As a new owner of the Copen, I have just started the first of many jobs. The first is repairing some of the cracks on the drivers red leather seat. It only cost me £5 for a small tube of red leather dye from eBay. An easy job and very satisfying. Allow to dry overnight, buff and condition. I think it looks great! What a cracking looking seat! Sand area around the cracks with 2000 fine sand paper. Wipe area with a soapy damp clean cloth, allow to dry and then apply around 4 to 5 coats of the dye over the area with a sponge using a dabbing action allowing around 10 to 15 mins per coat until the desired colour is achieved. Wipe excess dye after around and hour or so very lightly and then after 24 hours buff and condition! I am very happy with the result, not perfect but very acceptable. I have many other jobs to do on the car, so will be posting the images etc on this site.
Do you think the colour will stay on and not rub off? I also thought about giving my red seats a touch up, but I am worried I will make it worse than before
Looks great, I use Woly shoe polish in red from eBay to keep mine looking good if any marks start to show.
Today I took apart my leather seats to paint the metal shell underneath the upholstery. It was very rusty, the guys at Daihatsu didn't paint it. While everything was torn apart I took some time and washed the leather with laundry detergent/water mix and a brush. Oh boy it looks and feels as good as new now. Taking out the seats is easy. 4 Screws hold it in place.
Do all copens have leather seats or was leather an option ? Mine's a 2004 model and only done 24,000 Km's but the red seats are pretty much ingrained with dirt and a few black marks. I've used a foam cleaner from a motorists shop which did nothing at all so just took it to a manual car cleaning place presuming they would have some super stuff for interiors. She squirted some stuff on and wiped it away with no visible improvement and said vinyl seats are hard to clean. Are they leather or vinyl and any tips on how to clean or I will look at recovering them. BTW car and scooter wash places are on every street corner here in Thailand, a full clean inside and out cost me 160 Baht or about £3.20.
Copens either have cloth or leather seats so if they are red and look like leather I would say that they are leather not vinyl. I'd try a different leather cleaner or possibly get them reconditioned professionally - then they would look like new
Here is a link in german for tan seats color is F014. http://shop.lederzentrum.de/alle-produkte/leder-fresh-tonung-30-ml.html
Woolies Trim in the UK do colour matched leather renovation kits. I've used them before (on other cars, not on a Copen) and found the kits good, although they are fairly expensive. You have to send them a small sample of leather to match the colour - I generally cut a bit off from underneath one of the seats.
Brilliant thanks for your reply, I'll order some of that. Have tried to get a mobile smart repair also but seems its not popular up here, I'll have a bash when weather is better and post some pics, thanks again really appreciated,.
Ciao Salieri, Are the leathers easy to take off, I'm thinking of have some posted over to me in Italy. I understand that they just zip off is that right? Kilian
Good question. I am not 100% sure anymore, it's been some time. I know there is a zipper and you should be able to take them off, but I think didn't do it because of the heated seats. I would offer to take a look but I sold my car From what I remember it's definitely not easy, as the foam and the leather have bonded together over the years
