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This photo shows a tear in a panel from a leather sofa. To fix the tear you will need the following products.
Products Required
Leather Repair Kit - To fix the tear
Leather Touch Up Kit or a Leather Colourant Kit - depending upon the area needing repaired.
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The tear we are fixing is quite large, and there is cracking around it, so I have chosen to use a leather colourant kit to restore the colour afterwards.
This is because a large area needs restored, rather then just needing to apply colour to the tear, in which case I would have used a leather touch up kit.
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So, as shown in the above photo. I have prepped and alcohol cleaned the tear and the surrounding leather. This cleans the surface making the colour (later applied) adhere better.
In this photo, I am using a scalpal to trim the worn edges off the tear making for a cleaner edge and smarter repair.
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This photo shows the tear after the edges have been trimmed.
If you compare the two edges, you can see that before they are cut, they stick out like lips. By trimming them down, they become flat, which is very important when it comes to filling the gap - without trimming them the repair would be raised.
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Using the tweezers and canvas cloth supplied in the leather repair kit. Insert the cloth behind the tear.
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Once the cloth is behind the leather, use a small pointed object to apply the glue onto the underside of the leather. Basically - put the glue inbetween the cloth and the leather.
Press the leather down onto the cloth once the glue has been applied to all the edges and leave it to dry.
This technique re-creates the backing of the leather making for a very strong repair.
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The next step is to apply the heavy filler into the tear. This will fill the gap in the leather making it level with the rest of the leather.
The filler is applied in several thin layers and a grain pattern can be embossed into the final layer to further blend the tear in with the rest of the leather.
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Apply one thin layer to start with and then dry it off with a hair drier for a few minutes. Repeat this process until the tear is about 3/4's full.
Then apply one last layer to the tear and smooth it off with the palette knife making it level with the leather.
For a perfect repair you can use a grain pad to emboss the grain pattern into the filler.
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In this photo I am sponging on the base coat of colour. The first thing to do is apply 2 or 3 coats of colour, only to the filler so that the colour becomes fully opaque.
Then, sponge the colour around the wider area to blend it in better.
This leather is two tone so the base colour is applied first and then the top colour afterwards.
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This photo shows the tear with the base colour applied ontop of it.
When applying the base colour, some cracks were exposed, which have been filled again with the heavy filler.
Wipe the filler over the leather with the palette knife. Leave for 5 minutes and then gently sand to make smooth, using 1200 grit paper.
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As said before, this leather is two tone, which is where it has a light coloured base, with a darker colour sprayed over the top of it.
So, I have sprayed the top coat of colour over the base to blend it in properly.
The leather is then sealed in with the leather finish for a strong, long lasting, invisible repair!
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This is a close up photo of the tear after it has been fixed.
You can see that by using the correct products, taking your time, and finishing well, that you can quite easily get a perfect repair.
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