DONT PAINT EM !go to a body shop and see if they have interior dye !thats what ya need !make sure they prep it good and put some adhesion promotor to make it stick good !

 

Yea what Fly said. By painting them I assume you mean spray paint with some over-the-counter stuff and that's not going to work so make sure that you don't mean that in the sense that you won't be able to forgive yourself if you did it. Mainly because the stuff will peal. So do take it to the shop and they will prolly use some form of liquid leather to close up and cracks/openings and will go from there.

 

You could go to a upholestry shop and have them recovered.

 

Do you know what price range recovering them would be in? I've just recently started considering this.

 

If you clean them well with some Formula 409 before you spray paint them it will help the paint to adhere.
You need to get rid any body oil, dust, etc. first.

Use a microfiber towel to clean them, and keep working at it until you start to get some color on the towel then quit. You do not want to scratch or abrade the leather.

Then wipe them with distilled water on a slightly damp rag but do NOT wet the leather. Make sure they have dried completely during a period of low relative humidity before you spray. (take them out of the car - doh!) Wait until the temp is 70F or so before spraying. Several light coats is the way to go.

The spray paint will work for a while, but the only way to do it right is new leather. If you do that you might as well do the whole seat- $$$......good luck!

 

Tandy (http://www.tandyleather.com/) sells leather dies. That's what I used for mine. Just don't use the stupid little cotton swabber things they have to go with it, just use a sponge or something.

 

I used shoe polish on my black seats. Works good, but it rubs off faster than the original layers. I imagine the color for the tan seats would be harder to match with shoe polish than with black seats. There's always the option to have your seats recovered. That's one of the best ways to make an old car look new. All the cars that came into the shop in Taipei were re-upholstered in new Itallian leather. There weren't too many customers who were into restoration there, but there were plenty of customers were into a restored car. Last time I was there, we had a few VW Karman Ghias in line and jobs had been done on a 328 GTS, and Mercedes Cabriolet- not sure what year. I guess the full job would be Gordon Monsen style, but for just the seats, you could have several different places do them for you.

 

Dont bother to paint, it will not work. I did a test by painting my leather wallet to see how it would last,cause I too considered. I used the duplicolor vinyle paint (It does wonders on doors, dash, plastic,etc). It came off my wallet in like a few days.

Rustoleum has a new product I picked up at homedepot for a few bucks in a spray can. They say it will not peel off. I painted a plastic piece to see and it seems to be on very strong.

I bought seat covers from www.leatherseats.com. they were like 579.00. I installed myself, takes along time, but you save money.

An interior shop dyes your seats with the same crap you buy at the store, they PAINT the seats. IT WILL COME OFF.

spend the money on the seat covers. They look better and are more comforitable.