Liquid Leather Repair Kit is No Bargain

If you have a favorite leather recliner or leather seats in your car, you know that over time, repeated use can cause the leather to crack and split. Even if you manage to avoid age related damage to your leather, accidents happen and leather can be cut or torn. Leather repair can be expensive and inconvenient, so the Liquid Leather Repair Kit sounds like a dream come true. If you've missed the infomercial, the Liquid Leather Repair Kit claims to make it easy to repair town or cracked leather, vinyl or plastic yourself in a matter of minutes. You don't even have to remove the leather-the repair is done in place.

My mother owns an Infinity with tan leather interior, and with the heat of repeated Arkansas summers, the driver's seat has suffered several cracks. She agreed to let me try to repair the tears with the Liquid Leather Repair Kit. The box contained seven colors that should match most leather colors, grain papers, a spatula, backing fabric, a mixing bottle and a heat tool.

None of the seven colors included with the kit matched the tan leather, so I had to do some mixing to get a decent color match. I ended up with a color that was close, but not quite perfect. According to the instructions, all I needed to do was apply the Liquid Leather mixture to the tear, press down with the appropriate grain paper and heat the back of the paper, let it cool and remove the paper and I would have a repaired leather car seat.

Not exactly.

After following the instructions exactly, I pulled up the backing paper and found that the tear was still there, only with mismatched goo on the edges. I tried to wipe it off (because it was unattractive) but it was stuck to the edges of the tear.

I tried again on a smaller tear and it did seem to work, but it didn't hold. The first time someone sat on the seat, the repair split and left a tear with dark edges.

At $24.95, the Liquid Leather Kit would have been a bargain if it worked as it claimed. Unfortunately, not only does it not repair leather tears, it actually makes them look worse. It is difficult to get a good match if your leather isn't a standard color and the tears are left bumpy and messy. If you love your leather, take it to a reputable leather repair shop and avoid the Liquid Leather Repair Kit.