Very Faded Century Aniline Sofa

>>> I have an aniline Century sofa manufactured in 2001.

Use this Aniline (A.fs) as reference to solve you leather problems.
Attachment 7269

>>> From reading your advice to others, I believe I need kit Leather Doctor Kit-A7.cl. ???
Attachment 7270

Yes, this is a start-up kit for color refinishing. You may need other repair and stain removal specialty products as necessary.

>>> Do you think the kit will cover my whole job?

I do not think so, good to test out a cushion of the system, then you will know how much you need to complete the whole project.

>>> It has severe fading,

It is recommended that the dormant dyestuff within the leather structure be reactivated before you add more colors. Hydrator-3.3 will do the job, as you see from the many other projects from this thread.

>>> some minor surface scratches,

These are the common topcoat damages and repairs with AnilineTop-76G after Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0 > Fatliquor-5.0 system where old scratches loose color from fading and from diminished fatliquor (fat and oil).

>>> a metallic permanent marker stain,

Use Stripper-2.3, it will also remove existing finishes, OK when done in conjunction with refinishing process.

>>> and a small area with a deeper scratch that I will only repair if it's very easy. I am not terribly picky, and the fading is my main concern.

Repairs is done with Bond-3D to heal the deeper scratches.

>>> I have seen you refer to razor-60 in a post with Chet. If I need to do that, can you explain what that means?

The Razor-60 is to remove damaged topcoat especially from body oils to even out a section. Or in this situation to remove the metallic stain in conjunction with Stripper-2.3 if the eraser-4 does not track them off.

>>> Do you think one of your stock colors will be sufficient, or should I send you a sample? A dark brown close to the original color is what I am going for.

Your preference, you may pick from the standard coloring or send in a sample for custom matching.
Working with transparent aniline color is the same as working with watercolor - what you see is not what you get.
The color intensity is build upon layers, so one layer application will be lighter than a 4 layers application.

>>> Can you please tell me what kind of aniline I have?

The original aniline dyestuff used in the tannery is similar to Aniline-21 (staining dyestuff), and is seal with AnilineTop-21G to give you the natural gloss or sheen. When comes to refinishing, it will be very tedious to removed all the existing topcoat and then repeat all over with the original finishes, thus Leather Doctor develops the only available “coating” aniline dyestuff Aniline-76 for the ease of refinishing back to the original aniline characteristic without any bronzing effect and when seal again with AnilineTop-76G matching topcoat it will be good against any rub off, crocking or bleeding. With a matching Protector-B+ it will impart a soft natural buttery feel (better then existing tactile feel) with a classic leather-scent.

Aniline-76 is a transparent dyestuff that is formulated for coating over existing topcoat. This lively and brilliant new generation aqueous dyestuff provides a more superior light fastness and fades resistance than most standard liquid dyes. To stain directly into leather with no impeding topcoat use Aniline-21 instead. Use AnilineTop-76 thereafter to seal dyestuff from crocking or bleeding that also decides the luster with either gloss or satin. Matte. Nine (9) standard colors are available for direct application and for creating a secondary or tertiary color to match. The popular Antique-Brown is an example of a mix of one part Orange, Red-Brown and Dark-Brown.

Attachment 7271
Tips: Aniline transparent dyestuff color intensity from the bottle is “what you see is not what you get” unlike the opaque Micro-54 color pigment. The see-through color intensity increases with additional coating. As seen from the above picture example it produces 4 shades or color intensity from top to bottom and the luster level from left to right. Aniline-76 Clear is used to reduce or control color intensity by mixing with the color dyestuff to maximize out the color intensity prior to application.

>>> BTW when I preview the post my pics are huge. If they look that way and I send more pics, how do I shrink them?

Good, huge or high resolution pictures preferred for looking real! I prefer.

Roger Koh
Leather Care System Formulator
Consultant / Practitioner / Instructor
web: www.leatherdoctor.com
forum: www.leathercleaningrestorationforum.com
email: [email protected]