Do You Know How To Repair Your Car Upholstery?

Your car interior is an important aspect of your vehicle. Making sure it looks in good condition requires constant care and repairs over time.

Agnostic to what you may hear about car seat repairs, not giving appropriate attention to the adequate methods of maintenance to car upholstery could take a toll on your vehicle.

Prior to replacing seat covers or having your seats reupholstered, check out these facile ways of restoring your car’s interior without having to spend a fortune.

Evaluate the damage

Before you start fixing things around, assess the damage of the car interior. Whether you find a hole or a tear in the leather surface, upholstery repairs might not be enough to solve that problem.

Things could get even worse if the damage extends to the seat belts or other vehicle safety features. In that scenario, try to contact a professional to help you decide what you ought to do next.

At times, you may be able to take care of the problem, but fixing does not necessarily make things look like brand new.

Visible holes and tears may require to be fixed by upholstery experts who know how to take care of the interior professionally.

Simple repairs could make a difference

If your vehicle is equipped with cloth seats, you could use a curved upholstery needle and a strong special thread to fix any simple tear.

Of course, pay attention to the color and make sure you stitch it properly. Once you complete the sewing repair, use a fabric sealant to cover the area that was fixed to avoid fraying.

Similar techniques applies to holes on cloth seats as long as they are smaller than two inches.

If your car seats have cigarette burns or your pet kept chewing your leather seats, use an interfacing that coheres with the fabric when heated.

Again, the color and texture are crucial when buying additional fabric for car upholstery repairs. Note that you could find fabric adhesive at any craft store in your area.

Next, considering measuring the size of the hole to have an exact idea of the piece you need to cut from the extra fabric you just purchased.

While cutting the fabric, make sure the edges are even and the fabric makes a net square.

Take a piece of the fabric adhesive, which must be larger than the hole, then tuck it into the torn area and cover the top with the fabric patch.

To make sure it stays that way, use an iron to heat the fabric patch and the adhesive. You’ll know you did a great job when both (the fabric and the adhesive) are visibly bonding together.

Remove scratches in leather

It goes without saying that leather seats are really hard to be repaired compared to other seat fabric such as cloth.

Yet, using a powerful leather cream could buff out visible and light scratches on your seat.

For scratches that are difficult to remove, add a little of spray lacquer to the affected area to restore the look of the upholstery.

Note that you need to pay attention to the product guideline and take your time as much as needed. You may have to repeat the process until you reach an optimal result.

If you need to ensure you are using the right tools on your upholstery, contact your local car dealer to get a repair kit that was specifically created to take care of certain type of leather damages.

SEE ALSO: How To Clean Your Car Carpet (Maintenance And Care Guide)