Car Leather Restoration - 1972 Ferrari

Here's a photo of the car. For those technical folks ... 1972 Ferrari 365GT4 V12

I got a call from Stuart of Stu's Trim & Sound, Auckland. He explained that he had a client with a Ferrari which needed some refinishing work done on the interior.

Now, to put you in the picture, Stu is a long-standing client and when I was based in Auckland, I did leather restoration work for him. I love working wih Stu - his standards are extremely high ... a man after my own heart!

Anyway, Stu had the interior stripped, carefully packed into boxes and shipped down to me here in Timaru.

After unpacking the boxes, I laid everthing out on benches so I could get a good look at what had to be done. As you can see, after 40 odd years of use, the leather still looks in remarkably good condition ... just looking worn, faded and tired.

The Leather Before I Started

Here's the rear seat bases ...

The front seat bases ...

One of the door trims. You can see how much it has faded looking at where the arm rest was removed ...

Here's a shot of some of the other trim pieces ...

The passenger seat base ...

Here's the drivers seat base. See the cracking? Check out the after photos below to see how it came up ...

The rear wheel arches ...

And the inside back of one of the front seats ...

One of the challenges I'm faced with is finding a clean example of the original colour, for a match. This is a crucial step because there's no point in doing an amazing refinish ... the wrong colour!

I found a good colour sample from unexposed wind-lace. The colour was made and this trim piece was refinished. I sent this pic to Stu for approval ... just to make sure we're all on the same page!

Once the leather had been completely refinished, I carefully repacked everything back into the same boxes and they were shipped back to Auckland.

Everything went quiet for a few weeks. Stu and his team were busily refitting new carpet and other interior work ... then the leather trim was refitted.

Once complete, I received the following photos ...