Tears in perforated leather or vinyl are a tricky repair. Each hole needs to be preserved or re-created in order to avoid a patched appearance. Minimalism and precision are key!
This video sums it up, and written instructions appear below:
Here’s how to repair perforated leather or vinyl:
- Subpatch any holes or tears with a thin denim or twill fabric and a strong, flexible fabric glue.
- If any dimension of the tear is greater than 1 in. (2.5 cm), cut and glue a piece of similar-textured material to fit inside the hole. This improves flexibility. Ensure this top patch does not overlap the existing leather. It’s better to be too small than too big.
- Apply leather filler putty to the remaining gaps with a needle tool or palette knife. If the tear is large or you used a top patch, you may need to cover a larger area with filler in order to get the perforations to align later.
- Using a glossy business card or plastic spreader, smooth the filler in a direction parallel to the tear until a level surface is achieved. Remove excess and feather any edges with your fingertip.
- Allow the filler to cure under an incandescent bulb, heat lamp or sunny window. The filler must reach a temperature must of 120º – 145º F (49º – 63º C) to cure and will become more translucent.
- Rubbing alcohol and an old t-shirt can be used to correct minor lines or imperfections in the surface, especially along the perimeter of the repaired area. Sandpaper can also be used, but it may peel up the filler where it is thinly spread on any undamaged, surrounding surface.
- If necessary, repeat steps 3-6 until the surface feels smooth from all angles.
- Apply a final thin coat of filler, and emboss with a gloved hand to impart texture and mimic the grain of the leather, and allow to cure.
- Map out the new perforations. Use a fine ballpoint pen and ruler to draw lines connecting the perforations on either side of your repair area. Turn the rule 90º and do it again, so you have a grid of tiny squares.
- Use a leather needle or metal toothpick to punch holes at the intersection of each line. Heating the metal with a flame or other heat source will make this easier.
- Quickly wipe the surface with alcohol to remove or denature the ink. Otherwise it may bleed through the color.
- Apply a matching color to the surface, taking care to blend.
I am buying a used car that has a poorly repaired leather patch on it just like the one in the picture above. Is it possible to remove that patch and then re-patch it better on my own?
It’s a gamble. Removing repairs often do a little more damage. It would certainly be worth it on a solid, non-perforated leather. A solvent like lacquer thinner should remove the finish and help thin the repair. As long as the subpatch is good, you don’t have to do any cutting or make a mess of things. If the patch on the perforated leather is smooth and the color is good, I would just buy a special leather needle and punch the holes into the repair.
“1. Subpatch any holes or tears.” How? With what products?
Click the link about Soft Filler to see a video demo. The hole needs to be subpatched with a denim or twill patch and a fabric glue.
The perforated leather of my car seats still looks good, but a few small breaks between perforations are occurring, so there is no appreciable tear. It would be difficult to insert a sub-patch under the tear. Is there a way to mend the tear with an adhesive and no sub-patch?
Good question, Jim! Repairing these cracks now will keep them from erupting into larger tears and a more complex repair. Depending on the scope of the damage, you could work with tiny beads of super glue catalyzed with sanding. This is best suited to a small area that doesn’t require much flexibility. Alternatively you can apply a thin bead of filler to the cracks and let cure. Either way I’d use a large needle or toothpick or our groovy needle tool for these detailed repairs.