Woolies leather renovation stuff

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firedrake1942
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Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

Has anyone used the Woolies leather renovation stuff? I have a Clarendon Grey 1957 four door with read leather seats. The seats are in decent condition with no tears on the squabs or backs but clearly showing their age. I do not want to replace them as they have a nice patina but would like to feed and spruce them up. Anyone with experience tips or before and after photos ?

JM
myoldjalopy
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by myoldjalopy »

Hi Jon,
Yes, I have used their product twice with very good results. Once on red leather seats like yours and once on green ones. In both cases the results were a massive improvement. As long as you follow the instructions carefully I'm sure you will be pleased! if the leather is good it will really pay to give them leather feed once a year or so.
Cheers,
Pete
firedrake1942
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

Pete, any before / after or even just after photos. ? I am more nervous of this than most mechanical work as cocking it uphill really spoil the look and feel of the car

jm
myoldjalopy
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by myoldjalopy »

The red seats were sold about 16 years ago, but the green ones are in my current car. I will try and get photo tomorrow for you....
Don't worry, you can't really cock a doodle diddley it up if you follow the instructions carefully - and they aren't complicated. All you need is supplied in the kit (including instructions) and its a case of clean/prep the leather, apply the dye (you may need more than the two coats they suggest if there are areas where the old dye has rubbed away altogether) and then seal the new dye in with the finishing paste and polish off! You can still apply feed afterwards, though it might pay to feed the leather after cleaning (although if you do, you will have to leave it a few/several days before applying the dye).
Remove the seats from the car so you can do this leisurely in a nice warm, spacious room at home, leaving things enough time to dry as required - its actually quite a pleasurable process and they will look really great afterwards!
firedrake1942
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

Absolute star !

jm
myoldjalopy
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by myoldjalopy »

Well, here are some pics....the seats were recoloured about three and a half years ago.........another tip is take the two parts of the front seats apart to make it easier. I think I got the sample for the colour match from the vinyl folded under one of the the front seat covers. They must do lots of 'red' dyes for Minors so it might be worth a phone call to see if there is an existing 'code' for the colour you need......
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firedrake1942
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

Many thanks, they look superb, mine have white piping but are otherwise similar in shape of seat and squab. I will definitely go for it. i will take some before and after pickies. Did you use it the vinyl backs and door cards too ?

jm
myoldjalopy
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by myoldjalopy »

No, the vinyl was in very good condition (it hadn't ever been sat on! :D )
myoldjalopy
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by myoldjalopy »

Oh, I should have said, Jon, that if your vinyl does need reviving, Woolies do a seperate vinyl paint. I'm not sure the leather colouring dye woukld 'take' to vinyl - hence the seperate product.
Cheers
Pete
firedrake1942
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

Many thanks. looks like two orders to woolies.....

jm
ian.mcdougall
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by ian.mcdougall »

Heres some pics of my seat restoration. New front seat covers needed as leather was too far gone new covers and door and quarter panel trims
the original colour was not available anymore so took their recommended colour sent a sample to woollies and they made dye for the leather and vinyl to match. Stripped off rear seat covers and added extra padding to seats and also to front seats as well
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Picture of seat back after cleaning
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picture after dying the vinyl pafrt of the seat
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rear seat leather done and seat back in car

ian.mcdougall
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by ian.mcdougall »

front seat back in car
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firedrake1942
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

Thats an incredible transformation. How difficult was it to strip the leather seats as mine are not in bad nick - they look like your back one before treatment? I am concerned that the leather may be hard and brittle . Did you feed it all with leather food at all before treating to make more supple?

How difficult was it to re pad the seats, which I believe are horsehair ?

JM
ian.mcdougall
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by ian.mcdougall »

I took plenty of pictures as i dismantled the seat covers. There were a lot of tacks holding the cover of the seat back to the wooden back. I got some seat padding from a local upholsterers and laid some over the original horsehair. Inside the seat cover you can see the pocket tubes that travel up the seat with stitching separating them i cut the bottom of the tube, without going through the leather face, cut some thinnish padding slightly smaller than the tube and a little longer than the tube and using a thin wooden stick and turning a small bit of padding over the top of the stick pushed it up the tube to the top and then trimmed the excess you may need to put two layers up together to get the correct look on the outside. hope that makes sense
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If you get the woollies kit it gives full instructions, but if I remember correctly then you clean, feed, dye, then seal, every thing comes in the kit, and every so often feed especially if the leather was very dry to start with
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I had to replace the hessian around the bottom of the seat squab as the old stuff had disintegrated it had to be stitched on and then i used cord to tension the cover using the springs. I got the needle, cord, hessian and padding from the same place.
This was for a series MM i assume your seats are constructed the same.
It will take a while to do but as long as you take photos before dismantling of how the covers are fixed and redo them the same it should work

firedrake1942
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

Superb. I will get too it on return from two week stint teaching in France. i will make sure i get the photos done. I much admired the patent Ian Macdougall seat restuffing technique.

jm
Mark Wilson
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by Mark Wilson »

Very impressive results. I'm changing most of the interior in my Traveller, but thinking of saving the good condition rear seat. Do any of you think that using dye to colour change porcelain green to biscuit would be effective? Is changing to a totally different and slightly lighter colour asking too much?

Mark
firedrake1942
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by firedrake1942 »

I drove up to Woolies to give Neddy (Minor) a run. Extremely helpful an i have cleaned the seats to day. The white piping which will never really be white again is markedly cleaner and the gunge that came off the vinyl and seats was amazing. I am going to clean again with toothbrush etc before painting.

I am going to have to take the squabs of the seats to a) repair and b) replace foam which is crumbling and the horsehair and c) to repaint the backseat stanchions

Ian, did you take the front seat squabs off ? The 57 series sets seem to be different from modern ones and have no pirelli straps but a thick bit of shaped foam and horsehair. The clips look removable but if you have any picks of the front seats being dismantled i would be grateful. I need to see what I need to replace , preferably before I take mine apart.

JM
ian.mcdougall
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by ian.mcdougall »

Hi
Unbolt the seat back from the base.The clips for the seat squab just pull off and underneath is the moulded foam sitting on a solid metal base,the foam has a lot of pockets and mine was quite soft and I decided to cut blocks of foam to fill them up to make a stiffer base worked very well but sometimes I think it is a bit too hard and bouncy. This is the easy part.
underneath of seat
underneath of seat
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underneath of foam
underneath of foam
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the foam base pockets filled
the foam base pockets filled
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ian.mcdougall
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by ian.mcdougall »

Now the hard bit.The seat back.
If yours is the same seat as mine, the cover slips over the frame BUT it is fixed with a lot of tacks at the bottom and you will need to take lots of photos to see how all the sections are folded over and pinned and in what order they are done, the seat sponge pockets were filled the same as the base. Look at your photo's and replace the tacks as per the original the tacks go into a thick piece of card and a piece of wood if I remember right. Remember to pull the material so that it is not floppy on both the back and base.
Hope all is clear
Tacks and the wood
Tacks and the wood
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folded over sections and their order
folded over sections and their order
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filled pockets
filled pockets
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ian.mcdougall
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Re: Woolies leather renovation stuff

Post by ian.mcdougall »

Seat back all finished and new tacks back in place all neat and tidy
all finished ready to be bolted to seat base
all finished ready to be bolted to seat base
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