Leather upholstery in cars has been around for as long as the car itself, i.e. for more than a hundred years. The first car seats were copied directly from the horse-drawn carriages that cars came to replace. At first, it was vegetable-dyed natural leather without any surface treatment. The leather of the car seats was treated with fats and oils to make it water-resistant, in the same way as saddles.
Classic leather upholstery in an old vintage car
Soon, pigmented, top-dyed leather began to be used, i.e. the color and finish are on top of the leather surface and protect the leather against dirt and moisture. This type of leather upholstery in cars was used until the 1980s, and is recognizable by the fact that it is brown on the back of the leather and is significantly stronger and stiffer than automotive leather is today.
Modern leather upholstery
From the 1980s onwards, chrome-tanned leather has become common, and this type of leather has basically replaced vegetable-tanned leather in car upholstery. Some car brands, such as VW and Audi, use synthetically tanned leather instead. The leather is often split, which makes it less thick and softer.
The automotive industry is meticulous in its tests of leather quality, which means that the leather in car upholstery is usually of consistent and high quality, and these tests also lead to a certain uniformity in the design of the car leather. Most car upholstery is made of solid-colored, pigmented/over-dyed leather. The leather feel often gives way to durability and wear resistance.
The most common leather color for car upholstery is black, closely followed by gray and light cream shades. However, it is not uncommon to see red, brown, blue, etc. Each car brand has its own shades, but many are very similar to each other.
It is not uncommon to have red leather upholstery in a Ferrari
When a car with leather upholstery has driven more than 5000 km, it is quite common for the leather to start to show wear. Since it is (usually) full-colour leather, i.e. the colour and finish are on top of the leather's surface, the colour can wear away in exposed areas and the leather underneath shows through. Common places where this occurs are on the entry side of the driver's and passenger's seats. The "hump" on the backrest in particular gets a lot of wear and tear because this area is worn every time you get in and out of the car. A leather steering wheel also gets a lot of wear and tear over time.
It is common for leather upholstery in cars that have driven close to 10,000 miles to look like this
These damages are relatively easy to fix with our car upholstery dyeing kits . We have these in stock for a large number of car brands, and those we don't have we can usually mix for you.
Nowadays, car interiors are rarely made entirely of leather, with the exception of more luxurious car brands such as Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Porsche, etc.
You can read more about how to proceed when dyeing leather in our guides for this purpose. Click here to get there.
Car upholstery covered in artificial leather
Faux leather, vinyl and alcantara (which is a furniture textile also known as “faux suede”) are materials that are completely or partially replacing leather in car interiors. The majority of these materials are so similar to leather and suede that it is difficult to tell the difference between imitation leather and real leather, and many car owners are not even aware that they do not have real leather in their car. Even models of more exclusive car brands now have details in faux leather and vinyl. It is common for the back of the driver's seat and the lower edge of the driver's seat and the rear seat to be made of faux leather/vinyl, while the seat cushions and the front of the backrests have real leather.
We have put together a dyeing kit for vinyl and artificial leather that contains what you need to make a strong and durable dyeing of vinyl. The vinyl & leather dyes come from the American Viper Products and work excellently on car upholstery made of leather, artificial leather, boat interiors, etc.
