read this article about this subject:



http://www.autopia.org/forum/guide-detailing/133702-beware-touched-up-leather.html

[Roger Koh]

The minimum cost woul be $150/- (that`s only for spot touch-up and if color match well).



Luster is also a consideration - and that this is achieve with going over the entire panel (extra cost).



The entire seat may have to strip-off foreign contamination to the original OEM finish (extra cost).



This may give you an idea, all depends on job scope.





It is worth learning how to repair such unavoidable incident when comes to auto detailing.



I will be able to walk you through, each steps.





Roger Koh

info@leatherdoctor.com

[Richard Grasa]

Ok, I will wait to see how much the estimate he gets is. If it`s alot I will ask him if he minds me doing it. If that happens I will be in touch Roger.

[David Fermani]

I wouldn`t dare pay for it. It`s not your fault. Unless it`s an obvious repair that you didn`t scope correctly, you can`t be held accountable if the seat was not repaired properly at one time. Who knows what was done, by who and what has been done to care for it since. I would have a leather repair technician take a close look at it to see if he can add some insight before offering anything to this client.

[Dan]

I agree with David. You aren`t responsible for crappy repair jobs or other leather problems. You used a chemical and process that didn`t affect the entire seat. I could see you eating the cost of the detail if you started on one seat and the whole seat started going south, but this is not your fault in any way.



In my experience, those sorts of things happen when something else has gotten onto the leather, weakened the factory dye and then when you clean it, it comes off. Spot repair is pretty easy to see from up close.

[Roger Koh]

Good idea, David; about having reexamined the cause of the problem.



Post large pictures, both close-up and overall view, I will be able to help out!

[David Fermani]

Exactly Roger - Rich, if you can post a bunch of pictures it will certainly help diagnose the cause and origin of this failure. Roger is very knowledgeable with these types of issues.

[Richard Grasa]

The car is already gone. I`m going to tell him to let me get in touch with the leather guy Monday to see what can be done. I will explain to the guy what happened and when he looks at it to let the customer know that I should not be responsible for the repair. I already ate $175 which I`m seeing now that I shouldn`t have, but I will take it as a lesson learned. We`ll see what happens after Monday.