Change seat color?

[JasontheBeaver]

I did search for leather dye early on and ran into a lot of 'leather paint' which sounded crazy.

Again, since I never worked with leather, I am just surprised you cannot remove the skin, soak it in ??? to remove the existing color, condition the leather with ?? then re-dye it. You can do that with cotton and I would think leather would be much more durable to do it. I know newer versions of seats use vegan material but thought my next-gen 2016 seats were real leather. How do they get the color into the leather in the first place?

Thanks for the post.

Except for uncoated leather (like the King Ranch Ford pickup seats for example)...

Real leather automotive seats and the "vegan" Tesla leather can be treated essentially the same. Why?
Because real automotive leather is painted and has a polyurethane finish that is made of the same material that the vegan seats are finished with.
Automotive leather seats do not need to be conditioned to "replenish the oils" for this reason. It's like oiling your paint, it has no benefit.
So imagine trying to easily remove paint from a porous surface like leather, not happening. Sure you can dye (paint really) over the top of the existing color but results usually aren't that great.
Now... once those real leather seats become worn and small cracks develop, now the leather is exposed and it will benefit from conditioning to help keep that crack pliable and extend the life of the seat. (This does not apply to vegan seat cracks though.)

 

[FMinMI]

Except for uncoated leather (like the King Ranch Ford pickup seats for example)...

Real leather automotive seats and the "vegan" Tesla leather can be treated essentially the same. Why?
Because real automotive leather is painted and has a polyurethane finish that is made of the same material that the vegan seats are finished with.
Automotive leather seats do not need to be conditioned to "replenish the oils" for this reason. It's like oiling your paint, it has no benefit.
So imagine trying to easily remove paint from a porous surface like leather, not happening. Sure you can dye (paint really) over the top of the existing color but results usually aren't that great.
Now... once those real leather seats become worn and small cracks develop, now the leather is exposed and it will benefit from conditioning to help keep that crack pliable and extend the life of the seat. (This does not apply to vegan seat cracks though.)

Thanks for the info. I guess I am going to love my tan ones until it is time to get a new vehicle. "Better than black" I need to keep telling myself

Frank

 

[JasontheBeaver]

Thanks for the info. I guess I am going to love my tan ones until it is time to get a new vehicle. "Better than black" I need to keep telling myself

Frank

Frank I've been there. The tan color grew on me over time.