"A gentleman does
not motor about after dark" Joseph Lucas 1923
Saturday 5 September, Phil
Karam hosted a Technical Session at his home. The event had three
components: what to look for when you buy a car, a tour of his
collection with coffee and goodies and the steps in restoration of
leather.
SCROLL DOWN FOR
DETAILING AND LEATHER
Buying a Car
Phil had recently purchased a
MK2
Jaguar with a 3.8 L engine and standard transmission . He is planning
to do some maintenance and minor reatoration on the car and described
the things he looked for both before and after he bought the car. The
car had been carefully looked after in its early days but has several
problems now. The seats need to be rejuvenated..more of that later and
the body needs a fresh coat of paint. One of the first things Phil did
was to clean away all the crud in the wheel wells to determine if there
was any rot in the inner fender panels. He then checked the interior
and found wet carpets and a stain next to the rear window. He caulked
the rear window rubber that was in good condition and ordered a new
rubber seal for the drivers side quarter light window. The carpets were
tired and he has ordered a new set. He will clean the floors when they
are out. Mechanically the car is in good shape. Based on previous
records it seems that the hubs and wheels are new (wires) and an
inspection showed only one loose wheel due to a wheel bearing that just
needed tightening. It was clear that despite the quality appearance of
the car that after close inspection there were a lot of little things
to be done to make it a good driver. A careful inspection of brake
lines, hoses, electrics under the car and in the engine compartments
and the condition of all fluids is essential. In particular checking
the fluid levels in the transmission (standard or automatic) and the
differential is essential and the greasing of the many grease fittings.
Most older Jaguars have a maintenance diagram. DONT TRUST
YOUR
SERVICE STATION TO CHECK ALL THESE ITEMS...DO IT YOURSELF!
DETAILING
YOUR CAR
The instructions
for using the flow chart are linkedhere
LEATHER RESTORATION
After the tour and a cup of coffee
and a donut Phil commenced to regail us with the process that he has
developed to restore older Jaguar leather. He used a seat cover from an
old S Type provided by Rob Laughton the local representative for
leatherique products.
This photo
shows Phil discussing the need to remove the dye from the upper surface
of the leather to allow reoiling of the leather to return the
suppleness.
In this photo Phil explains the
need to clear away the old dye using, in his process, gunwash or a
varsol/lacquer thinner solution that is then lightly sanded. This is
preceeded by a careful removal of any loose dirt on the seat with
compressed air.
Once the seat has
been cleaned and the dye removed then a number of liberal coatings of
leatherique rejuvenating oil is applied to soften the leather.
Leatherique recommends that when using their product the use of
Pristine Clean preceed the use of the rejuvenatiung oil to remove
embedded dirt and previous layers of dye. These leatherique products
are water based.
This photo shows the S type seat
where at the top of the photo the leater is hard and original. The next
horizontal layer shows the dye removed by Phil's process (medium
brown). The next layer toward the bottom shows what the seat looks like
with the rejuvenating oil applied (darker brown). The bottom three
strips (near phils gloved hand) shows the leather with all the
treatments above that has been dyed using a small brush (2 coats of
water based dye).
The following list is
Phil's guidelines for restoration
-Air Blow the cracks and seams -Remove the
old dye with lacquer thinner/gun wash -Sand with
#400 grit paper if nescessary -Apply
rejuvenator oil-let sit 48 hours (if extra dry you may need more
applications) -Remove the
surface oil with Pristine Clean -Apply
filler in all the cracks (available from leatherique) -Sand with
#600 sandpaper and damp clean with Leatherique cleaning agent
-Apply the first coat of dye with a rag or a brush
-Apply the second coat of dye with a brush
-Buff (by hand)
-Where the seat will come in contact with another such as the rear part
of the seat cushion where it goes under the back seat rest apply pledge
furniture polish to prevent sticking
Equipment Needed
Safety Glasses; Rags;Very course
and Medium Course scouring pads; hand sander; water bottle, a pan
for the thinner solution; thinner/gunwash;rejuvenator oil; large paint
brush; fingernail scrub brush; air hose; rubber gloves; pristine clean;
prepping agent, acrylic brush for dye (artists brush); dye (if
you need to match the colour exactly cut a small peice about 1 inch
square from under the seat where it has not faded and send it to the
dye provider); small cups
Sources
+ Parasol Inc www.parasolinc.com + Color Plus www.colorplus.com read about leather
10 pages + Leatherique www.leatheriquecanada.com
pristine
clean-rejuvenate-prepping -dye www.leatherique.netread the DIY
instruction www.leatherique.comdownload the
booklet www.leatherique.org
