The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hello all,

Heather and I are finally getting round to re-covering the driver's seat (making the most of the F1 summer shut-down!). I've got new fabric, but am re-using the old leather.

Some of the leather has surface cracks, so the raw leather beneath is showing, like in the photo below of the outer side panel of the seat back. Any suggestions on how to get this looking OK? I've seen some of the products on-line that seem to require you to sand all the old colour off and apply new colour - that's going way too far. What I'm after is something that I can apply to the existing finish that will disguise the cracks. I'm wondering if everyday shoe polish (of the right-ish shade) would do the trick? Or does any one have any experience of specialist products that aren't too much of a palaver to use?

You can get a filler that can be wiped in to the cracks. This can either be coloured before application or afterwards I believe. Check the usual suspects (Woolies, gliptone, furniture medic) and they should have videos on this or just google leather seat restoration or similar. I think metblue might have done this on his drivers seat.

Cheers, Richard

Never mind - Martrim have some clearance hides @ £120 per hide (4.5-5m2), I’ll just get new leather!

Won’t match the other leather (which is in serviceable condition), but I think it will look good together.

Ooo, maybe I could do a leather headlining ?

You can get some dye made to match your interior and recolour the new leather - have a look at Metblues post (the long one). He used some black leather and recoloured to match.

. Metblues post (the long one).

I've been preparing another 'long one' about the recolouring and drivers seat repair recently done. Prompted by Richards question, I'll get it posted, but I agree with Richard he's made the right choice on buying a new hide or two.

I'd be tempted though to recolour it to match the original leather. I used furniture clinic and happy to lone you an air brush and compressor.

Tony

The fabric I'm using is a totally different colour to the original, the hide I've bought is (hopefully) close-ish to the fabric. I'll live with the seats being different to the door cards etc., as long as it's consistent I think it'll look "meant".