Can you paint leather car seats?- Find Details Explanation

We all love to change the color of our cars, phones, and hair and the list will continue on till eternity since there are a lot of items whose colors can be changed multiple times or even twice as a bare minimum. However, the question we are facing today is that can you paint leather car seats? Is it possible to change their color by painting another color? Well, you won’t have to wait any longer as today we will solve this question for you on whether you can paint leather car seats or not.

To start off with, is it possible to paint your leather car seats? If you ask this question to a group of people, some would say yes while the remaining ones would say no. The ones that reply with “NO” are wrong in this case since they probably never tried to are scared to ruin their leather car seats. Yes, it is possible to paint your leather car seats and I have seen a lot of people do it. I, myself have done it recently to give my leather car seats a brand new look.

Can I change the color of my leather car seats?

Yes ! anyone can change his leather car seat color at any point of time. Changing the color of leather car seats can be a great way to update the look of your car’s interior. But the process of changing color is not easy at all. Since the process can be very difficult for people who do not know the proper process of coloring on their leather car seats. So it’s important to know the process of working on car leather seat coloring properly. Here you are going to learn step by step process of work .

What are the benefits of painting your leather car seats?

Well, for starters, painting your leather car seats gives them a brand new clean, and fresh look which is a must option if you had leather car seats for several years as over time, the leather car seats will start to lose their glossiness and shininess. Secondly, if you have any scratch marks or slight tear marks on your leather car seats, then painting your leather car seats will hide away all kinds of marks and make them look like present-day leather car seats that were just bought recently.

Now, after reading out all the benefits of painting your leather car seats, I am sure now you are intrigued to paint your leather car seats and you don’t have to worry about that at all. We will help you how to paint your leather car seats and guide you step by step. So, hold on to your seats and we progress forward.

How to paint your leather car seats step by step

Step 1: Deciding on where to do it

Before you start the whole painting process, you need to decide whether you want to paint your leather car seats while the seats are adjusted inside the car or you want to detach the leather car seats from your car’s interior and place them outside to paint them. The only benefit you will get by painting your leather car seat whilst it’s inside the car is that you don’t have to through the whole process of detaching your leather car seats and then when the whole painting process is complete, you will have to adjust them inside the car and attach them properly.

However, if you try to paint your leather car seats whilst it’s inside the car, then you will need to put some kind of cover on the other parts of your car’s interior so that those parts aren’t affected by the paint. You also won’t be able to cover every single corner and turns on the seats and it will be hard to reach every single part of the leather car seats.

Now, if you decide to detach your leather car seat and bring it outside somewhere else for painting, then that is a choice that I would support. The reason why it’s a better choice is that now you will have access to every single area and corner around your seat and you can make sure the paint reaches every part properly and evenly. Apart from the accessibility to the whole leather car seat, you won’t have any fear of accidentally painting and ruining any other areas of your car’s interior as now the leather car seat will be miles away from your car somewhere safe for painting.

Step 2: Clean the leather car seat

Once you have decided on whether you want to detach your seat or keep it inside the car, the next step is a very important one and that is cleaning the leather car seat that you want to paint. Almost all kinds of leather car seats come with an invisible manufactured finish applied on them at first to make sure that the leather car seat stays unharmed.

While this is highly beneficial for your leather car seat, this will also prevent your paint from properly and completely settling onto your leather car seat. You need to get an abrasive pad and gently rub it on your leather car seat to remove it properly and once you start using the abrasive pad, you will notice that it will start to fall off like tiny little scraps.

Once you finish removing the invisible manufactured finish, you need to take a vacuum cleaner first and vacuum out dirt and all other kinds of small debris that might be stuck in between your leather car seats. Once you have taken care of the visible physical debris, now it’s time to take care of the dust that might be sitting on your leather car seats.

For this process, you need to take a damp microfiber cloth and wipe your leather car seats gently and slowly. If you do it harshly and apply too much pressure, then you might end up harming the leather and possibly even tearing them up. Therefore, you need to clean them gently by applying almost little to no pressure, as you need to just get off the dust of your leather car seats. Once you are done wiping your leather car seat, take some dry tissue paper and wipe off the excess water that is present on your leather car seat.  

Step 3: Fix the cracks on your leather car seat

You might notice that your leather car seat has tiny cracks here and there, and that could be a massive problem while you are painting your car. You need to fix this before you start painting your leather car seats, or else the results might not be as satisfying as you were hoping it to be. First of all, you can start by applying a crack filler and fix the crack and if you want, you can apply another thin coat of it just to be sure that it’s enough.

Once you have applied the crack filler, now you need to wait for it to dry up completely and once it has completely dried up, you will notice that now the surface is uneven. How can we fix that? It is pretty simple, as you need to take some sandpaper and start to stand out the fabric to smooth out the whole surface and give a satisfying look to it.  

Step 4: Time to apply the colorant

Now that we have finished up all sorts of cleaning, filling, and fixing the leather car seat, now it is time for us to head down to the coloring section. You need to start by using a colorant on your leather car seats but you shouldn’t just pour it onto your seat just like that. You need to follow the proper procedure.

First of all, you need to take the colorant bottle and pour it onto an empty container and then take a sponge or spray bottle and dip the sponge into the colorant and get enough colorant on the sponge. Once you have got enough on the sponge, start up by wiping the sponge on the leather car seats gently and slowly so that you cover every aspect of the leather seat evenly and do not miss a spot.

You need to keep doing it until you have applied the first base of the coating and you will notice the color will change very quickly. Once you have applied one base of coating, you need to stop and wait for the coating to dry up properly before applying another coating.

Once you have applied the base coating, now you can start to spray the colorant and apply the other coating. You can start by spraying the corners and hard-to-reach areas so that you won’t need much colorant spraying when you start spraying the main parts. You need to keep on applying the colorant until it looks balanced and consistent. Before you keep applying the coatings, you need to let them dry properly so that they are not ruined.

Step 5: Time to finish up the painting process

Once you have applied several coatings and let them dry completely and properly, now it is time to finish up the painting process by applying the Leather Finish. However, before you apply the Leather finish, there is still one more spray that is left to be used. It’s called the Super Seal and you need to apply that before applying the Leather Finish. When you start to spray the Super Seal, you need to apply around 3-5 coatings and make sure that you take some time off after each spray so that there is time for each coating to dry up properly.

Once you have successfully applied the Super Seal, now it’s time to seal up the whole process by applying the Leather Finish. The process is exactly the same like the other sprays, as you have to spray the Leather Finish and then wait for the first coating to dry up properly and the same goes for the second, third, fourth, and the rest of the coating. You need to spray the Leather finish for about 7-8 coatings if you want the perfect finishing touch. You must not rush this process at all and always leave time for the coatings to dry up or else you won’t get the perfect result. 

How much does it cost to change the color of leather car seats?

As you have already read out, how many processes do you have to go through? Basically, the answer is depending on whether you are doing the work by yourself or you are assigning someone professional for the work to complete. If you are planning to color or paint your leather car seats by yourself then you have to keep the budget around $300 to $400. On the other hand, if you have assigned someone for the work definitely the cost will be around $700 to $1000 though it depends on your relationship with the person or company.

Conclusion:

To wrap things up, we have finally found an answer for whether can you paint your leather car seats or not and we have gotten our answer including the whole process of painting our leather car seats. It’s not a hard process at all but it will definitely take up a lot of your time since you need to wait for several minutes after every coating. Painting your leather car seats every 2-3 years is something everyone should do as it gives their leather car seats a new and fresh look and makes them look posh.

We all face different kinds of problems every day and we at Hacks for Cars try our best to help everyone with their problems and make sure that they leave our site with a smile on their face. I hope that this piece of the article was able to solve your problem on whether can you paint leather car seats. If you have any other questions about other problems, then you can refer to our other articles, which might help you.