leather cracking? - need advice

Seems like a wear and tear effect. Since the bolsters are only being leaned on the flexing, over time,, seems to have caused the coating or dye to crack.

Never looked like the bolster was dirty because there was no change in appearance after using Leatherique.

Only thing to do is redye and or recoat. Other option is just live with it knowing you`ve done what you can .
 
if you are thinking about doing a dye job yourself, check out youtube for a bunch of good videos on what is involved, such as cleaning prep, sanding, filling, dye application, sealing, etc. there are numerous repair kits out there.
 
I think dye is the option now. Its not actually cracked, well it kinda is but its so small that I think filling those little crevices with the dye will make it much less visible. I don`t think its at the point of filling and sanding.....at least I hope not.

Decided to go with Leather/Vinyl Recoloring Kit for a dye kit. 59.95

They had the oem color in stock. How-to video is as easy as it gets. Clean, apply dye, let sit for 24 hours before use...will post results
 
Benz -

Personally, if you`re going to coat it, let a pro do it. They don`t work out of kits and have a van full at their arsenal.

IMO, leave it alone. You`re leather texture looks smooth. Which is to to your advantage, as with texture leather, coating makes the area more smooth than the OE texture. The lines in your original seat are already worn. It only ~gets worse~ over time. Kinda like crinkles in your skin ya know.....

Anyhow, by coating it, it`s kinda like a ~glaze~ for the root issue. It will mask it, it will hide it. Will your new coated seats color match the rest of the leather in the rest of the car after redye with your kit ? And or you planning to dye the entire front so there`s a level of consistency in color. Over time, with just the usual wear-tear, the *cracks* will telegraph through your new topcoat. It will not show as much, but eventually it will show....

When you do a water wipedown, you can kinda see the cracks more pronounced.. YMMV.

Leather coating is similar to polishing. There is only so much you can do...
 
Appreciate the info. I got in touch with a mobile leather repair service that came highly recommenced. After sending them pics and the info of what I already did, their recommendation for service was to dye it. They come to your home and match the color in their van. They wanted 150$ to dye both those sections. I`m not sure if that was the whole seat or just the problematic areas that get the dye. I decided to buy to the leather dye kit myself for 60$ and just try to "touch-up" the cracking areas. I don`t expect a miracle, just hoping for the cracking to be less visible
 
Don`t touch up the cracking areas. Either coat the entire bolster sectionally It`s like body panel paint...except even in this, you don`t blend...good bodyshops also paint match. Not just grab the color code and spray.
If you can live with a color mismatch, then do as your please.....

If you can`t LIVE with a color mismatch, that at least make the fronts uniform and dye all the leather in the front. DS/PS
I guess it depends on how golden your eyes are....

Again, over time, sooner rather than later, the cracks will transfer-transference and will under the new coat.....
 
OP. What color is the stitching on the passenger side on all that beige leather...
Is it brown or a mix of brown and beige.
If it`s ALL brown (whereas in your original DS, it shows brown and beige), that`s a telltale sign your seats have been sprayed prior to sale...

That might shed some light on how it looks now from the time it looked good before the wear shows again
 
mobiledynamics said:
OP. What color is the stitching on the passenger side on all that beige leather...
Is it brown or a mix of brown and beige.
If it`s ALL brown (whereas in your original DS, it shows brown and beige), that`s a telltale sign your seats have been sprayed prior to sale...

That might shed some light on how it looks now from the time it looked good before the wear shows again
Click to expand...

Super late reply...the stitching on the seats is supposed to be white acutally but it has gotten dirty and now its browinsh..yuck

I tried the leatherworldtech dye kit. Cleaned the area with the prep cleaner and pad, applied 4 light coats of the dye with the sponge (about 30 minutes apart) waited the 24 hours to buff if it out and didnt even notice a difference. Almost like the dye wouldnt adhere to the cracks. I will say the dye is perfect match to the oem color.

Called leatherworldtech and they said that I probably need some filler so they sent some for free. They suggested adding a little bit of dye to the filler to help with blending later. They also suggested that I should wait 24 hours between coats.

Maybe Im being to picky here and Im not expecting perfection but I just wanted those spider cracks to appear less visable.

BEFORE


AFTER PREP CLEANER


24 HOURS AFTER 4 LIGHT COATS
 
Not sure if the OP is still responding, but I had the same problem with my CLS-550. Basically the seats have heat / cooling and are made with tiny holes so they breath. Over time "leather" gets very hard and brittle and lexol etc etc, couldn`t get them back after they started cracking. They eventually got a small tear that lead to a big tear. The quickest and easiest fix was to just buy some replacement sections from ebay as the back, bottom, and sides all come out in pieces and can be replaced pretty easily.
 
That`s a pro bono post right thereLGHT. Some seats don`t even come in OE covers replacement parts....and if you are OE focused, you need to buy a whole new seat, foam and all !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top