So decided to begin the journey of leather restoration today. As a way of testing I've started with the steering wheel, handbrake handle and sport gear knob.
Not finished yet as I started quite late but thus far I've:
- cleaned
- degreased (interesting process for areas of high contact...paste applied turns to powder when it comes into contact with grease)
- used leather prep in a green abrasive pad to remove top coat of leather colour. Lots if elbow grease required here and with items being small it was a trifle fidgity.
- stage I'm at now is alcohol cleaning to remove any surface contaminants. Going by the amount of dirt and colour I'm extracting this could take a while
So once this is complete tomorrow's plan :
- apply filler to any areas that have any cuts or nicks.
- sand all surfaces with 1200 grit
- apply a few coats of leather bind to strengthen the leather
- dab on first coat of black, followed by airbrush of further 2 to 3. Use hairdryer to speed up trying between coats.
- apply satin lacquer using airbrush. Again most likely 3 coats.
I'll report back in with pics when I've completed my small scale test.