Dyers Eve

Last year I bought a used Nardi wooden handbrake handle for the Roadster off ebay. The handle came with a tan leather gaiter that I intended to dye black to match the interior of the car. Since the garage is now fully functional I finally got round to buying some leather dye and having a bash at changing the colour of the leather.

Tan gaiter and leather dye before shot.

Trusty paint brush that was intended for the job at hand.

This was the result after the first coat of leather dye. I was quite pleased.

A close up shot of the gaiter once the dye began to dry.

I bought some shoe polish yesterday to help buff the leather up in areas where the dye hadn't worked that well. The good news is that the polish worked well and the leather that needed brightening is now sorted. The annoying bit is that the polish seems abrasive against some of the leather dye in areas and actually removes it. I have since given the gaiter a few more coats of dye and I'll leave it for a few days before I use the polish again. Here is how the gaiter looks with the Nardi and Joyfast handbrake handle.

The interior is in pieces as I'm giving it a general spruce up, so when the quality of the dye is up to my standard I'll fit the gaiter and handbrake handle. Since seeing the new Trap radio surround I might hold off putting the interior back together till I buy one.