Leather Refinisher & Color Restorer Quick Review

So, anyone with leather sport seats with the big side bolsters knows the leather finish on the bolsters tends to wear. For whatever reason, it’s just a vulnerable place. BMW M owners have been dealing with this for 20 years + and that’s kinda just how it goes.

Albeit not terrible, it’s happened to the driver’s side outer back bolster on my 2008 M Roadster. Other than that, leather is in really nice shape. It’s been like that for years. About 5 years ago or so I paid some leather dude to “fix it”. It was ok - but I always wanted a way to touch it up myself.

Again not bad, but annoying to me. You can see some scuzz where previous repair was done:

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I tried a kit a few years ago from a company called Furniture Clinic in the UK. Looking back - the kit sucked for this kinda thing. Too much adjustment for color/sheen you were expected to do at home by mixing stuff. I am no artist & couldn’t get it right. I just wanted something that was a 90% fix, easy to use, works on “black”, & no mixing.

For whatever reason, this seems to fall out of the common realm of detailing - even though leather touch up is super easy if you have the right product. The problem is obtaining the right product. Most detailing companies don’t touch this. Could be because many colors / shades are out there. I dunno.

So, I found this stuff on Amazon. $15 delivered. It had good reviews.

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What is it? It’s a small bottle of concentrated leather cleaner that seems like APC & a leather dye/paint. You can use it to color leather or just touch it up. It’s as simple as cleaning the leather and applying it with a sponge.

Directions:

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Stuff looks like this:

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After:

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The color I ordered was “black”. They have a bunch of colors & you can get multiples and mix them if you’re after perfection. My leather is not jet black; more like a dark charcoal. You have to trust me, but in person match looks better than photo. Not 100% but you would not notice it unless someone pointed it out. It’s a significant improvement and you do not see wear any longer. The problem is everywhere you point the camera on this there is a light reflection due to the sheen making differences more noticeable on camera.

Here is where dye meets original:

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Pic from above:

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I did up to the panel. You can see where it changes. Again, in picture it looks way more noticeable than to the naked eye. What I liked about this stuff is that it self levels & left no streaks. Stuff goes very far, you literally only need a few drops to do this whole panel.

All I did was clean the panel & smear some of this stuff on with a piece of sponge. I did 2 coats 24 hrs apart. After that I applied Poor Boys leather Stuff to the whole seat. The good news is none of the dye came off on the sponge with Leather Stuff; so it’s at least fairly durable.

No idea how long it will last. This stuff is so easy to apply it doesn’t really matter. Actually takes longer to clean the area. I’m sure if you took the time to mix and tint the color you could get it pretty much perfect. Since I know this area gets beat up and I will be reapplying sometime in the future - I may order gray next time and see if I can tint it down a shade.

Other than that this stuff is awesome. No idea who makes it. Doesn’t say. It’s from Amazon & doesn’t have the name of a parent company on it. Just that it’s distributed by some wood working company. This little jar has like a zillion applications for this type of repair. Goes far - think Solution Finish.

A highly recommended way to spend $15 if you have leather scuffs. People posted in reviews they have successfully used this on shoes, bags, jackets, etc.. Reviews are all positive as well.

Swanicyouth- Hey, sounds (and looks!) like you found a winner! Glad you brought it to our attention.

I gotta admit I was skeptical, especially after the typo on the Cleaner. BUT *NO*, it seems to be OK after all! I`m happy to be wrong about this one :D

With any luck it`ll hold up well, and even if it needs redone now and then, your "..so easy...it doesn`t really matter" says it all IMO.

If you do decide to mix up a perfect match, I`ll be interested to hear how that goes...like, do you mix it lighter/darker so it dries the shade you want, etc. etc.

I might have to try this... The piping on my red leather seats has worn off it`s color. The leather seems OK, just the forward edge that the piping creates gets worn.

Will post if I try to make a match myself, although im not usually good at that kind of thing.

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That looks fine. So what do think it is? It must be more than just a dye. Is it a vinyl coating? Did you wipe over the bare spots too or blotted it on first and then wiped it on the rest of that section?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DBAILEY

That looks fine. So what do think it is? It must be more than just a dye. Is it a vinyl coating? Did you wipe over the bare spots too or blotted it on first and then wiped it on the rest of that section?

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I did 2 coats on the whole panel. Goes on kinda like Solution Finish. Dries in a few mins & is easy to work with. Not finicky. Seems like some got sucked in leather where it was worn & some stayed in top like a paint. What`s important to me is the whole panel dried evenly, and I didn`t have to sand off the old co!or or clear coat and the sheen is pretty good. In person, nobody would notice a repair unless they were really looking for it.

No topper is suggested - which typically controls the sheen. Also, I`ve seen guys do this kinda work in the past with a little airbrush - which I guess is to try to avoid lap marks or streaks which wasn`t a problem with this stuff.

Best part of all is it literally takes 5 mins to do a panel. Longest part is just waiting for leather to dry after you clean it.

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For worn sections it might work better with a dab method than a wipe method. Just try and see which gives the best results.

I have a small streak that`s worn on my seat. I used vinyl interior paint and a Q tip to touch it up. For larger areas the Amazon product would probably work better.

Nicely done review

Thanks for the review. I might look into shades of tan from this brand.

Nice to know stuff like this exists and is affordable and checks out initially from your point of view.


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