Here it is

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 04/20/2017 at 20:14 • Filed to: None

11

18

The best picture I’ll take all year. More kitty after break.

Aaand some random pictures I snapped of my car

Monkey B > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/20/2017 at 20:25

0

If you’re interested in making that steering wheel look like new, find a temp wheel for cheap, take that one off and send it to me.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Monkey B 04/20/2017 at 20:28

0

You do leather restoration?

EDIT: I read gud

Monkey B > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/20/2017 at 20:32

0

yup, have for something like 17 years

Jonee > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/20/2017 at 20:32

0

No, his car is just older than yours.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/20/2017 at 20:39

4

Cutie kitty!

I took this one of my girl yesterday evening - she was in extra cute sleepy mode.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Monkey B 04/20/2017 at 20:49

0

How would you go about fixing that sort of damage? My driver’s seat is pretty terrible and I was looking into something like this to repair the seat and wheel with.

shop-teacher > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/20/2017 at 21:11

2

Daawww! Kittay!

Here’s our fuzzball.

Die-Trying > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/20/2017 at 21:49

1

the cat is just .......... “resting”............

sn4cktimes > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/20/2017 at 23:12

2

Peet says hi:

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > sn4cktimes 04/21/2017 at 00:52

0

Hi peet!

Monkey B > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/21/2017 at 10:34

1

I don’t know what those kits consist of, but the before/after photos look like professional repairs. The stuff I use is the same stuff used by OEM suppliers, a urethane water base which can be crosslinked (or hardened as it were for more durability). Most available stuff is latex based...even in the industry, like SEM’s water base. Color Plus and Leatherique are the go to for DIY, but I don’t have any experience with them other than seeing a few guys on forums use it. I spoke with the owner at Color Plus once as I wanted to try the Soffener on an old BMW shift boot for the experience...I’ll spare you the suspense, it doesn’t really work (same goes for Leatherique’s Rejuvenator). When leather dries out and gets hardened you can’t save it and you can’t condition it using anything topical. If you decide to try those products don’t buy the conditioner oil and don’t mind their process, just get the filler and the color and I’ll tell you how to prep it.

The steering wheel presents a challenge due to the wear on the perforated section, you can’t fill to smooth so you have to kind of strip the coating to smooth. I don’t know I’d use the available products on a steering wheel, it gets too much contact...if not done right this kind of stuff looks worse failing than if you just left it be. Those products are also thick and applied by brush (you can thin and spray if you have the means) so it might not look good, especially on the perforated section and in the threads.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Monkey B 04/21/2017 at 10:38

0

I was going to use the filler and recreate the perforations with a toothpick. Leather conditioner is more or less useless on these seats and wheel because the leather Mazda uses is super cheap and horrid and coated in an obscene amount of clearcoat to give it any sense of duribility. Any conditioner I put on it never soaks in because I’m essentially conditioning plastic. My concern is matching the color by mixing it myself. Given the images in the reviews people seem to not have much of an issue so hopefully it dries the same color it looks when wet. The Mazda saddle brown has a lot of red in it which makes finding any other material even close an impossibility. My headliner is made from brown vinyl that has far less red and is darker, and my shift boot is made from alcantara that is also far less red. Almost makes me wish I had the Mazdaspeed blue-accented interior. At least then I could find color-matched accents, but Saddle Brown is such a lovely “luxury” color.

Monkey B > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/21/2017 at 10:55

1

Mazda’s leather is no different than other manufacturers, they all use the same type top coated leather (aside from Ford’s King Ranch but I think they may have switched that too because aniline hide doesn’t look good or wear well for automotive purposes). Sure, more expensive cars use nicer hides, but it’s all the same process.

You can’t condition any top coated leather from the top side period. The only thing you accomplish adding any of that stuff to the mix is trapping dirt and making them shiny.

For cleaning to strip that shit off and have clean as from factory look mix a 50/50 solution of Simple Green and water. Evenly wet the surface, use a white Scotch Brite pad (the least course) or a scrub brush and scrub quickly and evenly, towel dry immediately. I do the back, then the bottom. Moving quickly is key as some cars (Honda for instance) the color starts to move pretty quickly and it’s easy to go to far. It’s better to do it quickly twice than go too long one time for safety. Let dry for 5 minutes before deciding if it’s clean enough as it may look off color while wet...trust me it’ll dry normal, just let it be.

The toothpick idea is fine in theory, trust me it doesn’t work like you expect and makes a mess of the filler. IIRC those perforations are more indents than holes.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Monkey B 04/21/2017 at 11:24

0

50/50 simple green and water is my go-to cleaning solution for pretty much everything, but I didn’t think of using a Scotch Brite pad.

Monkey B > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/21/2017 at 14:32

0

I use gray ones, but I can also repair if it’s too much so stay safe with the white ones. Once you clean your seats with that the only prep for dye is quick wiping with acetone or glass cleaner to remove the residue from the simple green.

Steve in Manhattan > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/21/2017 at 16:51

1

They do what they want.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Steve in Manhattan 04/21/2017 at 17:24

0

Is that a Russian Blue?

Steve in Manhattan > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 04/21/2017 at 19:31

0

Nope - just a trash cat that nearly died b/c he was born on a construction site. However, our last cat was half Russian Blue ...