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[Paul H]

I thought it was worth posting ,

Paul 

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• In reply to some questions about the Interior of the Austin Cambridge I have a tip for all willing to experiment take a look at the pics the last 2 are before any restoration work, you will see the seats was very dry and colour worn but not torn. (TAKE NOTE THIS REALLY WORKS!!)...after many years of buying expensive upholstery dye kits and other types of restoration leather re-colour products I slowly realised most of these products are water based. This made me think about an Idea I thought of for quite some time ago...Go down to your local car paint supplier and buy yourself some Hydrofan water based car paint as near to the colour you require, apply this to your seats with a soft paint brush, a couple of coats should do it and let it dry overnight " tip when applying it will look the wrong colour but will darken off when dry". the next day buff it up with a soft dry cloth, and add a good coat of E 45 skin cream YES E45! lol, this soaks in and softens the leather, leave this on overnight, buff off with a cloth JOB DONE! cheap and better than Woolies!! and will do a great job on vynil too, will not rub off or wear either and looks totally amazing I did this whole Interior including door cards with Half a litre of Hydrofan!!, I have done around 10 cars with this method and every time it comes out stunning..Good luck with my trade secret ssshhhh

[Bordfunker]

It would be interesting to see how long it stays looking good for as that is the acid test here, but certainly looks good in the photos.

I have heard of restorers using Vaseline rubbed into the dry leather over a number of applications, sometimes a great many, in order to revive the leather, so there is certainly more than one solution to this problem.

Karl

[Pete Lewis]

Some cars have vaseline'd leather but not from refurbishing

Saddle soap is a cheap leather treatment ....just for refurbishing    no smut.

Pete  

[Colin Lindsay]

I suspect that some of the leather 'feed' you can buy is standard moisturising cream with a leather smell added. Leather is just dried skin, after all... I have a drum made from half a goat and it gets hand cream once in a while too.