Leather Restoration – How I Restored My BMW Seats

“I Never Would Have Believed The Someone, Like Myself, Could Get Such Professional Results, Right Off The Cuff … With Virtually No Previous Experience Whatsoever!”
Hi, my name is Kerry and I’d like to show you the BMW seats my wife, Finola, and I restored using the system taught by Paul Ford in his “Leather Restoration Workshop Manual” and videos.
How it all started was, I had a local leather restoration business quote on restoring my seats … almost $2,000! So I decided to look for an alternative.
Searching the net, I came across Paul’s website. I watched his free video which gave me a very strong sense, he knew what he was talking about. From my point of view, being in the corporate world of business, it’s very rare to come across a skilled craftsman with the ability to teach in a way which is easily understood. Watching the video, I could see, Paul has that rare ability. So I felt I was in good hands.
Once I purchase the manual and videos, I went over them very carefully. It became very apparent that leather repair and restoration is really a series of very simple steps … completing one step carefully and thoroughly before moving on to the next.
However, not having done this type of work before, I was a little apprehensive, so I emailed some pictures of the seats to Paul, for his feedback. In fact, here are some of the photos I sent him …



As you can see, the seats were really scruffy and significantly devalued my car.
Paul reassured me the seats were easy to restore and would come up a treat as long as I do one step at a time, thoroughly … so I decided to go for it.
I went through the entire process, step by step and as I completed each step I quickly realized that leather repair and restoration really is very simple once you have the right instruction and you follow those instructions to the letter.
As you can see from these photos, you need very little in the way of specialized equipment nor do you need a workshop …


A big confidence booster was being able to send photos to Paul at the end of each step to confirm I was on the right track. Another big plus (which you don’t get with other manuals or instruction books) is being able to deal directly with the author/teacher. So I never felt I was on my own … having his expertise and support is a huge bonus.
After completing the job, I drove the car down the local BMW dealership … they were stunned, especially when I told them I had restored the leather myself!
Here’s the finished result …




Now that I’ve completed my first restoration job, I have absolutely no hesitation whatever tackling this type of work again. In, fact we were so inspired and delighted with the results, we are seriously looking at setting up our own leather restoration and repair business .
Kerry & Finola

Use the same system Kerry & Finola used to restore their BMW seats
[...] has a good system for do it yourselfer. It is proven and he has many testimonials to support it. He has a leather repair video series that I highly recommend, especially if you are serious about taking on your own leather repair.Leather Restoration [...]