Vinyl repair

[captainb]

Hi I have a couple of tears in my imitation Leather - Black/Anthracite door cards in my 2006 C320. Is it possible to repair this ? I've seen people repair leather seats very successfully.
Also some of the dye in the seats is beginning to show some wear. I was hopping just to apply some dye to rejuvenate them.
Thanks

 

[slade1]

Have same problem with my CLK. It's called Artico and its crap.
Will probably replace the Artico panels with real leather or get a second seat from Germany

 

[ioweddie]

Sad isn't it that a supposed high end quality car looks like this and a 60 year old Morris Minor made by BMC has better quality interior for longevity

 

[slade1]

You are right ioweddie, my 61 year old 190B still has the original MBTex, a bit grubby and some stitching has come undone.

 

[Poynty]

I had my vinyl leather repaired recently, guy did a great job based in Surrey, Steve Salmon.

Had a rip through stitching, he repaired/recovered the seat and at half the price of Mercedes’ dealership.

Artico is MBTEX - Vinyl leather, I’ve been told by Mercedes’ you should clean with a cloth (not micro fibre) and regular dish soap.

I coated mine with auto finesse Caramics kit the other day to help protect.

 

[slade1]

MBTex and Artico may be artificial leather but the quality is light years apart. MBTex is almost indestructible.

 

[mioba]

Just another cash cow for mercedes, creating many consumable parts in a car so the customers keep coming back to replace items which certainly not be the case.

For the OP i am sure an auto upholsterer could easily repair that.

 

[ckerrecoe]

Hi I have a couple of tears in my imitation Leather - Black/Anthracite door cards in my 2006 C320. Is it possible to repair this ? I've seen people repair leather seats very successfully.
Also some of the dye in the seats is beginning to show some wear. I was hopping just to apply some dye to rejuvenate them.
Thanks

I have a similar problem with the Artico covered rear console in my E350. Really badly scuffed and ripped a year ago and has been bugging me ever since. I've wanted to try to repair it myself for ages, just to see if I could do it without replacing the whole unit, so I bought a repair kit from Furniture Clinic and started yesterday. So far I've glued all the flappy bits down and filled the gaps and scuffs with as little filler as possible. I'll do a second coat today and then colour the repairs later. I'm quite impressed so far but I'm not looking forward to colour matching as my seats are not quite black. So I'll have to experiment with the colours to get a good match.

 

[captainb]

I have a similar problem with the Artico covered rear console in my E350. Really badly scuffed and ripped a year ago and has been bugging me ever since. I've wanted to try to repair it myself for ages, just to see if I could do it without replacing the whole unit, so I bought a repair kit from Furniture Clinic and started yesterday. So far I've glued all the flappy bits down and filled the gaps and scuffs with as little filler as possible. I'll do a second coat today and then colour the repairs later. I'm quite impressed so far but I'm not looking forward to colour matching as my seats are not quite black. So I'll have to experiment with the colours to get a good match.

Looking good, please keep us updated. Thing I worry about on the dye is it coming off on clothes.

 

[fabes]

If DIY fails and you're happy to pootle up the M27, Wessex Car Trimming could be a plan B.

May not cost too much either for a small bit of work

 

[ckerrecoe]

Looking good, please keep us updated. Thing I worry about on the dye is it coming off on clothes.

So, I applied the colour to the repairs yesterday and the rear console looks a lot better than it did ripped to shreds like it was, of course. It's not perfect but tbh I never expected it to look perfect, but I think I overdid it with the filler (it says to use sparingly but I think I wasn't 'sparingly' enough) and I was a bit sheepish about sanding the filler down too much and damaging the surroundings leather/artico. I think I want to have another go at it, sand it down a bit more, add a tiny bit more filler maybe and really focus on getting the gaps and tears as invisible as possible.

The colour was easy enough to match- I just added a few drops of white to the black until it looked the same dark grey. You get all these extra colours in the kit to change the hue of the black if necessary but I didn't need to do that. I tried to avoid having to figure out how to blend effectively by re-colouring an entire panel. Worked for me.

I also used it on the plastic seat liners on the back of the front seats to cover/recolour some scuffs. Worked a treat, although I haven't got pics of that. I'll try and take some today.

The driver's seat bolster had some scuffs, no tears or gaps or anything (not bad for an 89k mile motor) so I recoloured basically the entire seat and have applied the conditioner too and it looks fantastic. I would say it's very easy to fix or at least improve scratches and worn areas that haven't actually ripped. I would also say that if the perforated sections (of which I have loads) had ripped, I don't know how I would have been able to fix them. That would be a job for a pro I think.

See photos. Excuse the state of my carpet. The whole car needs a good couple of days of my time and attention once I've sorted these seats.

Oh, a tip- wear rubber gloves when you're colouring leather

 

[captainb]

If DIY fails and you're happy to pootle up the M27, Wessex Car Trimming could be a plan B.

May not cost too much either for a small bit of work

I spoke with them they didn't sound confident they could repair. Ive sent pics to them. Will have to wait and see.

 

[Parki47]

I had my vinyl leather repaired recently, guy did a great job based in Surrey, Steve Salmon.

Had a rip through stitching, he repaired/recovered the seat and at half the price of Mercedes’ dealership.

Artico is MBTEX - Vinyl leather, I’ve been told by Mercedes’ you should clean with a cloth (not micro fibre) and regular dish soap.

I coated mine with auto finesse Caramics kit the other day to help protect.

Hi Poynty, Can you give me phone number for Steve Salmon? I've got a 2006 C320 with a seat tear along the stitching on th driver's seat. Or call me? 07835 074421. Thanks.

 

[Poynty]

Hi Poynty, Can you give me phone number for Steve Salmon? I've got a 2006 C320 with a seat tear along the stitching on th driver's seat. Or call me? 07835 074421. Thanks.

Sure, his number is +44 7778 358138, say Chris from Clandon referred you