    
Bob uk
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 94.197.122.82
| | Posted on Friday, 15 August, 2014 - 07:26: |    |
Leather is animal skin. It is exactly the same as shoe leather. The leather in a RR is made by Connolly and is better than the leather used in the Houses of parliament, so I have been told.
Because leather is dry skin is responds well to water. To clean leather use hand soap warm water and a nail brush.
Dubbin this is what is used on leather as a general purpose polish which makes leather supple and is IMO the best for all leather. It is clear and solid like shoe polish, and is like clear higher quality shoe polish. It costs about £3 a tin, in the UK I get Chelsea Dubbin, brand.
To apply rub loads over the leather then polish with soft shoe brush to sort of drive the Dubbin into the leather then polish off with clean cloth or wearing soft old clothes wriggle all over the seats.
Cracks.
Loads of Dubbin left in the crack will keep the crack supple.
Touching up.
Small bits like piping which has lost its colour. After cleaning and before dubbin, dry leather with cloth and using a felt tip pen colour in the SMALL area and when dry apply Dubbin. Art shops sell individual ones that are more colour fast than kids ones. The palette is enormous. 20 greys are available endless reds.
Working with leather.
To make dry leather supple, wet the back and allow the water to soak in. It can then be moulded and sewn on a domestic sowing machine using sharp sharp very sharp needles that are made by Millwards and sold by a shop that stores it's stock properly.
Where replacing a seat panel remove seat cover, wet it so that it is supple. Unpick the seam and using the same holes stitch the seams using curved Millwards needles by hand. Some stitch paterns are done with two needles alternately from either side. Saddles and steering wheels are done like this.
When refitting the cover the leather must be supple, when it dries out it will retain it's shape. This sort of work is not easy but can be done diy.
Leather craft diy sites.
How wet is wet.
leather can be very wet without suffering damage. Providing air is allowed to circulate while the leather naturally dries out. Any form of heating will damage the leather and can cause tears and cracks to happen with little movements of the leather. Leather that is permanently wet will rot after a few months. So keep a happy medium between dry and wet.
History of leather in cars.
Orignally leather was considered only for the chauffeur. The passengers would have cloth which was considered more posh than leather.
Because the chauffeur was also the mechanic leather was used for it's ability to suffer abuse for dirt and oil. A quick buff up ands it's good again. And when its old it still looks good saving money when the cloth is redone.
(Message approved by david_gore) |