Vehicle interior repairs

Fibrenew's franchise opportunity for fixing torn leather and vinyl.

Custom Bay Fibrenew leather interior vinyl interior leather repair specialty parts vehicle accessories

This Custom Bay column typically covers business opportunities involving various aftermarket hard parts. For this issue, however, we'll be looking at the softer side — that is, repairing and restoring upholstery. After all, when customers bring their vehicles in for upgrades and services, offering other types of services can increase your bottom line. And it only takes a second to spot some worn and damaged vinyl or leather in need of attention.

The market for this type of service is burgeoning. Because new car and truck sales are on the slow road to recovery, people are keeping their vehicles much longer. Also, considering the extra expense of leather seats, keeping them looking new makes good sense to preserve their added value.

What's surprising is just how extensive of a repair can be accomplished. Taking one look at the cracked and splitting car seat on my wife's 10-year-old Lexus, we figured the upholstery was way beyond repair. This likely meant an expensive recovering job that didn't seem justified given the age and value of the vehicle. Then we came across a company called Fibrenew, which claims to live up to the "renew" embedded in the company name.

We weren't happy about the costlier alternative mentioned above, so we decided to give the repair route a try, despite our doubts. Timothy Fannin of Fibrenew NorthBay, a regional franchisee based in northern California, wasn't very optimistic either about the repair job because of the damage in the seam area. Turns out, though, that wasn't the hardest part, as we'll reveal shortly.

First, he did his best to clean up the old upholstery. On leather seats, usually the flat panels on the bottom and back are made of genuine animal hides, and the sides are color-matched vinyl, because of its better flexibility. We discovered that some of the apparent dirt in the grain was actually cracked and damaged leather, which would require a re-dye or color coat.

Before proceeding with repairs, a thorough cleaning is necessary to remove other types of chemicals that might have been applied to the surface. Note that in contrast to Fibrenew's water-based treatments, Fannin explains that, "silicone-based or petroleum treatments are the enemy. That's because water and oil don't mix."

Once the material is thoroughly cleaned scrubbed, the first stage of the repair involves applying thin layers of a repair compound with a palette knife between the torn edges of the vinyl, directly onto the white backing material. The edges are not actually joined together, as in stitching together a torn piece of fabric. Instead, the repair acts a filler/patch. After a brief warming from a heat gun to cure the patch, Fannin applies a piece of flexible material with a grain imprint that imparts a matching texture to the smooth surface of the patch.

Once that dries, he cleans the surface yet again, and then applies a vinyl prepping compound to ensure the color will adhere properly. To verify that, he does a "tape test" (using a piece of masking tape) to make sure the surface is sufficiently tacky and will accept the dye.

Spraying on the color topcoat proved to be the trickiest part, because our beige upholstery, "is the hardest to match," Fannin admits. He experimented with a few different combinations of tints from his bottles of dye before getting the exact hue. Part of the challenge is because the old upholstery is actually a variety of shades of beige, so while one area looks exactly the same as color of the repair, another might appear slightly different. Blending the colors together with a slight amount of intentional overspray onto the seat helped.

This type of repair, which can be done on a variety of soft and hard plastics along with leather upholstery, is more than just a stitch in time. It also requires a bit of color sense and artistry.

Steve Temple is a freelance technical writer and photographer with more than 25 years' experience. He has served as director of sales and marketing for Shelby American and as online editor for major magazines such as Hot Rod, Car Craft and Rod & Custom.