90 Ls400 Leather

[candy coated lexus]

i have a 90 ls400 with blue interior.. :P the car interior is in great condition other than the glove box. 2 front seats, front arm rest and the carpet on the bottom of the front passengers is missing carpet on the bottom. should i just buy the pieces and replace them or have them reupholstered?

[wwest]

i have a 90 ls400 with blue interior.. :P the car interior is in great condition other than the glove box. 2 front seats, front arm rest and the carpet on the bottom of the front passengers is missing carpet on the bottom. should i just buy the pieces and replace them or have them reupholstered?

Ebay...

[dthouston]

If the leather is still salvageable, and you don't mind a considerable amount of manual labor, you may want to consider re-dyeing your leather. After considerable investigation, I found a company named Leatherique (www.leatherique.com) that sells a good leather re-dyeing kit

I'm about 75% finished with re-dyeing all the seats in my '90 LS400 using one of the Leatherique kits, and I must say that the results are absolutely spectacular! I was really afraid that the seats would look 'painted', but I swear that they're just as soft and supple as when they were new (actually, maybe a bit softer), and the grain still shows like new. Even the 1/2 dozen major cracks on the driver's seat are almost invisible (filled using the crack filler that came in my kit).

I shipped Leatherique a small sample swatch I found on the underside of the rear seat, and they did a color-match (although the sample wasn't as faded as my seats, so the color is a bit more "bold").

A few of words of caution if you decide to do this:

Buy a lot more of the "surface prep" (a mild stripper) solution than comes in their kit. I ended-up using about 4X the amount that was supposed to be necessary to do all the seats (and it isn't cheap). Maybe I was trying to remove too much of the old dye, but I just don't see how you could make-do with the small amount they ship. They ship plenty of the conditioner and the actual dye itself.

Don't sand until you start making suede! (the stripping step involves wet-sanding with 400 grit, so keep it wet and go lightly; let the surface prep solution remove the old dye)

Use an artist's air-brush to apply the new dye. Apply it "dry" (ie, very light coats) and expect to spend a good deal of time rubbing-out the roughness. For the final rub-out, I used 1000, then 1500, then 2000 grit sandpaper - buy at an auto parts store - and finally cheesecloth. If you put the dye on "wet" (ie, heavy, using a brush or rag), you may fill the grain.

Don't attempt to change colors (if you do, you'll need probably 10X the amount of surface prep!)

Expect to spend at LEAST 4 hours per seat. It's a multi-weekend project, and you'll need to pull the seats (just four bolts on each of the fronts, but you may need an impact wrench).

My total cost so far is around $300 (including the extra surface prep solution and lots of 400/600/1000/1500/2000 grit sandpaper). I good Paasche air-brush and compressor would be another $300.

But new leather upholstery will run you around $3200 (even at the hole-in-the-wall places here in Houston). I did find a site on the 'net that sells replacement leather seat covers, but they would have been $1200 plus another $600 to install them. And I worry that they wouldn't fit nearly as well as the original leather.

BTW: I have absolutely no business relation with Leatherique, other than as a customer

DT