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Dying a Corbin Leather Seat


koth442

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Some of you may remember the fuggly purple Corbin seat in the classifieds a few weeks ago. I figured I'd give leather dying a shot and see if I could salvage it. I'm not very picky about everything looking perfect. I live and die by the 10-10 rule (looks good at 10ft or 10mph). I've documented the process for future reference.\\
 
Starting materials:
1. Leather that needs to be a different color
2. Leather dye of desired color (black in this case)
3. Dry / clean rags or paper towels
4. Water spray bottle
Optional 5. Leather de-greaser
 
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Step 2.
Clean the leather you wish to dye. I used water and paper towels. Leather deglazer or specialized cleaner may be better here.
 
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Step 3. 
Apply the dye. I tried both applying the dye to wet or dry leather. I think applying the dye to dry leather works better.
 
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Step 4. 
Slather that stuff everywhere.
 
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Step 5. 
MOAR COATS[span] 
 
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Step 6. Let 'er dry.
 
After a week or so, here it is on the bike. Seems to have some purple hue to it. But not too bad.
 
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'15 FJ09

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@keithu - I'm laughing because your comment hits VERY close to home. This is my GSX-R750 racebike, circa 1992. I had already ditched the horrific purple/yellow/pink/black paint scheme, but if you look closely you'll see the wheels are still purple.
 
 
OHR_WERA_1994.jpg
 
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This reminds me of a time when in addition to my then BMW R1150R I also owned a Triumph Thunderbird Sport - a very pretty 900cc triple.    Wanting to further reflect the Ace Cafe days I bought a black leather jacket which had a stripe down each sleeve - unfortunately the stripes were red, not yellow.   But I bought somewhere some leather paint - not dye - and was able to easily paint the stripes in a nice matching yellow without all the prep needed for a dyeing process.   I'm sure it added several kph to my top speed!  (This pic was originally taken in April 2000 - what has happened to all the years since then?)
 
The leather paint would suit many applications on a bike's trim, being highly flexible, and it lasted quite a long time, but I doubt it would suit being on something subject to wear and abrasion such as a seat.   FWIW.
 
 
P1010064r.jpg

Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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Nice T-bird Sport Wordsmith! I had one exactly like yours as a loaner for a couple of months in 1998. Fun bike, and the details were beautiful: steel fenders, hand-painted pinstripes, braided brake lines... The only let down was the weird fake carb cover, which apparently Triumph are still doing.
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Nice T-bird Sport Wordsmith! I had one exactly like yours as a loaner for a couple of months in 1998. Fun bike, and the details were beautiful: steel fenders, hand-painted pinstripes, braided brake lines... The only let down was the weird fake carb cover, which apparently Triumph are still doing.
I remember naively asking a Triumph sales rep once why they continue with the carburetors, and he described how the bikes are injected but they wanted to retain the retro look with the fake cover. I found that a bit disturbing, and haven looked at the Thruxton and the others the same way since.
I find it mildly strange that you should find that 'disturbing', piotr!   I'm not a shareholder in Triumph Corp, but surely their approach is no different to - say - the lashings of faux carbon on the Tracers?

Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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