Paint your leathers in under 20$

**Dimm** · 06-02-2009 05:29 PM

Well I just sent an email of step by step instructions to a friend on how to tint his leathers. He has a white and blue suit and he wants the blue to be purple. Here is the email I sent him I thought you guys would be interested in seeing it as it has some good step-by-step instructions. I do not suggest that anyone try to paint their ENTIRE suit this way and I do not suggest anyone try and turn one colour into a completely different one. Blue can become purple but the chances are pink won't become green.

Here goes:

Anyways okay... to tint your leathers here you go: Don't get intimidated by the long instructions. It's not hard I'm just being thorough.

-Go to Walmart and buy a small tube (about 100mL or 3oz) of acrylic paint. You could also get that at the dollar store. Chose a nice bright Purple it should cost you about 1$ or 1.50$. You'll only need one tube.

-Get some sand paper while you're at walmart. Get one sheet of rough grit (100) and some smooth grit (400).

- if you think you're messy get some painters tape or some regular masking tape

-start by sanding the blue parts of your suit with the rough 100 grit. Don't sand deep or anything but make sure the surface of the leather is nice and rough (this is how the paint will be able to stick to the leather). The blue leather should look light blue by the time you're done and should be nice and rough to the touch.

-Next tape around the blue parts (if you're afraid of getting purple on the white parts of your suit). and get a sponge. Squirt some paint on the sponge and start rubbing it into the blue parts of your suit. It will take some time to get all around your suit and you'll have to wait for the front of the suit to dry (about 20 mins) before you can do the back. Don't layer on the paint too thick or else it will chip off when the leather bends. Put just enough paint that gets soaked into the leather. The first coat will make the blue look only a little bit purple...

-Now wait for the whole suit to dry (about 20 mins) and go over all the painted parts with the fine 400 grit paper. This shouldn't remove the purple paint but should just get it a little bit rough for the next coat (it should be a rough white shade after the sanding).

-Next apply another thin coat of purple with the sponge and sand it again with the 400 once it's dry. Do as many coats as you need to get the leathers to the right colour. It took me 3 coats and I estimate it will take you 4. It's important not to do thick coats so don't rush.

-once you're satisfied with the colour do a final sanding with the 400 grit to get the paint nice and rough and you're ready to do a coat of varnish.

-go buy some oil-based (possibly linseed oil) marine varnish. Buy a small can this might cost you 10-15$.

-Let the paint dry for a day after the final coat and make sure you sanded the final coat before the varnish! Apply the varnish with a rag. You'll only need one coat. It doesn't have to be thick. Just enough to make the rough surface of the paint shiny like your suit was when it was new. The marine varnish will keep the paint from drying up and chipping off the leather and will make it look like it was originally that colour.

So there you go... just try not to fall too much on the purple because it will get scraped off and become blue. That's not too bad though... Mine does that too. My have blue patches. If it gets too bad you can just retint at the end of the season you should have enough paint and varnish to do this again.