Some great progress made last night.
The saga of the interior
Here, revealed to the whole world is the "easily repaired" seat. Deemed so by the previous owner. He was even kind enough to supply me with a sowing set to do it.
Not going to lie, it did come in handy for other things.
On top of this, he attempted to "re-dye" the leather, probably due to Jazzy's comments when he went to see the car
. No prep, just slapped the stuff on with a brush, filled the perforations and just overall looked ready for the bin.... which is where it is now.
A retrim was in order.
The finished... for now... article.
Overall a good job. But I'm picky.... loose and wrinkly in places, the perforation isn't exactly the same (new is a through cut circle whilst the original was more of an indented diamond pierce), extra joint put in the front and the colour was off. Too well done you could say, it was gonna stick out like a sore thumb.
So come to the decision that the passenger seat (which needed some repair & a re-dye on the base anyway) was to get retrimmed also. An expensive decision but I feel it had to be done. Both seats are currently with the retrimmer, the drivers is getting tightened up and headrest made smaller &c.
As can be seen under artificial light, the sheen that the leather has gathered over the years is also a problem.
So two new front seats, pure class, as we say in Northern Ireland. But the original interior has the same sheen & also the colour is still that shade off.
Leather Repair Company to the rescue.
I didn't want to come to this point.... but....
Useless photo but it gets the point across.. Interior fully stripped out. which meant discovering the rotten seatbelt brackets. Lotus Bits to the rescue.
But back to LRC.
They are the boys. Great stuff.
Sent of a sample of the new leather and ordered the Leather Colourant Dye Repair Kit 1L.
The leather prep is magic stuff. Just look at the colour difference of the grab handle.
Set to the prepwork. Scotch-brite & Leather Prep all over, no need to remove all existing dye, just enough to get rid of grime and a good clean surface to stick to.
Then I went over all the stitching with Winsor & Newton Masking Liquid with a fine brush.
I had dyed various bits already with the stuff the previous owner had, using a sponging method. It worked, but took a long time. So spraying it is.
BEFORE
(This was the good door card
AFTER
DURING
Close up of the rear seat
Finished off with a laquer, LRC give you two bottles, Matt & Gloss, you mix them to your preference. I found that the straight Matt left a white haze so mixed a little of the gloss in, a slight sheen but finishes the leather well.
Hopefully this liquid masking works well. Will attempt to remove it tonight. Don't know how but we'll figure it out.
Happy with the outcome. It's a good match to the new leather & the matt(ish) finish is less tacky looking.
Re-dying the dash in situ is the next mission.
. So I just left it. Your paint looks great but when I saw it it looked flat. I ended up buying something else but you look like you are doing an amazing job. Well done. 
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