Repairing Leather Jackets and BagsBi-cast leather scratch repairs. Do-it-yourself or hire a pro? You decide.

          I’ve said in other articles that I am not opposed to sharing do-it-yourself options with my customers.  Some repairmen may not want to do it because they feel it takes work away from them.  I have found that if I give my potential customers every alternative for repairing their leather, sometimes they take the do-it-yourself option but more often they appreciate my sharing free information with them and are more likely to use my services.  If not for the do-it-yourself project then for something else that is a more difficult leather problem where hiring a pro makes sense. 

          All that to say, repairing bi-cast leather is one of those situations where sometimes a do-it-yourself suggestion will work fine, other times a pro makes sense.  If you have a puncture hole, tear or large discoloration, do-it-yourself may not be an option for bi-cast leather, but if you know you have bi-cast leather and it is scratched on the surface you may be able to fix-it-yourself.  For example, I was just out at a customers home in Bethesda, Maryland to repair delivery scratches in the side of her bi-cast leather sectional. I will show you the scratches before repair.   Then, I will show you the scratches after at do-it-yourself level repair.  Finally, I will show you the scratches after I added some professional techniques to complete the repairs.  

Here is a picture of the scratches before repair:

 

 


           Below is a picture of the repairs at a do-it-yourself level.  I say do-it-yourself level because for the 1st part of this repair I used tools and skills that can be easily acquired by a moderately handy person who lives within 20 miles of a hardware store.  Click here for the techniques i used that you can also use for a do-it-yourself level repair of bi-cast leather.  As you can see the scratches are mostly gone. Because I was in the home, I could see the scratch still from a side view and wanted to add some further repairs.  But this is what you could expect with a little practice, using the basic bi-cast scratch repair techniques.

 

 


Finally, here is the completed professional repair picture.  I simply added some sanding, color refinishing and leather hi-gloss topcoat to get a more "perfect" repair.

 

 

       So it’s up to you.  If you want a more perfect repair and don’t have the time or inclination to repair your scratched bi-cast leather, hire a good pro.  On the other hand, if you want to give it a try and are happy with the results, go for it.  

 

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