The Upholstery Forum

What are the differences between automotive leather and other furniture leather of the same thickness?

BigRig wrote:What are the differences between automotive leather and other furniture leather of the same thickness?

The automotive leather is much faster!





(Sorry, but seriously, I don't know.)

@Mtl_Biker ,

I know that it is coated with something, plastic maybe? I am just not sure though and thought I would just stimulate a conversation on this and end up learning something. You have a good leather shop in Montreal but cannot remember the name they let you buy odds and ends too.

(Guess you didn't care for my automotive leather being faster joke. :) )

I did visit a large leather shop here a few months ago, but at the time they had no veg tan leather. That was Cuir Boilard. They did have a good selection of other leathers though as well as quite a collection of remnants which they were selling reasonably. I bought a few (haven't used yet) but I really wanted veg tan in order to wet form some pouches. I'm still working on those (prototype after prototype) and I'm getting better all the time. And learning a lot about working with leather (I'm really a complete novice with leather).

Someone told me about another even better source but they don't sell online and they're way the heck out on the east end of the island of Montreal and I'm on the west end. And with our current construction "season" I dread having to drive out there so have not yet. I'm going to wait until something else brings me out that way. The name of the place is Di Zazzo Leather.

In the meantime I've been buying some veg tan leather in different weights from Tandy Leather.

Cheers!

Automotive leather is treated for UV exposure. Furniture leather will look horrible only a year or two later after being installed in a car. I have seen it many times and have redone interiors for customers that were mislead by a low price from another shop. I highly recommend not trying it unless the car will be in a museum and never see the sun.

I was thinking the same thing. @John
@BigRig

Can I ask, what's in the paint/dye when you see people re-colouring/renovating leather car seats? Would this paint/dye be UV exposure proof

@mrstee , I like this question and is one of the reasons I posted that question.

With the little knowledge I have about recoloring leather... I believe most people use a product called SEM color coat. It comes in a spray can and also mixable to spray out of a gun. Im pretty sure that it has UV protectant in it but does that mean you can coat furniture leather in it and make it automotive quality... I have no Idea. The paint isn't cheep so I dont think you would save much money using furniture leather and painting it with Color Coat. I have used color coat on many projects but never to UV protect furniture leather. I can say that it is a great product.