Does anyone have any recommended products and techniques to change the color of the leather in an XJ-S? I’ve recently acquired a Mulberry interior that I want to swap for my grubby and torn biscuit interior. The back of the rear seat on my car is much better than the one I just received, so I want to change the color of that piece, plus there is one small trim piece missing, so I’ll need to dye it as well.
I’ve found a few places selling dye for touch up purposes, but they insist that it’s no for changing colors. So what should I use for that?

 

Try https://www.furnitureclinic.com/

 

I've used a number of Furniture Clinic products and kits with really good results, and also attended a number of the seminars that they've run for the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club.

Great company and they can provide all the correct colour etc using the Jaguar trim codes.

They also have some really useful videos which you can find via their website and via YouTube which show repairs and also changing leather colour.

Good luck

Paul

 

Home Page | Leatherique Restoration Products

I've been EXCEEDINGLY happy with them and an exact color match for my X300 seats. They have a long history providing products for high end cars.

I've never tried FurnitureClinic, but it seems to be well respected as well.

Technique. You MUST have an airbrush. A double action one from Harbor Freight will suffice just fine and not break the bank. Of course you still need a dry or dried air source as well.

The XJS seats weren't so much died as painted. I highly recommend NOT sanding them to remove color. Instead prep using lacquer thinner and/or acetone to remove/thin the painted seat surface. If you want to try something to clean up what you have assuming it's just the surface that's grubby, try a rag soaked in Purple Power. It WILL move the colorant around on the surface - into wrinkles - and remove dirt. It will leave the surface matte and you'll need to apply standard leather surface treatments.

IF you go the color removal route (it doesn't have to be completely removed, just thinned and prepped) then it's a really really good idea to treat the leather first with something like Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil. ALL old leather takes time + product + heat to soften up. In the summer semi-soaking some gauze/rags with rejuvenator on the leather surface, then bagging the seats in black plastic and putting them in the sun or a hot garage for several days is often a good idea. Before air-brushing, prep the leather again with a wipe of acetone/lacquer thinner. Avoid sanding as much as possible even if prep products tell you to because that smooths and removes grain. Much better to chemically prep... Then start your paint job with the airbrush in multiple passes so that things don't run. You can use a heat gun to speed up the drying process. You can probably use a bigger gun than an airbrush like a jam-gun, but I've always stuck with an airbrush. Takes a while but provides for an OEM recolor.

~Paul K.

 

+1 for the Leatherique. I've used it for trim repairs and to change a piece of leather from red to Jaguar Charcoal (LEG). It did it in one coat!

 

I've used both Furniture Clinic and Leatherique. You'll likely get good results with both, but I would say one is better than the other depending on the type/era of leather. Leatherique's rejuvenator oil and dyes are the likely the best products out there for "old school" leather. For more modern leather, I would give the nod to Furniture Clinic.

Cheers

 

Agreed, though I found a modified technique that yielded excellent results you might consider. For the first coat, do a light 'rub in' coat with a fine sponge designed for dyes and get into all the nooks and crannies and rubbed into the leather surface. Next coat or coats with airbrush. The leather comes out with a better 'hand' or feel.

Cheers

 

Which era would you put an ‘80s XJ-S in?

 

Gareth,

The leather in an 80s XJ-S is of the "modern" variety that has a lacquer protective coat over the colour-coat leather. It's why (in theory) it doesn't absorb the oils and other leather "conditioners" on the market. It's also why, irrespective of whether you use an abrasive technique, you still need to remove the lacquer surface first using the appropriate liquid before colouring / re-colouring.

Go fully through the websites of both of the companies mentioned and look for the videos & blogs for leather colouring / repairs etc. On teh Furniture Clinic site, switch between US & UK as there are different videos & blogs.

Also go direct to YouTube and view their video libraries. They are incredibly informative and useful. Here's the Furniture Clinic one: Furniture Clinic - YouTube

The more you can research the art of leather restoration, the better results you'll get.

One last point: Some XJS seat panels and interior panels of different eras use vinyl rather than leather. However, the recolouring principle is still valid.

Good luck

Paul

 

I have placed an order with the Furniture Clinic. Well, two orders actually, more on that in a moment. When selecting a colorant kit from the US store you get a choice of sizes and a choice of colors, both in drop down menus. Bellow this there is a tab labeled "car colors" in which we find several marques. Clicking Jaguar shows different colors organized by era. You can click on the one you want, and it will scroll you up to the color selection menu, but the color you chose isn't there and there's no way to choose it. So I called them. Turns out that the only colors available in the US store are the 24 generic colors in the drop down menu. At this point I started to thank the woman for her time and then she mentioned "if you go to the UK store..."
So I went to the UK store, selected the color and kit size I wanted and placed the order. £84 shipping! Oh no, what have I done! So I got on the customer service chat and explained the problem. The guy was very helpful and explained that it was the "dangerous goods" in the kit that made the shipping so high. We eventually came up with the idea of ordering just the colorant from the UK and everything else from the US. So I placed two orders. One for colorant and one for the things that seemed most essential. I already have an airbrush, compressor, and isopropyl alcohol, so I did without them. I expect that this will work, but it's not a great start to the project. I think that their no longer selling car colors in the US tips things in Letherique's direction if you're in the US. Regardless of how well this works, I can't see myself going through this hassle again.

 

One thing to note about Leatherique: If they don't have your color in their catalog (they had my Jag colors and they were PERFECT matches), OR if you're concerned about the match, they'll make it for you if you just send them a sample to color match.

There are two types (at least) of colorings for leather. One is a die through process with I assume a surface paints and the other is a surface paint. The 80's Jag seats do use a diff technique than the later 90's + Jag seats, or at least different materials. Regardless the 80''s seats were surface coated with a solvent reactive colorant. As Leatherique notes on their site: " Automotive leather prior to about 1992 was all a surface sprayed lacquer. " Again you'll see prep suggestions using abrasives. I'd avoid that at ALL COST except where required to level/clean up any filler. You can use a brillo pad lightly, but avoid smoothing the surface or you'll end up with patent leather instead of grained leather. The solvent helps take colorant out of the natural grain valleys preserving the look post-recolor. Luckily you're working with an old type surface paint, so solvents will work well to thin the color surface. The more modern recolorants are probably acrylic based (water based) and thus won't come off as easily w/ solvent unlike the old coloring.

BUT you might be surprised what you can get away with with a good cleaning and smudging the colorant around w/ a rag & Purple Power & post treatment like I did with my old 85' XJS seats.

~Paul K.