Seat Frame Repair and Woolies Leather Renovation

[Pete Boole]

Brilliant job Bryan! Well worth the effort. Car looks great.

Pete

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Great job Bryan (sorry it's 4 years later!). Hope it's still looking good 4 years on.

I'm marking this thread with a reply so I can find it more easily.

I have the front driver's seat out doing the clutch master cylinder and I need to renovate JUST one small section of the Sand leather at hip level. Hoping to get Woolies to match a shade darker than you did, as I only want to do the one small hip section where you slide into the seats with jeans on (pocket studs or hip pocket button doing the damage). I'm following a paint refinishers advice on colour matching, where he said a shade darker looks less mismatched than a shade lighter. The rest of the interior is otherwise original pristine Sand leather, so I don't want to do a full recoat. Luckily I already have a compressor and a mini spray gun.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Thanks to Bryan who sent me some of his Woollies Lotus SAND No 30131 leather recon stuff.

This is the only damage to my leather, caused by the PO 25 years ago.



Only used a cap full of leather paint. I applied it with a tiny paint brush into the cracks, then immediately smudged it with my thumb. I thought it might be too light, but when it had properly dried it's a near perfect match.
In future, rather than sending a leather sample to Woollies, I wouldn't hesitate to quote the Woollies colour No 30131 for Lotus SAND if I were to order a kit for myself.

I'll be sending everything back to you this week, Bryan. Thanks for your generosity and advice on the process.

[Hawaiis0]

Great Result. Team work

[AndrewWebber]

Does anyone know if this would be the colour of leather in my 1978 built Elite? It looks like it could be in the photo's but?

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Does anyone know if this would be the colour of leather in my 1978 built Elite? It looks like it could be in the photo's but?

The SAND is a bit creamy in reality. Some of the Lotus light colour cream/whites are quite a bit whiter than SAND. Maybe post a photo on here for a consensus guess job? BTW, I'd say the dribble on the bottle is the best reference for when dry (on my monitor). The seat photo colour varies with the light /shade etc (on my monitor, the seat/bum area on the lower photo looks a tad lighter than reality).

Great Result. Team work

Bryan is a true gent. And is clever too!

[Pete Boole]

It may be similar but the Elite leather has a cellulose paint and the later ones are synthetic - not sure how they might react.

Pete

[barker_001]

Does anyone know if this would be the colour of leather in my 1978 built Elite? It looks like it could be in the photo's but?

The SAND is a bit creamy in reality. Some of the Lotus light colour cream/whites are quite a bit whiter than SAND. Maybe post a photo on here for a consensus guess job? BTW, I'd say the dribble on the bottle is the best reference for when dry (on my monitor). The seat photo colour varies with the light /shade etc (on my monitor, the seat/bum area on the lower photo looks a tad lighter than reality).

Great Result. Team work

Bryan is a true gent. And is clever too!

Peter, you've got me blushing now! So glad it worked out for you. Andy W, I would still be tempted to send Woolies a sample and get them to match it, it's a free service. I think the main reason Peter managed to match it so well is that our cars appear to have had the same leather, since they are within a year of each other. What is cream / sand / whatever is very subjective...