Issue link: https://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/1309033
NOVEMBER 2020 WWW.PNWR.ORG 17 Since those long pieces of longitudinal channel carpet are glued over the leather side panel bottoms in the rear quarter area, my focus first turned to the faded and damaged red leather. A few little holes and minor tears needed to be repaired before the re-dye could happen. My research led me to a company on the internet called Leather Magic that manufactures water-based leather restoration products. I saw that they could match dye to a sample for a modest fee. The total cost of a repair and re-dye "kit" was around $100 with enough dye to cover my interior, so I cut off a 2" x 2" piece from my leather remnant, mailed it off and waited. When the kit arrived, I practiced on the damaged drivers seat bottom cushion that had a tear in it from the accident. Once dry, the dye was a perfect match to my swatch, but the PREVAL™ aerosol spray bottle provided with the kit clogged quickly and proved worthless. I solved that by substituting my HVLP paint gun which made spraying the dye much easier and since it is water-based clean up was a breeze. I find leather to be a lot like wood in how it can be sanded with 220-grit paper, defects filled and stained (dyed). The Leather Magic repair filler is troweled on with an artist palette knife. It looks and flows like white Elmer's Glue. It dries clear, is flexible, sandable, and absorbs dye just like leather. Several applications were required to fill some deep holes on the dash pad to bring it flush and sanded to feather out the edges, but once dyed the underlying holes were invisible. Setting the HVLP paint gun's spray to have a heavy "orange peel" simulated the grain pattern in the smooth patch that blended in with the surrounding leather grain. The solution to the driver's seat bottom cushion damage was to turn to Tim Paull, owner of MDM Upholstery in Marysville. He was able to special order a single red leather seat bottom cushion cover from GAHH. He then built a new cushion and recovered it to match the shape and indentation of the passenger side perfectly. The brand-new leather also received a coat of the red Leather Magic dye to match it to the others. The last pieces that took a 6-month wait were the headrests I ordered from Heritage Upholstery & Trim in early March. Heritage had also received a swatch of my red leather and what arrived in late August was a stunning set of red leather headrests with new chromed hardware. The color matched closely enough that I chose not to use the Leather Magic dye on them. Now after this on-again, off-again 13-year automotive romance, I have to say my heart goes pitter-pat when I see its reflection driving by store windows. The recent addition of a new turn signal switch, modernizing the tachometer's internal electronics and new steering and shift couplers put my total out-of-pocket investment including the original cost of the car with all the accessories right at $60K. Bottom line is nothing has been done to detract from its originality, the color combination returned to match the COA, all the rust fixed, original parts saved, and everything performs as new or even better. Uncounted hours of 'sweat equity' reversed the toll taken from a 30 year slumber and satisfied my desire to raise the bar and hone my restoration skills further. Now I've earned the privilege of adding to those 83,000 miles that showed on the odometer when I found it. I built it to be driven and it certainly won't be treated like a Fabergé egg!