Having researched some of the previous posts on treating worn leather seats on Prime and some of the iffy results that were obtained, I thought other Prime members might find this product of some interest. The product in question is called Scuffmaster and is sold by a company in the UK called Liquid Leather. They do not appear to have a North American distributor so you have to order it off of their web site (www.liquidleather.com). The price, including shipping is about £17 (you do the currency conversion). I found one previous mention of this product by a Prime member; but, no details on the results.
The seats on my 2000 NSX were not badly worn (no major rub-offs of the finish coat); however, there were a significant number of cracks on the driver’s seat outside bolster (bottom and back panel), some cracking on the driver’s inside bolster (back panel) and a small amount of cracking on one of the passenger bolsters. I have attached photos showing the seat condition after cleaning and before treatment with the Scuffmaster. The seats were out of the car for this fix because of some other required repairs to the seat back cushions. You wouldn’t need to pull the seats to do this work; however, it sure was nice not to have to deal with bumping into a steering wheel all the time.
The Scuffmaster product requires that the seats be thoroughly cleaned prior to treatment. Scuffmaster is a water based dye and if there is any oily residue on the leather surface, it will not be absorbed by the leather. Liquid Leather recommends the use of their cleaner. Instead, I used Autoglym leather cleaner which is a ‘sudsy’ water based cleaner, in part because it was available locally. Don’t use any combined cleaner & conditioner products because you don’t want any residue on the leather before you treat it. A local upholstery repair guy recommended a 10% acetone in water solution for cleaning and degreasing; however, I was a little hesitant to try something that aggressive. The Autoglym seemed to work well; however, it took me a lot of repeated cleanings to get the seats to the point where there was no more stuff coming off the surface of the seats. I think I used about ¾ of a role of those disposable blue shop towels before they would come clean without residue. In retrospect, I am thinking that a previous owner or detailer may have done a color treatment on the seats to hide the defects.
I applied the undiluted Scuffmaster dye directly to the cracks using a modeller’s micro brush (looks a bit like a single ended Q-tip except with a tiny round fuzzy brush instead of cotton swab on the end). The micro brush is small enough to allow you to work the dye into the bottom of the cracks which is important because the dye is fairly thick and would tend to blob on top of the crack otherwise. After allowing the dye to dry for a couple of minutes, I wiped the surface with a water damped cloth. The dye will wipe off the adjacent surfaces of the leather where the original finish coat on the leather is still intact. I then took a little bit of dye and diluted it about 10 – 20 % with water and applied this as a color wash using one of the applicator sponges that came with the Scuffmaster kit. I did this to blend the cracks into the surrounding leather which was missing some of the topcoat. After the color wash dried, I again wiped with a damp cloth. I have attached photos of the seats after the dye treatment.
The Scuffmaster kit comes with some toners that can be used to alter the color of basic black dye in the kit. I didn’t use these toners. I found that after drying, the Scuffmaster black was a near perfect match to the 12 year old black on the seats. The Scuffmater kit also comes with a small bottle of gloss enhancer. You are supposed to mix a small amount of the gloss enhancer in with the dye on your final color wash. I didn’t do this which led to some minor regrets. The Scuffmaster dye has a flat finish (and I mean really flat). This wasn’t so noticeable until I applied some conditioner which put a shine on the leather surface adjacent to the cracks. Now that the conditioner is on, I can’t apply a color wash with the gloss enhancer unless I go through the whole cleaning process again and that’s not happening any time soon! If you have any large surface scuffs on your bolsters, you will really need to use the gloss enhancer to get a reasonable match with the surrounding leather. Without the gloss enhancer, the flat black appears much darker than the surrounding leather with its semi-gloss finish.
Scuffmaster is described as a permanent dye which does not need a topcoat. They do recommend conditioning the leather after treatment (I used Autoglym leather balm). After conditioning and letting the seats sit for two days, I took a white cotton cloth and rubbed it hard over the treated surface. I used both dry and damp cloths and did not detect any color rub off. The Scuffmaster kit comes with a 65 ml bottle of dye. I probably used about 5 ml to 10 ml max treating the cracks on my seats. The 65 ml is probably large enough that you could do a complete color wash of both leather seats on the NSX if you wanted to.
</O
The Scuffmaster dye is not a crack filler so the cracks in the leather are still visible. However, the dye is thick enough that it will fill cracks if you don’t work it into the base of the cracks and then wipe it off. This would be bad because a thick coat dries hard and will not flex with the leather. This is why the micro brush or similar applicator is important to work it down into the leather.
</O
For you owners with colors other than black, Liquid Leather say they will custom match the color; however, you need to send them a color sample. You get to figure out the logistics on that one!
</O
In summary:
The seats on my 2000 NSX were not badly worn (no major rub-offs of the finish coat); however, there were a significant number of cracks on the driver’s seat outside bolster (bottom and back panel), some cracking on the driver’s inside bolster (back panel) and a small amount of cracking on one of the passenger bolsters. I have attached photos showing the seat condition after cleaning and before treatment with the Scuffmaster. The seats were out of the car for this fix because of some other required repairs to the seat back cushions. You wouldn’t need to pull the seats to do this work; however, it sure was nice not to have to deal with bumping into a steering wheel all the time.
The Scuffmaster product requires that the seats be thoroughly cleaned prior to treatment. Scuffmaster is a water based dye and if there is any oily residue on the leather surface, it will not be absorbed by the leather. Liquid Leather recommends the use of their cleaner. Instead, I used Autoglym leather cleaner which is a ‘sudsy’ water based cleaner, in part because it was available locally. Don’t use any combined cleaner & conditioner products because you don’t want any residue on the leather before you treat it. A local upholstery repair guy recommended a 10% acetone in water solution for cleaning and degreasing; however, I was a little hesitant to try something that aggressive. The Autoglym seemed to work well; however, it took me a lot of repeated cleanings to get the seats to the point where there was no more stuff coming off the surface of the seats. I think I used about ¾ of a role of those disposable blue shop towels before they would come clean without residue. In retrospect, I am thinking that a previous owner or detailer may have done a color treatment on the seats to hide the defects.
I applied the undiluted Scuffmaster dye directly to the cracks using a modeller’s micro brush (looks a bit like a single ended Q-tip except with a tiny round fuzzy brush instead of cotton swab on the end). The micro brush is small enough to allow you to work the dye into the bottom of the cracks which is important because the dye is fairly thick and would tend to blob on top of the crack otherwise. After allowing the dye to dry for a couple of minutes, I wiped the surface with a water damped cloth. The dye will wipe off the adjacent surfaces of the leather where the original finish coat on the leather is still intact. I then took a little bit of dye and diluted it about 10 – 20 % with water and applied this as a color wash using one of the applicator sponges that came with the Scuffmaster kit. I did this to blend the cracks into the surrounding leather which was missing some of the topcoat. After the color wash dried, I again wiped with a damp cloth. I have attached photos of the seats after the dye treatment.
The Scuffmaster kit comes with some toners that can be used to alter the color of basic black dye in the kit. I didn’t use these toners. I found that after drying, the Scuffmaster black was a near perfect match to the 12 year old black on the seats. The Scuffmater kit also comes with a small bottle of gloss enhancer. You are supposed to mix a small amount of the gloss enhancer in with the dye on your final color wash. I didn’t do this which led to some minor regrets. The Scuffmaster dye has a flat finish (and I mean really flat). This wasn’t so noticeable until I applied some conditioner which put a shine on the leather surface adjacent to the cracks. Now that the conditioner is on, I can’t apply a color wash with the gloss enhancer unless I go through the whole cleaning process again and that’s not happening any time soon! If you have any large surface scuffs on your bolsters, you will really need to use the gloss enhancer to get a reasonable match with the surrounding leather. Without the gloss enhancer, the flat black appears much darker than the surrounding leather with its semi-gloss finish.
Scuffmaster is described as a permanent dye which does not need a topcoat. They do recommend conditioning the leather after treatment (I used Autoglym leather balm). After conditioning and letting the seats sit for two days, I took a white cotton cloth and rubbed it hard over the treated surface. I used both dry and damp cloths and did not detect any color rub off. The Scuffmaster kit comes with a 65 ml bottle of dye. I probably used about 5 ml to 10 ml max treating the cracks on my seats. The 65 ml is probably large enough that you could do a complete color wash of both leather seats on the NSX if you wanted to.
</O
The Scuffmaster dye is not a crack filler so the cracks in the leather are still visible. However, the dye is thick enough that it will fill cracks if you don’t work it into the base of the cracks and then wipe it off. This would be bad because a thick coat dries hard and will not flex with the leather. This is why the micro brush or similar applicator is important to work it down into the leather.
</O
For you owners with colors other than black, Liquid Leather say they will custom match the color; however, you need to send them a color sample. You get to figure out the logistics on that one!
</O
In summary:
- Excellent color match for black interior on a 2000 NSX.
- Relatively easy to apply (notwithstanding the hassle of getting the leather clean in the first place) and does not appear to have any nasty toxic bits.
- Easy to blend into adjacent surface since it does not adhere to the coated leather.
- No detectable rub off.
- Claims to be a permanent treatment (long term durability test has to wait until the snow melts and I can get the seats put back into the car).
- Price is reasonable; however, more expensive than shoe polish for those seeking bargain solutions.
