Leather disaster

[iangotts]

I had a company come and refurbish the leather. The photos on the website looked good. The guy doing the work talked a good story. 5 hours later the car is a disaster. The aim was to keep the same colour, just refurbish the leather. The pale beige/grey colour is now a patchwork of original and darker grey. Some of the darker grey is rubbing off. I am embarrassed to open the door in case anyone looks inside.

To be honest I don;t like the original colour, so would prefer it were either beige or grey.

Options seems to be
- get the dye removed and get another company to do the job properly (but original colour looks like a dirty beige)
- replace the interior with a nice set of beige interior
- get the original retrimmed

However, I'd prefer not to spend a fortune on the interior, but it can;t stay as it is.

Thoughts. Can anyone recommend a company they trust? How long (and how difficult) is it to replace the interior including the dash?

[KevW]

I'm very sorry to hear about your trouble Ian. My half leather interior was successfully re-coloured with a kit from http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/ . Providing your "restorer" used a water-based dye product and not paint, as I saw one professional using on the Bentley episode of the TV programme Wheeler Dealers, I would have thought it could be removed with careful use of elbow grease.

I have read some very good things about http://furnitureclinic.co.uk/?gclid=CPe ... fAodvmJUPg although I have no personal experience of their system. They have franchises around the country. See http://marcosforum.org/reply/27040/Leat ... eply-27040 as an example. Why not give them a call for some advice?

As for a full re-trim I would love to have that carried out on my car but I know the cost would run into £thousands.

[iangotts]

Thanks. It was water based dye so looks like lots of effort over the next few weekends

[royal]

I used Gliptone to refresh my leather you can buy a complete kit to clean, recolour and condition the leather. and the conditioner leaves a lovely aroma of leather. I use the conditioner on my leather every couple of months keeps it nice and supple. liquidleather.com. They have an extensive library of colours to match your leather or send them a sample of your leather and they will colour match it.

Keith

[AndyC]

You could try contacting Nick Fulcher as he may have some of the original colour in cellulose form so could 9after the water based has been removed) patch up the faded areas.

[MattDebbage]

Really sorry to hear your troubles
Surely though, as a professional company they have a liability to put it right? I mean if they wrecked it they should sort it, even if it means they have to pay for a retrim - thats what liability insurance is for?
Might be worth paying for 30 minutes with a solicitor before you go any further.
Matt.

[amarshall]

Ian - can you show us some photos of before & after please ? The original colour sounds a bit unusual.

That said, before you take any other action you really need to give the person who did the work a chance to put it right (in law, this is pretty much a requirement before you can get any other work done on it).

[iangotts]

Before and after.. The difference in colour once it dried is huge (look at the door panel where I started to clean the overspray and the dye came straight off. This was not asked for. I simply wanted to have the leather treated. I clearly fell for the "Don't worry it will look fine when it dries" line.



I have given the company plenty of chance to put it right. Mulitple phone calls and emails. The company subcontracted to a local guy. The answer from the company was, in summary "You clearly asked the guy on site to change the colour. You didn't pay for that, so talk to the guy who did the work" ie 'not my problem'. They have offered to send some strong dye remover so that I can remove the current dye.

But this is not about my fight with the company. I can deal with that. But more about options moving forward. I am happy to put in the time to clean off the original dye. It is water based so should be easy to remove, so we are back to square one.

[amarshall]

"You clearly asked the guy on site to change the colour. You didn't pay for that, so talk to the guy who did the work" ie 'not my problem'.

Did you ask him to do that ? If you did, did he warn that it might not be very successful ?

If no to either of these questions, Consumer Direct have some very good form letters which usually provoke the right reaction.

[MattDebbage]

That is horrendous.
I cant believe a professional would leave a mess like that
Good luck sorting it - i hope it works out.

[amarshall]

Rather than going down the full retrim route - this might be the easier(!) and less costly option : http://www.lotusbits.com/excel_body.htm ... or_trim_SE

[iangotts]

I definitely didn't ask for a change in colour - I said to the guy "You know your business. Make it look better/like new". And I let him get on with it. I had my doubts after he had finished, but he said "Give it 24 hours to let it dry / be absorbed".

On the brighter side, all the other things about the car have been very positive; MOT with just rear discs replaced; drives beautifully esp. on long runs; loads of complimentary comments etc etc.

So this is just a blip in the overall project. New alloys should arrive this week )

[amarshall]

I definitely didn't ask for a change in colour - I said to the guy "You know your business. Make it look better/like new". And I let him get on with it. I had my doubts after he had finished, but he said "Give it 24 hours to let it dry / be absorbed".

Form letter generator, quoting relevant legislation : https://consumer-tools.direct.gov.uk/co ... vices_new/

If they fail to address it within the time limit, refer to Trading Standards and/or solicitor.

[iangotts]

Brilliant - thanks for all your support

[tonypoll]

Another vote for http://www.liquidleather.com/ .
I used their Scuffmaster Automotive Kit with great results. Cost ~ £77. Excellent value.
Admittedly I kept the same colour (Excel SE Hethel Celb’ ’91 l/tan).
FYI - I removed the front seats, took them apart, cleaned and preped them as per the instructions, then sprayed the colour & finish.
No problems, and easy to do. Just take time between applications, as instructed.
Now the front seats look like new, and match the rarely used rear seats which I did not restore.
From the way their kit worked I would expect that if you sent them a sample of the original colour (e.g. from under a seat) they will supply a colour match which will completely fix the currently blotchy finish.

Tony