[jeffb335]

Just thought I would post my experience using leatherique "dye" (really more like paint) to touch up the wear on my E92s driver side bolster. Ive seen a lot of leatherique full color changes/restorations but I just wanted to do a spot touch up to keep my bolster from getting any worse. My car is pretty much spotless so the wear on my driver seat was starting to bother me, and it was accelerating since the top coat had worn through in a few places.

I ordered the kit from leatherique and they sent me dye based on my intereior color code, I tested it and the color was way off so per their directions I cut off a sample (found a tiny piece on the bottom of the back seat I could cut off....not much extra leather on these cars!), sent the dye back with the sample so that leatherique could make a custom color, exact match.

I read up about different techniques on their website and ended up doing the "wipe dye" method and feathered it into the existing color over many thin coats, so I didnt do the entire panel. I also used the dye on a few small scratches/defects/wear points elsewhere in my interior, example: the console edge next to the ebrake where repeated strikes with the seatbelt male latch had worn off some of the color.

It came out VERY good. Color match is pretty much perfect, any color variance you see in the pics is from the lighting conditions, part natural light, part garage lighting, different times of day, etc... The texture is slightly different as the worn leather+leatheriqe makes for a slightly smoother surface, but I gave it a light sanding with a scotch-brite later and got it even closer to stock. Compared to what it looked like before its a 95% improvement.....

Pictures are worth a thousand words!....before and afters:

[Meeni]

How much did you pay for the paint ?

[N8N]

Thank you for posting this, I have a similar tiny wear spot and was considering doing the exact same thing. Your pics are convincing me that I can really do this!

[jeffb335]

Originally Posted by Meeni

How much did you pay for the paint ?

I think it was around $100 for the "kit", but that included leatherique's other conditioning products as well, the rejuvenator oil, pristine clean cleaner, dye prep solution, and dye. So I used the oil and cleaner on my entire interior, there are plenty of other posts here about that though so I didnt go into it here.....After this little project I DID order a bunch more of the oil and cleaner, need to do my wifes X5 now!

Originally Posted by N8N

Thank you for posting this, I have a similar tiny wear spot and was considering doing the exact same thing. Your pics are convincing me that I can really do this!

Yeah, I posted it because I hadnt seen anything similar here, but looking at the other redye threads I was fairly confident it would turn out pretty good, just do yourself (and leatherique) a favor and send in a leather sample so its right the first time.


Here is an in progress pic....I taped off the edges as you have to work kind of quick when doing the "wipe dye" technique and I didnt want any dye getting where it didnt belong. You can tell in this pic that the color match is right on, after this pic I just added a few more coats as its such a high wear area that I wanted it to have a little toughness....

[jeffb335]

Figured I would add this as well since it just came up on another thread.....used the dye to touch up the corner of my console as well where repeated seatbelt stikes had taken off the outer color coating exposing the white plastic below....didnt take a before shot but you can see it came out well:

[tony20009]

TY for sharing. Very useful info.

Your handiwork turned out nicely.

[93civEJ1]

This is awesome man...Looks great. I need to get some of this when mine is bothering me enough!

[claurance2]

I have that same color and need to do my seat,door arm rest and center console. How much dye did it take for your project?

[jeffb335]

Very little. Its very thin so it goes a long way....Maybe an ounce or two

[claurance2]

thanks also do you have a color code from your order?

[jeffb335]

No, that was a long time ago and it was custom matched anyway.