My R55 Clubman has an interior with the Rooster Red leather inserts. The leather on the driver's side seat is worn.

So far the problem is more-or-less cosmetic. I would like to fix this before it gets bad, and (of course) make it look nice.

Do you know what touch-up color I should order for Rooster Red? I can find colors for BMW and many other cars in the Internet, but I can't seem to find the leather codes for MINI Cooper.

 

I don't know the answer to your question but if you have an auto trim (upholstery) shop in your area they should be able to match it or at least head you in the right direction.

 

You might want to hit eBay and search for "BMW leather dye". There are a number of companies which will produce leather dye and sell it by the bottle (small bottles). It's possible they have colors which match Mini's palette but just have't advertised it on eBay. I've used it before on an older leather seat and they work relatively well. However, it's not just the color you must match, but also the finish.

Some leather dyes attempt to appear semi-gloss after it's dried, so as to better match the patina of older leather. Some dyes are totally matte in finish, similar to what brand new leather would look like.

The challenge comes when you only plan to refinish one section of the seat. It looks weird if you apply matte dye and the rest of the seat has a gloss from wear.

 

Highly recommend these people, and their process is something you can do yourself but a good automotive interior shop in your area that works with leather might have their own idea of what products to use and it will cost you. Almost cheaper to have them match with a recover, even both front seats might be cheaper than a restore. That is why I stand by my recommendation if Leatherique has a color match. I have used their system of dyeing on vintage cars and they look like new.

http://www.leatherique.com/

 

anyone notice OP is in Finland?

 

This is why I was interested in knowing the color. The shipping and handling of a bottle of paint from the USA to Europe does not make any sense. The S&H is much more than the cost of the paint. Because of this, I was interested in knowing the color code, so that I could buy the dye from Finland/ Europe.

I have a brilliant shop here nearby. They modified the nappa leather seats of my Mercedes. But quality comes at a price... ...and this time we are talking about touch-up, not fixing a broken seat. If the leather would be damaged (or if I would want to get a full custom interior ) I would take our Mini and money there. But now I would be happy with a bottle or can of a suitable dye.

 

I was about to order a touch up pen from Repair Wizard. The price including shipping and handling was good and they had Rooster Red on their list.

Before placing the order I stopped by a custom shoemaker, who compared the Rooster Red leather to her standard colors, and mixed a small bottle of paint for me. And as a bonus I got a couple of brushes.

I am looking forward to seeing if this paint will look good on the Mini's seats. She said that the paint is water-soluble before it has completely dried. If it does not look good I should be able to wipe it off.

 

It took 2 months before I found time to continue my seat fixing project. But better late than never.

I washed yesterday Mini's interior using a Kärcher Puzzi 100 pressure washer/ carpet cleaner.

Unfortunately, I did not take a photo before starting the washer. The Mini did not look catastrophic, but I can say that black colors looked dark grey and when you looked closer there were ugly dirt spots everywhere. In addition to this the car did not smell very nice. The smell was a mixture of a sweat, mud and those cheap cleaners used in bad car detailing shops.

After 1,5 hours the Puzzi had filled two buckets with black water. I guess starting the project with a proper wash was a good move!

Then I cleaned the leather parts with leather soap and water. Here is the primary area which I want to get fixed.



When the soap phase was done, I put leather conditioner on the leather inserts. Already the conditioner treatment seemed to have a big effect.



Now I will need to wait for some time to let the leather conditioner to work before I can move to the next phase...

 

When the leather conditioner had been there some time, I wiped the leathers and removed grease with grease remover.





Then I applied some cleaning liquid, which came with the leather paint.



(At this point I decided that I had breathed enough fumes from these chemicals and let the leather inserts dry some time.)



Then I started the painting. Argh, that paint was difficult! It was very thick, dried super fast, and if I painted on the partially dry paint, the underlying layer started peeling.

I wish the instructions in the paint kit would have had a better translation. It was in Spanish and Spanglish. I wish they would have said in the package that it is latex and I can add a couple of drops of water to make it easier to spread.

Now, I have the first layer there. I will let it dry overnight and see tomorrow.

 

I wiped off the leather conditioner with a cloth.

[IMG]http://www.saunalahti.fi/~tuomeer/temp/minifix/Thumbnails/5.jpg/IMG]

Then I removed grease using some grease remover.



..and cleaned the leather parts one more time using the clear cleaning liquid which was included in the leather paint kit.



(At this point I decided that I had breather enough fumes and took a break.)

Then it was time to start painting. Argh, the leather paint was difficult. It was very thick and dried super fast. If I applied the paint over over a partially dry layer, the previous layer started peeling. Lessons learned: Do not to wait two months after buying the products, I simply did not remember that the shoemaker had mentioned the paint being latex type of water soluble stuff.

I wish the paint company would have included instructions and information about the product in a language which I understand. The included instructions were a could of simple drawings how you paint a show, and some text in Spanish and Spanglish. Based on what I saw, there was no information about making the paint thinner.

When I noticed that a drop of water helps spreading the paint, work got a lot easier. Unfortunately, at this point I had already painted most of the leather parts.

Afterwards I found myself thinking that airbrush could have produced a more even coating. However, I don't know how if I would have been able to protect the cloth parts well enough from the spray.

This is how it looked in the morning. Not perfect and color differences, but not as disastrous as it looked in the evening when I left the project.



I applied another layer of paint. And now it is drying again. I need to call the shoemaker and ask if she knows about the drying times of that paint. Another thing which should be described clearly in the Spanglish instructions.

 

I wiped off the leather conditioner with a cloth.

[IMG]http://www.saunalahti.fi/~tuomeer/temp/minifix/Thumbnails/5.jpg/IMG]

Then I removed any grease from the surface using grease remover…



This is how the leather looked at this point.



Then I cleaned the leather parts one more time using the clear cleaning liquid, which was included in the leather paint kit.

(At this point I decided that I had breathed enough fumes, and took a break.)

Then it was time to start painting. Argh, that leather paint was difficult! It was thick and dried super fast. If I applied the paint over a partially dry layer, the previous layer started peeling. Lessons learned: Do not to wait two months after buying the products, I simply did not remember that the shoemaker had mentioned the paint being latex type of water soluble stuff. When I noticed that a drop of water helps spreading the paint, work got a lot easier. Unfortunately, at this point I had already painted most of the leather parts.

I wish the paint company would have included instructions and information about the product in a language which I understand. The included instructions were a simple drawing how you paint a shoe, and some text in Spanish and (probably) the same text Spanglish. Based on what I saw and understood of the text, there was no information about making the paint thinner.

Afterwards I found myself thinking that an airbrush could have produced nicer coating than the brushes, which I got from the shoemaker. However, I don't know how I would have been able to protect the rest of the interior from the spray. If I would have removed the seats, I guess spraying would have been a good way to spread the paint.

This is how the leather looked in the morning. Not perfect and color differences, but not as disastrous as it looked in the evening when I left the project.



I applied another layer of paint. And now it is drying again. I need to call the shoemaker and ask if she knows about the drying times of that paint. Another thing which should be described clearly in the Spanglish instructions.

 

Done! At last! The paint was really tricky: One drop of extra water was too little, two drops was too much. But I got the seats painted!

During the project I found myself thinking if I am totally crazy. Why don't I simply take the MINI to Design Eugen or buy a full leather interior from eBay..? Well, when a Finn starts a project, he wants to finish it too. The result looks like this.



More pictures can be found here.

 

Had that exact same problem with the rooster red leather in two different MINIs, both within 6 months of buying them new... The leather they used is just garbage. The only long term fix is going to be to reupholster.

That said, good job sticking with it!

 

Your hard work has paid off, eerola. The results look fantastic. Are you happy with the results?

 

I would say, so far I am pretty happy, and it looks still as good as after the painting. Next time, the work would be easier because now I know how to apply this paint.

But because the work was a a lot more difficult and had to be done so much more carefully than what I would have expected, next time I would probably first call Design Eugen and check if there is a new interior in eBay. And if they don't have a solution, then start to paint myself.