Seat bolster repair

[Oldcarguy]

While I love my cocoa sports seats, 14 years of various POs ‘in and out’ has taken its toll, especially on the driver’s seat side and shoulder bolsters (and broken lower seat frame, but that’s for another time).

My 986 is a driver and I’m not a big fan of too much collector ‘patina’, so I decided to go with a leather repair kit. After researching the various repair kit alternatives (they all seem similar to me) I went with ‘Magic Mender’. Hokey name for a complete product line that worked great for me. Here are the before and after pics:





The cocoa ‘colorflex’ is a dead-on color and texture match. I still need to apply the black top glaze to achieve the closest ‘mottled look’ match to the original leather finish but frankly 99% of people seeing the car in person don’t notice unless I point out the difference.

I have a good bit of experience with these types of products so if you’re going to give a product like this a try and you’ve never performed this type of repair, practice first on something other than your Porsche!

As always, YMMV.


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[KevinH1990]

Thanks for the tip. I picked up some used seats to put in a 2005 Mercedes that I use as a daily driver and the driver's side bolster needs a repair.



There is also a small tear in the passenger seat bottom and a gouge in one of the headrests.






It looks like Magic Mender can handle the bolster repair, but do you think it can help with the gouge and tear?

By the way, if you need parts to repair your seat base, I have two seat bases in my garage that are left over from a seat upgrade project. One is powered and the other isn't. Let me know if you need anything and I will send you pictures.

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by KevinH1990

Thanks for the tip. I picked up some used seats to put in a 2005 Mercedes that I use as a daily driver and the driver's side bolster needs a repair.

There is also a small tear in the passenger seat bottom and a gouge in one of the headrests.

It looks like Magic Mender can handle the bolster repair, but do you think it can help with the gouge and tear?

By the way, if you need parts to repair your seat base, I have two seat bases in my garage that are left over from a seat upgrade project. One is powered and the other isn't. Let me know if you need anything and I will send you pictures.

You’re welcome. The toughest part for your bolster will be the seams, stitches and area between the stitches. I was lucky that I only needed to repair up to the stitch and not in the area between the stitches. Both the repair compound and the colorflex will obscure the seam, seam ditches and stitches (not reversible after the products take a set). Also, the colorflex is not suitable for redying the stitches. There are some videos on u-tube that show how you can deal with this (basically shave the fuzzies off of the stitches, tape them with a good pin stripe painting tape, apply repair compound, smooth, remove tape before the compound sets, re-smooth, retape, apply colorflex, remove tape before colorflex sets, redye the stitches with fabric dye). Practice first, then practice some more!

The gouge and the tear are actually easier than dealing with the bolster seams. Just check the how to videos online. The technique is the same for many of these products so you’re not limited to Magic Mender videos. You will not be able to match other than smooth leather textures without locating some leather impression pads which are made specifically not to bond with the repair compound. IIRC, the M-B kit used in-house has these texture pads. Sorry, I don’t have a lead for these kits. Again, practice is the key.

Thanks for the offer on the seat base. Unfortunately I won’t be able to tackle that project until next spring. I’ll check with you then to see if you still have anything available.

[grc0456]

Those Cocoa sport seats look great!

I also recently did my seats. This was the second time in 3 years. The first job (with a different product/system) originally looked great, but the repair didn’t hold up well. I had bad flaking and cracking in the bolster areas.

This time I tried the Color-Plus system. It wasn’t cheap ($172), but the results- so far - are great. Not Concours quality, but good enough for me. It was a 4-day job due to required drying times between steps. I was very impressed with their softener/conditioner - the seats feel butter soft. And the “SurFlex” color was a perfect match to my Savanna Beige (99.85% accurate to the swatch I sent them according to their analysis).

I did not take any “before” shots this time, but this one was before the first repair with the other product.



These are the after the Color-Plus treatment.




You can get more info by going to their site, or calling Joanne there.

https://colorplus.com/


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[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by grc0456

Those Cocoa sport seats look great!

I also recently did my seats. This was the second time in 3 years. The first job (with a different product/system) originally looked great, but the repair didn’t hold up well. I had bad flaking and cracking in the bolster areas.

This time I tried the Color-Plus system. It wasn’t cheap ($172), but the results- so far - are great. Not Concours quality, but good enough for me. It was a 4-day job due to required drying times between steps. I was very impressed with their softener/conditioner - the seats feel butter soft. And the “SurFlex” color was a perfect match to my Savanna Beige (99.85% accurate to the swatch I sent them according to their analysis).

I did not take any “before” shots this time, but this one was before the first repair with the other product.

These are the after the Color-Plus treatment.

You can get more info by going to their site, or calling Joanne there.

https://colorplus.com/

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Thanks GRC, I’m really pleased with the initial results. Very supple and flexible at this point. I hope it holds up well. I’m going to check out colorplus also. Good to have alternative options in hand and your seats look great!

[Lapister]

Very nice, great job!

[KevinH1990]

I am planning to purchase this kit for my seat repair https://www.leatherrepairkits.com/quick-rep/?make=Mercedes&color=Anthracite%20(Black)&item=7315

It appears to have everything I need. I plan to give the seats a thorough cleaning before starting the repair. I may decide to re-dye the entire seat to ensure a good color match. Because the seats are out of the car I may use a Preval sprayer for even coverage. https://store.preval.com/collections/preval-sprayer/products/preval-sprayer?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjMSc4Kj53AIVxYizCh26OAxd EAQYBCABEgLS7PD_BwE&variant=188709532

Please let me know what you think.

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by KevinH1990

I am planning to purchase this kit for my seat repair https://www.leatherrepairkits.com/quick-rep/?make=Mercedes&color=Anthracite%20(Black)&item=7315

It appears to have everything I need. I plan to give the seats a thorough cleaning before starting the repair. I may decide to re-dye the entire seat to ensure a good color match. Because the seats are out of the car I may use a Preval sprayer for even coverage. https://store.preval.com/collections/preval-sprayer/products/preval-sprayer?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjMSc4Kj53AIVxYizCh26OAxd EAQYBCABEgLS7PD_BwE&variant=188709532

Please let me know what you think.

I would definitely order a bottle of Presto Prep cleaner (instead of the included wipes) to use after the Dawn dishwashing soap & rinse and before applying the Repair compound to assure good bonding. They also sell sample bottles of the Colorflex if you want to be sure the color match will be ok.

You could also consider the Crosslink bonding promoter. I don’t have any experience with the crosslink product, so I can’t comment on its ease of use or results. You can find these products under their ‘full line’ link.

I’ve used Preval sprayers in the past with decent results, but never to apply Colorflex.

As with all things regarding paint application - preparation is everything, several light coats are better than a few heavy coats (for the repair compound as well as the Colorflex), make sure your technique is solid and know how the products behave during application, drying and post application correction.

Just be sure to practice, there’s an art to doing this well!

[grc0456]

The original kit I used included a preval sprayer. You definitely will want to practice your technique a few times before you spray the color on. It's very easy to get some "spitting" of larger droplets, and even some dripping.



FWIW, my original kit through an outfit called ColorMagic was in the same pricing ballpark as the one you may go with, and I note one similarity is there is no conditioner/softener step. IMO, this is the key step for long lasting results. You want that leather under the color to be as soft and pliable as possible.



Good luck!

[Geof3]

Originally Posted by grc0456

Those Cocoa sport seats look great!

I also recently did my seats. This was the second time in 3 years. The first job (with a different product/system) originally looked great, but the repair didn’t hold up well. I had bad flaking and cracking in the bolster areas.

This time I tried the Color-Plus system. It wasn’t cheap ($172), but the results- so far - are great. Not Concours quality, but good enough for me. It was a 4-day job due to required drying times between steps. I was very impressed with their softener/conditioner - the seats feel butter soft. And the “SurFlex” color was a perfect match to my Savanna Beige (99.85% accurate to the swatch I sent them according to their analysis).

I did not take any “before” shots this time, but this one was before the first repair with the other product.



These are the after the Color-Plus treatment.




You can get more info by going to their site, or calling Joanne there.

https://colorplus.com/


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Seats looks awesome! Really nice job and something I need to consider. But! Need to post smaller pics. Makes the thread hard to read!

[grc0456]

Yeah, my bad - didn't know they would be so big!