To repair a cigarette burn in car upholstery ...
...is perfectly possible. Either plastic, leather or velour can be made almost new! You will learn how to make a perfect cigarette burn repair.
repair a cigarette burn in car upholstery
This page will concentrate on the repair to a cigarette burn in velour upholstery
- To see a repair to leatherthe techniques described here will work a treat
- Or to see a repair for plastic these techniques will work for a cigarette burn.
The spectacular excitement produced by dropping a cigarette end on your driver’s seat at 80 mph is matched only by the horror of seeing the four neat little holes that were produced when trying to maneuver the burning end off you seat whilst still holding the steering wheel — — and making a series of spectacular faces that will, unfortunately, never be seen on camera. Ouch!
Yes there is a way to repair that velour seat almost invisibly.
Follow me!
The first action here is to remove the brittle plastic that was caused when the cigarette first melted the artificial fibers into a brittle lumpy mess.
Use a sharp pair of nail scissors for this and cut the bare minimum of damaged fabric away from the cigarette burn
Next take a fine piece of linen — A little larger than the whole being repaired —and tuck it under the hole. This will act as a new base.
Now depending on the repair kit you have bought these next ingredients will have different names — but the process remains the same!
OK the next stage requires the use of a hand held iron to heat the several layers we will slowly build up to make the completed upholstery repair.
Apply the “M Compund” with a small spatula. Carefully wang a bit into the hole and onto the linen foundation you previously inserted.
This M compound now has to be heated to seal the linen in place — Think of it as a glue for the foundation
The problem is if we apply the iron to the glue directly. If you do this the glue will take a liking to your iron and the plug you are making will come straight with the iron when you remove it!
To avoid this I use a small square of Teflon! This Teflon comes in a fabric form — Yes, the exact same material used to prevent your fried eggs sticking to the pan — Yes it works every bit as well! But its the best we’ve got!
When you put on the M compound it is white — very much like a wood glue, However when you have it cured it rather handily turns clear!
You now have the foundation plugin the cigarette burn, made to take the rest of the repair.
Ok. You now need to use the flock — No I’m not joking!—
Flock is a VERY fine microfiber that you will use to build up the main part of the repair,
I use a plastic cup with a fine sieve on top. This very effectively separates the fibers — which aids mixing the product.
You need to do this mixing by eye until you have a pretty good match for the basic upholstery color you are working on.
Do not worry ther are several colours making up the finished car seat fabric — just go with the basic color for the moment!
Got it mixed? Great!
It's really easy to test the colour match — just bang a bit on the seat fabric to test colour — it brushes off really easily.
But as you do not want your repair coming off as easily, we need to add— “
G compound”
but befor adding th “G” — split the mix you made in two and put half aside for later.
The flock you need for later put in the blower bottle — this puffs a very fine sparay of flock evenly over the fabric and repair.
Now you need to mix in the G compound powder — about half and half but just follow the instructions from you own repair kit.
As the powdered compound is white you will think the colour now wrong —
do not worry.
Apply a thin layer of flock into the hole, and using the teflon as a barrier, place the tip of the iron into the hole and slowly heat the layer you applied — This will take at least five minutes so do not be in a rush
You will see the color is now bang on!
Just keep adding layer upon layer until you have the repair level with the surrounding fabric
Do not think it will save time by adding a really thick layer — the heat from the iron will not penetrate deep enough to cure the “
G compound”
Right, now you need to open up you fine upholstery glue
You just an atomizing spay head to apply the glue
Just blow through the end of the atomizer and it will use the effect to atomize a fine spray over the area being repaired.
Ok the surface is prepared and is sticky for the next operation.
Now grab the blower bottle and PUFF the flock around the repair area — blending the surfaces together.
Use a hair drier to dry the puffed on flock.
HEY it's already looking pretty darn good , Eh! WHAT CIGARETTE BURN
do this operation no more than twice or you will make the surface appear “lumpy”
Now for the last bit
you need to relive a small child of his or her coloring pencils and wet the ends and make an attempt to draw a facsimile of the surrounding fabric on the repair -I have to say most techicians find this the hardest bit to master.
If you have any doubts use the person who you know to be a pretty good artist – the finished repair, whilst not being totally invisible will be undetectable to someone who did not know the cigarette burn was there!!
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