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I did a partial change to the interior color of the SSB Coupe I bought back in May of this year. The seat bolsters were pretty worn and just looked really tired and, since this car is all black inside (or whatever dark grey it's actually called) and my '05 Roadster has the nice dark/light grey two tone, I wanted to do something different. Having seen a lot of newer cars in a variety of paint colors with a saddle brown two tone interior, that's what I opted for. So, here's the finished product - seats pulled out and refinished in Luez Cinamon Brown, a BMW X5 factory color option, door panels done in a two tone with the same BMW color and the existing Crossfire factory color.
Click the image to open in full size.
OK, so how did I do this? I've been talking to a company called ColorBond Paint for a couple of years at the SEMA show and finally decided to pull the trigger. This is basically a specialized spray paint designed specifically for leather, vinyl and even carpet. They are actually an approved Ford OEM supplier (took 'em 6 years to go through the process) and they private label to a bunch of places that sell leather dye and color change kits (Eastwood for one). Their demos and samples at their booth at SEMA have always impressed me and after some long discussions with the developer of the product (it's been around for almost 20 years now!!).
So the process is pretty straightforward - use their pre cleaner to deep clean the surface of any dirt, oils, silicones, waxes, etc and then basically just spray the product on like you would spray regular old spray paint. On harder surfaces, like the door panels, you need to spray their adhesion promoter first, let dry, then shoot the color. I pulled the seats out of the car and then used a plastic masking material for the seats to mask off the lower portions where the seat adjustment controls are mounted, and also to mask off the black plastic seat backs. I found that tucking the plastic in between the leather surface and these trim bits worked best.
The door panels were a bit trickier. After removing them from the car I found that I couldn't get any kind of masking tape to stick to them at all, even after using the cleaner. But since the door panels are made up of multiple pieces that are basically glued together on the back side, I discovered that I could take a wide masking tape (1.5" width) and using a bondo spreader I could force the tape inbetween the two sections and it stayed put extremely well. In some areas I needed a secondary plastic trim stick to force the gap open a bit, but it all worked out great. I then used the same sort of plastic masking material, taped down to the original wide masking tape I tucked into the gaps, and I was ready to shoot the adhesion promoter and the color. When done, the masking tape that was tucked into the gaps just pulled right out - no muss, no fuss.
The leather still feels like it always did, and I love the color combo - especially with the SSB paint!
I'd read a ton of reviews on this product in the past couple of years, including one where a magazine was so skeptical that they recolored a long piece of leather and then did everything they could to get the ColorBond product to fail - they pulled, tugged, scratched, even tied it in a knot - and the stuff stayed put. Crazy as it sounds, this stuff is the real deal. If you've got badly worn side bolsters and you want to restore them, it's very straightforward to return the seat to an as new condition. If you want to totally change the color, like I did, then this is a great option with awesome results.
NOTE: I have no affiliation whatsoever with ColorBond. I paid full retail for the products and received zero compensation for using it or posting this review.
Here's a link to their website. Also noticed that it's applicable for changing your carpet color too! Really amazing product and very thoroughly tested...
The driver side seat back bolster takes a beating if you ar not carful, getting in there is a tendency to bump into it. After some time the bolster gets wrinkles in it and look unsightly, I try and avoid this and this saves the bolster, is that what the main trouble was on the bolsters? Did it do a good job of hiding the wrinkles?
Are there authorized dealers that can do the work?
As I stated on FB, you can get anything done.... for a price. You had the interior of your former Crossfire totally redone, didn't you? This process is obviously a heck of a lot less money, plus you get the satisfaction of doing the job yourself!
The driver side seat back bolster takes a beating if you ar not carful, getting in there is a tendency to bump into it. After some time the bolster gets wrinkles in it and look unsightly, I try and avoid this and this saves the bolster, is that what the main trouble was on the bolsters? Did it do a good job of hiding the wrinkles?
As this car was already 11 years old with 2 previous owners when I got it, the bolster on the driver's side was noticeably scuffed and worn. That wear is now totally gone with this process, but the wrinkles that come with use on almost every leather interior won't go away with a process like this or similar. My other daily driver shows zero scuffing or wear on the bolsters (they aren't as pronounced as those on the Crossfire seats so it's not as much of an issue with that car) but there is noticeable wrinkling of the leather on that car. More so on the slight bolsters of the seat cushion than those on the seat back, but they are definitely more pronounced than what I see on the seldom used passenger seat.
But if your side bolsters are badly worn and scuffed, like these Crossfire seats were, this process with correct that whether you do a color change or not.
Oh, one quick note here about amount of product needed: I originally bought two cans to do the seats and door panels but later on decided that I might need a third can just to be safe. Colorbond has a minimum order requirement of $36.95 but a single can is only $14.95. It turns out Amazon sells this stuff so I bought one can of the same color code for a bit over $13.00 and free shipping with my Prime Account.
Oh, one quick note here about amount of product needed: I originally bought two cans to do the seats and door panels but later on decided that I might need a third can just to be safe. Colorbond has a minimum order requirement of $36.95 but a single can is only $14.95. It turns out Amazon sells this stuff so I bought one can of the same color code for a bit over $13.00 and free shipping with my Prime Account.
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Looks awesome and thanks for sharing the process.
Looks amazing. Great Job. I never heard of this before. My interior is in really great shape and I like my two tone color as is but if it ever comes down to wanting a change, wow -- I'd try this.
As this car was already 11 years old with 2 previous owners when I got it, the bolster on the driver's side was noticeably scuffed and worn. That wear is now totally gone with this process, but the wrinkles that come with use on almost every leather interior won't go away with a process like this or similar. My other daily driver shows zero scuffing or wear on the bolsters (they aren't as pronounced as those on the Crossfire seats so it's not as much of an issue with that car) but there is noticeable wrinkling of the leather on that car. More so on the slight bolsters of the seat cushion than those on the seat back, but they are definitely more pronounced than what I see on the seldom used passenger seat.
But if your side bolsters are badly worn and scuffed, like these Crossfire seats were, this process with correct that whether you do a color change or not.
Mike - Interior really looks nice! Sorta reminds me of the 2005 M-B SLK 350 Launch Edition. M-B made approximately 1500 of this special introductory version. Interior was tan leather - seats & door panels.
As this car was already 11 years old with 2 previous owners when I got it, the bolster on the driver's side was noticeably scuffed and worn. That wear is now totally gone with this process, but the wrinkles that come with use on almost every leather interior won't go away with a process like this or similar. My other daily driver shows zero scuffing or wear on the bolsters (they aren't as pronounced as those on the Crossfire seats so it's not as much of an issue with that car) but there is noticeable wrinkling of the leather on that car. More so on the slight bolsters of the seat cushion than those on the seat back, but they are definitely more pronounced than what I see on the seldom used passenger seat.
But if your side bolsters are badly worn and scuffed, like these Crossfire seats were, this process with correct that whether you do a color change or not.
I did not put that response of mine correctly, the wrinkles I have seen in the darker colors had greyish tingles to the tops and bottoms of the wrinkles and that is what I was getting at.
If it hid wrinkles I would be using it on my face.
Colorbond has something like 185 different OEM leather colors in their palette. I'm not sure how you'd get the exact color for matching existing colors in a Crossfire but since that wasn't my plan here, I didn't really care. I'm willing to bet one of the M-B colors would work if you're looking to match existing colors.
Originally Posted by JHM2K
Mike,
That is truly fantastic. The outcome looks OEM -- which is a HUGE compliment, as I'm in Quality Assurance
Bravo, sir.
Thank you!
Originally Posted by PNA
Looks amazing. Great Job. I never heard of this before. My interior is in really great shape and I like my two tone color as is but if it ever comes down to wanting a change, wow -- I'd try this.
I love the two tone seats in my '05 Roadster but this car was just black....tons and tons of black, and kind of worn out. Perfect time to do something new!
Originally Posted by onehundred80
I did not put that response of mine correctly, the wrinkles I have seen in the darker colors had greyish tingles to the tops and bottoms of the wrinkles and that is what I was getting at.
If it hid wrinkles I would be using it on my face.
Ah, yes, that makes more sense. Yes, this would indeed correct that.
tried this with the exact opposite result. Splatter right from the start, followed light spray directions 2 cans in and not even coverage for one seat. Maybe I got bad cans? Who knows but I totally just ruined my passenger seat.
Interior restoration/color change
