conor1n
Member
- Messages
- 568
- Location
- London/Ireland
Morning all,
I must say, a bit of a tossup between putting this thread here or in the "metal coatings" section.. not metal, pe se.. so here we are. Actually, perhaps I can use this as my project thread showing my journey into this area as I repair a few of my cars.
Anyway, I am looking to get into vinyl/leather repair for car interiors. My plan is to start off on my own cars which need various repairs. Then if the results are decent, I will get some friends/family/fools to allow me work on their cars. If it works, I will then advertise and continue this as a "side hustle".
Is anybody familiar with this area? I have come across a number of companies selling products (shown below), which seem good, some more expensive than others. I don't have any problem getting to grips with the various products such as primer, filler, binder, topcoats, matting agents etc .. but what seems elusive is the obvious requirement of paint.
I'm trying to find a reasonable paint system which I can rely on and get good colour matches. Colourlock have a system where you can buy a scanner (£700 expensive) which tells you the weights of each paint to use to get your exact colour. They say they currently support 500 colours and are aiming for 5000. After the scanner, it's probably another few hundred for the complete selection of component paints. I think we will all agree that it's probably the best way to go.
In lieu of that (obvious reasons) I am looking for a more cost effective solution. Has anybody had much luck with manually mixing by hand and manually matching up with the leather. Kind of like how for the exterior, a bodyshop might use a "sprayout card".
While I think it's a good idea to start with pre-bought pre-mixed paints, a fundamental part of my learning, if I want to commercialise this, will be to master paint mixing myself - in order to provide a decent margin/competitive price.
Curious what products / systems others have used.
In any case, I will update this later as my journey progresses - but don't hold your breath as it might be the new year. Jesus.. I just said "new year" .. mental how fast 2023 has passed eh!? Time waits for nobody.
https://www.colourlock.co.uk/Professional-Products/ - I like this crowd but I'm dubious if it's all over priced. For example, they charge £3 for a branded ballpoint pen, and about £20 for a coffee mug!!!
https://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/professional-leather-care-products - These guys seem decent.
https://www.leathercare.com/ - The Geist line of products seems interesting.
https://www.leatherrepaircompany.com/ - Another interesting company.
I must say, a bit of a tossup between putting this thread here or in the "metal coatings" section.. not metal, pe se.. so here we are. Actually, perhaps I can use this as my project thread showing my journey into this area as I repair a few of my cars.
Anyway, I am looking to get into vinyl/leather repair for car interiors. My plan is to start off on my own cars which need various repairs. Then if the results are decent, I will get some friends/family/fools to allow me work on their cars. If it works, I will then advertise and continue this as a "side hustle".
Is anybody familiar with this area? I have come across a number of companies selling products (shown below), which seem good, some more expensive than others. I don't have any problem getting to grips with the various products such as primer, filler, binder, topcoats, matting agents etc .. but what seems elusive is the obvious requirement of paint.
I'm trying to find a reasonable paint system which I can rely on and get good colour matches. Colourlock have a system where you can buy a scanner (£700 expensive) which tells you the weights of each paint to use to get your exact colour. They say they currently support 500 colours and are aiming for 5000. After the scanner, it's probably another few hundred for the complete selection of component paints. I think we will all agree that it's probably the best way to go.
In lieu of that (obvious reasons) I am looking for a more cost effective solution. Has anybody had much luck with manually mixing by hand and manually matching up with the leather. Kind of like how for the exterior, a bodyshop might use a "sprayout card".
While I think it's a good idea to start with pre-bought pre-mixed paints, a fundamental part of my learning, if I want to commercialise this, will be to master paint mixing myself - in order to provide a decent margin/competitive price.
Curious what products / systems others have used.
In any case, I will update this later as my journey progresses - but don't hold your breath as it might be the new year. Jesus.. I just said "new year" .. mental how fast 2023 has passed eh!? Time waits for nobody.
https://www.colourlock.co.uk/Professional-Products/ - I like this crowd but I'm dubious if it's all over priced. For example, they charge £3 for a branded ballpoint pen, and about £20 for a coffee mug!!!
https://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/professional-leather-care-products - These guys seem decent.
https://www.leathercare.com/ - The Geist line of products seems interesting.
https://www.leatherrepaircompany.com/ - Another interesting company.
