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Leather repair and lots more!

4K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  the_cueball 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi everyone :D

I basically took some time to return my Jeep to looking a bit better than she has been recently...

This included a leather seat refurb, repainting the wheels and brake calipers, and a good clean inside and out!

Hope you like...

:thumbsup:
 
#2 ·
I know I bang on about not doing any detailing during winter, and I don’t normally, however my Jeep was in need of a service and a little of TLC after I had kindly ‘hired’ it out for the summer to a visiting American in my work....Let’s just say she never looked after it very well...


So, my to do list for my battered old beast was as follows:

Full service
New front brake pads
Re-paint crash damage areas (x4)
Fix blown bulbs
Repair and restore front leather seats
Re-paint wheels
Remove rust and paint brake callipers
Clean interior after failed battery/smashed window incident
Then after all that, give her a cleanup.....

Not much to do then....


OK, wheels and callipers first:

Wheels before:


Showing some of the damage I wanted to get rid of:



And the ironX ‘bleeding’ from one of the wheels:



After they were clean and dry, I started to sand the wheels with wet and dry paper, starting with the lowest (roughest) grade, and working my way up...IIRC, I started on 240 grit and finished on 1500 for these. Time was a bit rushed, so didn’t get the wheels 100%, I will show you later why this is important....

The wheels were then taped up, placed in my ‘paint studio’
and given a few coats of primer:





I left about 30 minutes in between coats, then used my lamps to help cure the paint before moving onto the paint stage....I went for something different here, fancying a change, I went with Gold! Ford Solar Gold to be exact:





You can see in the above photo, an area at the top of the wheel, which I did not sand completely...any imperfections at the sanding stage still show up in the paint stage – be warned and take your time with the preparation!

After a few coats of this, using the same process as above, they were given the last coats of clear coat and left to dry off, which left these to stick back on the Jeep:







Overall, I am quite happy with the results...

While that was going on, I was busy with the service, starting the seats and doing the brakes and callipers....here is the driver’s side before;



I used my dremmel style Silverline tool with the ‘stone’ attachments to sand/grind off the worst of the rust, again I was not chasing perfection here, but I think you could easily spend a day on each side to achieve this....

Once I was happy with the finish, out came my paintbrush and hammeright smooth paint, and a few coats later, I had this:



Again, good enough for the Jeep, and I am happy enough with the result.

Now, we move onto the front seats, which after nearly 150k miles and 14 years of work, were starting to show their age...the girl I gave the Jeep to, was short, fat and loved wearing jeans, which didn’t help the drivers seat
...

This is what I had, and some of the areas I was trying to fix and to restore:

 
#3 ·




I have never done anything like this before, so it was all new (and scary) to me!

After a bit of research, I opted to go with the furniture clinic, and purchased their large restore kit and filler... and off to work I went, trying to follow their well written instructions to the letter...

1st stage is to clean the seats with a strong alcohol solution, just a wipe down, so far so good...

2nd stage, if the big b@ll one...the removal of the clear top coat... again done with solution...this is really the point of new return...and left the leather like this:















I think you can see how dull the seats are after everything was removed....another alcohol wipe down, just to be safe, and you can see the colour coming off the seats this time:



After this stage, I had the option to use the filler to repair some of the damage... For anyone that has used “polyfiller” for walls, I think it’s the exact same process....small amounts fill in the cracks, sand back, repeat as needed:





Please note that, IMO, I used WAY too much filler here, and after crying and getting annoyed with myself, spent a hour or so sanding it all back with low grades of sandpaper...please do not make the same mistake!

Anyway, after I had (somewhat) recovered the situation, and cleaned the leather again....it was onto the actual colour stage...The furniture Clinic do a colour match service, so I was happy that this would be OK...and it was!

First coat goes on with a sponge...trying to get into all the nooks, creases etc...





 
#4 ·


After that has dried in, again using my lights to help out in my ‘leather studio’, you move onto the next stage, and that is again colour, but using an airbrush to apply...

It was quite fun to do, but you need to be careful not to go overboard with the paint!

Once this has dried, there is only 2 stages to go, the spray on protection coat, and the last stage gloss/matt clear coat finish... I put on 2 coats of each, then let the seats dry out for 1 day before putting them back in the jeep...

This is how my seats turned out:











For a quick comparison on the driver’s side bolster:

Before:



And after:



And a final picture to show the passenger seat back in the Jeep:



For something that I was leaning, with nothing but hope and written instructions, I am happy with the outcome...not perfect due to using too much filler and maybe I little run from the final coats here and there...but it’s all trial and error for me...

While the seats were out, I took the change to give the interior a proper good clean, using the wet vac as well... As you can see, even after the window was fixed and the guy ‘hoovered up’ the glass really does get everywhere!





And, yes, that is a shotgun cartridge....
 
#5 ·
Now, I would like to think that I keep my cars pretty clean, but just to show how much dirt is hiding under seats and other hard to reach areas, here is a picture of my dirty bucket!




Minging!!!!!!

After this, I finished off the other bits I had to do, tried some PDR work (60% success rate) and put the seats and wheels back on, ready for her actual clean!

Engine was first, sprayed with megs degreaser, worked with various brushes, the hosed off using a low setting on the PW, with the engine running to help with the drying...

After that, 303 Aerospace was used on the plastics and hoses to help tart it up a little bit...At the end of the day, it’s a big beast of a workhorse, so it had never been cleaned before!!



And the after photo:



Now onto the actual cleaning of the beast!

Just the usual winter grime/grit/salt marks on her:









The wash process was my usual 2 coats of snowfoam, 2BW using dodo BTBM, dried off with last touch and a drying cloth.

I then went around the Jeep with dodo LP lite via hand applicator, buffed this off and laid down a coat of Britemax #6s... yes that’s right, no wax or sealant....nothing....

After all my work, sweat, blood and tears, here she is for another few months (and abuse):











Yes, I know the arches aren't that clean and there is no tyre shine on there.....give me break, I was knackered!


And that’s that...as they say


Any comments/advice/suggestions most welcome, as always!.....

 
#9 ·
Damn Cueball, that's an insane amount of work. The work you've done on the seats is amazing! Takes some courage too I have to say.

The wheels look good too.

But one question...why is there a used 12 bore catridge in your Jeep?:D:eek: Or shouldn't I ask, cause you still have one left:lol::thumbsup:
 
#17 ·
Holy moly, that is awesome. Great work on the leather, LTT stuff?

I want to get a couple of ramps this year to give the underside a good clean and a coat of paint. The fuel tank cover has annoyed the heck out of me since I bought the Jeep but I don't want to just stop there.

Then I'll take it to Quik-Fit for an oil change and see what they say... :D
 
#19 ·
Holy moly, that is awesome. Great work on the leather, LTT stuff?

I want to get a couple of ramps this year to give the underside a good clean and a coat of paint. The fuel tank cover has annoyed the heck out of me since I bought the Jeep but I don't want to just stop there.

Then I'll take it to Quik-Fit for an oil change and see what they say... :D
I use the furniture clinic for my stuff...

I have been thinking about the underside too... but the XKR comes first for that...

:thumbsup:

Nice work man! Seats looks awesome as does outside. Def should've threw some tire shine and some under-arch shine on before pics but ill forgive you since you did A TON or other awesome work! Again, kudos on seats, I know how ill be doing mine if/when the time comes.

Wheels also look good, nice to see how you did it with tires mounted and without pro gun. May be nice option for other guys out there just looking to change color form stock or any other bland/dull wheel color. Congrats on our new Jeep!
Cheers mate!

Wasn't sure about the gold to start with, but it's growing on me now...

:thumbsup:
 
#18 ·
Nice work man! Seats looks awesome as does outside. Def should've threw some tire shine and some under-arch shine on before pics but ill forgive you since you did A TON or other awesome work! Again, kudos on seats, I know how ill be doing mine if/when the time comes.

Wheels also look good, nice to see how you did it with tires mounted and without pro gun. May be nice option for other guys out there just looking to change color form stock or any other bland/dull wheel color. Congrats on our new Jeep!
 
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