door card paint

[kenny38]

I called in to the local trimmer recently to enquire about getting some new leather on the seats. Well appears you can't get the glossy black skins now so a black/grey colour will have to do. Apparently the leather eventually blends in OK. I pointed to my door cards which though very sound are a bit discoloured in places. Patina!? I asked whether he could spray or whatever but after casually spitting gum near my shoe..."nah.Just fffing replace the leather, mate, cos I don't do that as no b....d is ever 'appy." Now if I want to I can releather but the leather is good.
How does one "paint" the door cards? I did think about getting a can of black spray. Should i just take up the offer of retrimming? I walked away and found I had trodden on the gum which was a nasty little job getting off as were heavy hiking boots. Now i can agree with my forth best friend, Tony Cope, re Neats Foot oil. I have been using it for many years and you have to keep pouring it on and rubbing it in until it doesn't pool anymore. Surprising how much it takes.
It is,though, for saddles so you won't get a nice new leather smell. The process is very much "Ghost" with wet clay etc and can lead to erotic thoughts that perhaps you have not had for quite some time. Advice please. Kenny38

[rolando38]

just imagine how the oil is extracted from Ox shoes and the according smell it has before been purified and I can assure the erotic dreams will quickly fade away Kenny
if they still persist, maybe the use of bromide might be of help

[RAP72]

Kenny

you could try emailing the guy who has just done mine colin@leather-restoration.co.uk

this is what he did the rear cards were very bad and I didn't want new ones so he managed to repair the broken leather and soften it again

[AndrewP]

Hi Kenny,

You are in the same neck of the woods as me (albeit a few thousand K's between us).

I re-did all my interior, as whilst the leather was dry, it hadnt cracked in my Interceptor.

So..what I did was you need to strip the old colour off or at least give the new colour a good grease free, surface to bind to. If your leather is good then this is what I did:

I used the a company in the UK called liquid leather. No affiliation, and watch as they try and charge you UK VAT @ 20% but a good product.

Strip the colour off with thinners. Its very drastic but gets rid of the colour quickly. Use a soft nail brush to get into the piping and the tricky areas.

Once you have cleaned the colour off, then feed it until it can take no more. Various options here, but I used neatsfoot oil. Readily available at saddlers and horsey places.
Use a soft cloth or sponge to apply and keep going until the leather stops absorbing the oil and it begins to sit on the surface. Better still is to, on a hot day apply the oil and pop the bit you are doing (door card for example) in a black bin liner and sit it in the sun. It will make the leather sweat and all the grot and grime lifts to the surface, and then you can wipe it down, and re-apply until it can take no more.
The leather will be nice and supple after this.

Then, wipe it down with a cleaner. Glycerine is good for this and gentler than an alcohol based product.

Then, when you are ready, follow the re-dye instructions. I ended up applying the first 2 coats with a soft sponge and the final top coat with an airbrush to get a nice matt/Satin finish.

You can buy as much or as little as you need and go from there.

I think Ive posted these before, but I had to find another door card as mine was far too gone to rescue.
This is what the salvaged cards looked like before:

Door cards - Before.jpg (74.12 KiB) Viewed 2216 times

And after the treatment

Door card - After.jpg (55.13 KiB) Viewed 2216 times

Quite a difference

Hope it helps

Andrew

[johnw]

Well, it sounds like you are in luck if your interior is black. Wait until the neats foot oil has soaked in. Maybe wipe it dry and then leave the door car in the sun for a couple of hours. You could try some black shoe cream on it. I used to use MELTONIAN black, but that is now discontinued. Worked well. It just stains tears and scratched areas black. Give it a good polish and you are away. If you are fussy, a couple of weeks later, finish off the door card with some quality leather food containing bees wax. This is to reduce the dye from the polish coming off on someone's white dress, for example.
I think the main reason professional leather suppliers don't rebadge stuff like this is that some of it comes off on clothes during the first month or so.

If you have a black leather interior, with Neats Foot oil, and repairs to tears from the back (or new bits of leather), localised use of connolising like spray over the top of repaired/filled tears, you can have a presentable interior that basically lasts indefinitely. The main thing is to stop it going mouldy if you overdo the neats foot oil. Keep a check and wipe off the first signs. Once it gets reasonably supple, you can stop. You will find that the oil in the leather will continue to make it more supple for months after the initial application. 6 months or so on, and after a couple of days parked in the sun, the neats foot smell will be gone, and the coconut matting and leather smell you are used to will start to return.

This is a bit like Andrew's approach above, but with quite a few shortcuts due to your leather being black.

[Mark1Stu]

My MK1 Interceptor interior hasn't been reconnolised.

I use Grison Leather balm to lift the colour (albeit its a black interior). Puts a nice sheen on the leather and the dye in it covers up local bold spots (I might try it on my head). If you get it on your hands, you'll need bleach to remove it. And all the excess balm needs to be polished off the seats or it'll get on your clothes.

From my perspective a quick an easy mid step before you embark on reconnolising an interior.