Originally Posted by due ruote

^ Nice job on that Concor, especially the back.
Where you have a few puckers on the underside, I have found that if you go after those with a straight screwdriver, you can get them to lay down pretty well.

Originally Posted by retrodude

Any suggestions on a good leather protector? I have sprays meant for leather footwear and protective creams meant for furniture

Originally Posted by retrodude

Thanks due ruote! I'll give that a shot next time, or do you think it's still doable after the glue is cured? Any suggestions on a good leather protector? I have sprays meant for leather footwear and protective creams meant for furniture

BTW, I picked up small bottle of 'leather paint' for $6, kinda reminds me of a bottle of liquid paper with a little brush built in to touch up the front nose edge that got over stretched, worked pretty good

Originally Posted by due ruote

I am looking for advice on dyeing leather. I just recovered a Flite saddle and wanted a different shade of brown from the leather I had. I dyed it before covering the saddle, using Feibing’s Deglazer and Pro Dye. It looked great when finished, but on the first ride, the finish started to rub off. Not sure what I did wrong.
Has anyone done a dye job that lasted?

Originally Posted by Miele Man

Where did you get your deglazer and dye from?

Did you use a sealer after you dyed the leather?

This is also why bicycle shorts are usually black in colour -so dyes from a bicycle saddle won't show up.

Tandy Leather could probably advise you on how to seal the dye so it won't bleed any more.

Cheers

Originally Posted by THEJAPINO

On a good note, someone gave me a well used, badly worn San Marco Rolls to try to save. I wish I took some pics! It had holes in the leather on every corner, cracks in the leather throughout, rust on the rails, and a small bend on the rear trim plate. What a challenge!

My best riding saddle so far has been a San Marco Squadra, the Rolls' successor. This was the extra push to try and do a good job on this Rolls to make it my permanent riding saddle. I have a Squadra in black in great condition - I'm not touching it!

Removing the leather took a long time. Since it was cracked all over, it came out in tiny little pieces. A heatgun REALLY helped in keeping the foam together. There was still divots so I went over it with the sanding-block. Plus, a big chunk was removed from the nose from a crash. Overall, I did alot of shaping to keep it from looking horrible. The ending shape actually came out good, I flattened the top of the saddle quite a bit.

The stretching was the regular thing, spray adhesive on top, stretch, heatgun, Woodweld underneath, trim. The underside of the nose was different than other saddles I've done. It was just flat underneath, no tucking the leather under-and-up like a Turbo. I used some good stretching on the nose's sides and just folded the front and Woodwelded the rest on top of the stretch leather. It came out good.

As for the rear trim plate, I totally destroyed the original rivets removing the trim, forcing me to find a replacement solution. A quick trip to the local hardware store yeilded a very nice and simple solution: brass nails and flat speed nuts! The head of the nails were a nice shape. They fit perfectly in the existing holes. The speed nuts slid on as tight as they went. I trimmed them down and coated them with a gob of 5-minute epoxy gel from the .99 store.

Overall, I'm very happy with the results. It was the most challenging, time-consuming recover yet but I think it's my favorite! It feels nice because of the flat top and the leather matches my bar-tape. I'm a happy camper.

Oh, and some pics:

Originally Posted by due ruote

Iirc I ordered from a place in CO.
Did not use a sealer but have spoken with someone at Feibing and now understand I should have. I ordered some from EBay. Will re-dye and report back.

Originally Posted by retrodude

I have added to this thread previously. I just finished two new saddles and wanted to share. The first was one of my previous favorites (until the flite came along). The San Marco Regal, think they have lighter versions now but the old ones are heavy, like almost 390g. I came across a white one (well worn) on CL for $5, good project right? Started hunting for leather scrapes and found a very large piece at Tandy Leather for only $17, would do several saddles. My previous Regal was white which I loved, but really attracts dirt marks. Decided on black. The copper rivets where a challenge to remove and re-spread (hope I got them good enough because they hold the whole saddle together. The leather I bought is a little thicker than past projects. I had to abort while gluing and luckily did not ruin the foam because it just was not sticking or sitting nice while fighting with the dry time window. Started with a new leather piece and tried something different: soak the leather in hot water first and then stretch it around and under. I really took my time and would let leather dry over night, used a piece much bigger than needed and then tied some tie wraps through small holes where it would eventually be discarded. I then re-wet certain portions to help form the leather and let dry completely again. Wish I took process pictures but hopefully you get the gist of it. Oh ya, also, the second square piece of copper on the back with the "G" was missing. So, I went to Home Depot and bought a 1/2" copper pipe coupling for 97 cents, cut a piece out, formed and polished it, then painted on a "G" then glued it on. Not perfect but good from far (LOL)

Before:


After






The second one I did was a 93' Bontrager (San Marco made) Titanium. Pretty unique looking saddle. The back corners are reduced to aid moving backward off the saddle during technical sections (old MTB lore)
Don't have a before picture, I think the leather soaking method really helped me get this one good:

Originally Posted by Velo Mule

If the vinyl on the original seat is in good shape I would think you could put the new vinyl over it. It is not too hard to remove the original cover. The ones that I have recovered had holes in the vinyl so I have always removed the original cover.

If you have holes or tears in the original vinyl, I would think that those places could show through the new material because it is stretched.