Resolving a Dent in Leather Furniture 

Glad it worked for you. It's one these bazillion little tricks we've developed over 30 years in this business, all chronicled in a new e-book we just completed. A Comprehensive Guide to Leather Repair and Restoration. www.LeatherRepairBook.com

Hmm, may have to try this in the car once the kids grow out of their car seats...

good idea.. just used a hair dryer..

Amazing. Definitely pretty scary though. There is a slight indention from what I perceived to be an elbow stretch on an armrest have a couch. Scared of burning it but I may give this a try going in super light at first.

Wish I read this before... I burnt my Audi car seat!

but it wont be hot enough no? in this video its almost on max setting, how can a hair dryer be effective then?

Of course it has to put out sufficient heat. Most hair dryers on the hottest setting works just fine though it may take longer to be effective.

Nice

Matt Heilman yep

glad it worked for you.

If its leather, it should work.

Yes, you can. Often a sent will appear to be resolved and find that 24 hours later, it returns though to a lesser degree. The leather has a "memory" of that dented shape and sometimes reverts back to it. Simply repeat the process if that happens.

Thanks Kevin that is really helpful! @@KevinGillan

This crease problem has been brought into our shop by our clients many times over the last 25 years. Unfortunately the heating technique will generally not resolve a crease. If the leather was folded (creased) for an extended period, it's now a permanent shape to that leather. You can stretch the leather tight and mist water on the suede side and then heat it from the suede side. That should help minimize the crease line but our experience has been that you can not resolve it completely. You can also fill in the valley caused by the crease with leather repair compound and then color over to conceal. That is very tedious and not a perfect solution.

if it's leather, yes. However most center consoles are vinyl, not leather in which case it won't work.

As noted in the video, it's not unusual that the dent would reappear, however generally it reappears as a smaller reference. If the hair dryer resolved it the first time, you should use it again. The professional grade heat gun puts out a lot more heat so it is true that it is more effective at tightening the fibers. I suggest you try the hair dryer again before you spend the money for a heat gun, even if you have to do the exercise once a day for a week, the leather will eventually respond.

Is it leather or vinyl? This procedure only works with real leather. If the dent effects the underlying foam as well, while you can get the leather to respond, you won't be able to get the foam to respond so the compression of the foam is permanent. To fix would require new foam.

There is no standard as there are many different types of leather based on how it was processed at a tannery. As a rule of thumb, I wouldn't exceed 200 degrees fahrenheit. You don't want to "cook". the leather. Two points to be made: 1. Keep the heat moving, don't focus on a single spot for more than a few seconds. 2. Put your hand on the leather near where the heat is focused. If it's too hot for your hand, it's too hot for the leather.

No. It works on leather because the heat allows the moisture content to vacate the leather whereas synthetics doesn’t have that same property.

Heat applications continues until the dent resolves. The main variables are: 1. severity of the dent, 2. temperature of the heat flow, and 3. thickness of the leather,

No. Synthetic material like vinyl don’t have the same internal structure as real leather. Furthermore, high heat is likely to damage it.

Two things to consider: 1. Are you sure the offended panel is leather and not vinyl. Most door panels, regardless of the manufacturer are vinyl, matched to the color of the interior leather. This process does not work with vinyl. 2. Assuming it is leather, if the foam substrate under the covering material has been compressed (like it's been embossed by the image of the watch) by this incident, then that foam compression will not be resolved by this heating method. It will respond to heat if it is leather. What the heat does is cause the reduction of the moisture content in the leather resulting in shrinking the leather in the offended area, tightening it in the process thus eliminating the crease.

Likely not. A dent in the dashboard means the foam underneath the leather has been dented. This process resolves a dent in the leather but not the underlying foam. To solve this problem the form has to be replaced.

Kevin Gillan last time I try to haul pvc pipe in my Camry LOL

replied as requested. ??