Well, get in there! I’m pleased to report some progress with the seats.
Firstly, I made some simple brackets which enable the front of the seat to sit 25mm up off the tub and give the seat a bit of rake. This makes your bum sit a bit lower making them far more comfortable for me. Nothing too technical, fabrication isn’t really my forte, so it’s just a bit of 3mm thick inch box section drilled out to suit. I lobbed the top off of one of the drilled holes and welded a nut in, then welded it back on to create a captive nut. The brackets allow me to use the original seat mounting points at the front, and I’ve made a plate for the rear mountings, which effectively just extends the tub and allows the rear mountings to be bolted to it.
So, on to the seats, which came to me in a bit of a sorry state, and too lighter shade of brown for my liking.
But, I liked the retro looks of them so decided to take a punt and have a go at dyeing them darker.
First job is to give them a deep clean and strip the top coats off the leather.
A proper going over with leather prep, then a clean down, followed by a first fill of the worst cracking. I didn’t want to make the seats look too new , or in some way false, so didn’t go to town with the filler, just the worst of the cracks on the drivers bolster and seats.
Then both seats fully sanded with 600, then 1200 paper, and cleaned down again.
Then its dye time
First coat looks a bit streaky, and at this stage you know it’s gonna take a few coats!
So, steadily building up the coats, applying the dye with a sponge, then after 5 coats
I'm really happy how they’ve turned out. The colour will work well in my world of brown.
I was a bit bit sceptical on how well the dye was going to work to be honest, but I have to say I’m impressed. Time will tell on its longevity though. I have a bad feeling it will all peel off in no time, but that’s just my usual pessimistic self I guess. We will see!
Currently the seats are slathered in balm / conditioner in an effort to soften them up a bit and protect them, then they will go in. Whilst they are out though I’ve ripped the rest of the interior out to instal some music. Hopefully in at the weekend though.......