What is Tesla Leather?

 

Damaged Tesla Bolster

Damaged Tesla Bolster

Is it leather or is it plastic? Its fake Leather

Why Tesla would even use the name leather in its sale pitch is beyond anyone. It’s to please the vegan society. So, to keep the vegan society happy why are they pleased with the term “vegan leather”?

Tesla claim that this new material they have used is stain free!! The amount of Tesla’s that pass through our hands with severe staining is amazing.

Tesla Leather is basically like paper mache, It’s derived from plastics, rather than cows, the coating on these Tesla interiors are claimed to be luxurious how can they be that when they are plastic that damages so quickly, it can ruin an expensive car within months of purchase.

Tesla Stains

Tesla Leather Stains

Cleaning these interiors has to be done with care. Using items such as APC can ruin the ultra-fine surface coating that sits on top of the synthetic material that makes up these seats, a cleaning solution too strong can cause the coating to be removed. What you are then left with a fibrous material a bit like paper mache.

For cleaning these interiors it’s best to use products from the Leather Repair Company. Use a luxury horse hair leather cleaning brush so the fibres are not too strong for the surface, followed by the luxury leather cleaner or LRC1 if the interiors are heavily soiled and have some stains.

When it comes to repairs for these interiors that is a different story again. Using chemicals that are again too strong can destroy the surface coating and the synthetic material underneath. So great care has to be taken with these seats, use of red scotch pads and leather prep can be far to strong and cause even further damage than before.

When doing prep work on these seats, if you’ve never carried out restoration work to a Tesla interior stay away from the red pads until you have restored a few so you know how this material handles them and is receptive to prep work. At first just use alcohol cleaner and a cloth to do the prep stages on the surface, being careful not to destroy the coating to much which can easily be done on these Tesla’s.  Gently use the alcohol cleaner on a cloth to wipe over the surface of the seats, then use a 320 grit sandpaper to help remove any fibres sticking up.

The next stage is to use fibre binder if it’s needed, then a filler. The type of filler would depend on the state of the abrasions.  Once the filler has dried sand lightly with 320 grit paper before proceeding to the colouring stages, the coating on the Tesla’s have the grain in them, so stipple on the colour to give a partial grain effect, then spray a coating on, and seal with lacquers.

Damaged Tesla Bolster Tesla Bolster Repaired Tesla Bolster Repair

in Leather Tags: leather repairteslavegan