Modern Vespa

Wife's Metro had a slight tear on the side of her seat. Look like someone bumped into her seat and created a slight 1 1/4" tear. Never used a vinyl repair kit before and looked around and settled for a vinyl repair kit @ Checkers...Permatex Pro Style Vinyl & leather repair kit...~ $16.00.

Overall repair was acceptable...wife thought it was great...I wanted it to be "seamless"...sorry no "before pic".

Regardless below are my recommendations.

Read the directions, then read it again and read it one more time before you start. Pay particular attention to #4 & #5.

1. Pick up the kit with the plug in iron...you don't want to have to reheat the iron with a lighter.

2. Select the proper grain pattern paper by practicing on the practice sample vinyl piece they include in the kit. There are three grades of grain paper.

3. They give you an adhesive that you can use to tack down the torn edges and use a filler...something like spackling...don't put too much...you got to leave some fill for the vinyl "putty". Don't overdo the "putty" and feather out pass tear line onto undamaged surface close to tear line.

4. Practice with the sample vinyl patch in the kit...be cognizant that the vinyl sample has some padding so it pushes back a bit so can press down . However a hard under layer doesn't "rebound" so apply a little less pressure...all you want is the vinyl "putty" to cure...you don't need to push down too hard. I pressed down on my repair and somewhat "flattened" out the grain pattern...you can see it.

5. Regarding pressure in #2...again just apply enough pressure to cure the vinyl "putty"...it's the heat transfer...not the pressure!

6. If finish too glossy...carefully use a Scotch pad...wet it and lightly brush to get a matt finish. Regardless...when done apply vinyl dressing.

That's it...hope this helps if you got a minor repair...

cheers for the write-up - i can hardly see the repair - is it that little dark patch towards the front?

Good work! Looks more than "acceptable" from the photo 8)

Good work and thanks for the workup. It is surprising how infrequently I have heard of people here needing vinyl repairs considering the number of members here.

Yep that's it...and I believe it would have been less noticeable if I had not applied as much pressure on the grain paper as I heated up the vinyl "putty"...then maybe...just maybe...the "grain" from the grain paper would have been more pronounced and "blended in".

I'm leaving it alone...since my Mom often told me, "You keep tring to make it better...the worst it's gonna get!"