The Best Leather Paint? (Not Dye)

[276ccm]

I´m working on some motorcycle seats, and normally I use dye to colour my seats, but I want to try to paint a couple of them with solid colour, not dye..

What would be the best leather paint, acrylic or anything else.. the paint that will stick best to the surface, as it will be on tooled motorcycle seats, and I want the motive to stick as good as possible.

I´ve heard about Angelus and Fiebing, and they both have acrylics.. and Tandy, but I was not too happy about the Tandy´s I tried. Is there any other ones you would suggest, or any other type of paint?

Anything helps to find the best paint for motorcycle seats.

Marius

[Jimdad]

I can't vouch for it, but Plaid Craft has their line of "Leather Studio" paint made for use on leather. A seat gets more wear & tear than your random piece of leather though, so you'd probably want to let it dry real well and then stress test it bending, folding, and just sitting on it for a day or two. It's easy to find though & cheap-- I see it all the time at AC Moore & Michaels, both of which always have a coupon 40% or 50% off one item, so you could pick it up for about 2 bucks.

[King's X]

Barry King said that he really like the Angelus paints. I use Fiebings product so I bet their paints are just as good as their other products.

Edited August 5, 2015 by King's X

[276ccm]

Thanks for replies! :-)

I'm also a pinstriper.. but mostly paint cars and motorcycles, but does anyone have any experience painting leather with 1-shot pinstriping paint?

[megganpowell]

I use Angelus acrylic paints for painting leather dog collars (which go through quite a bit of wear and tear too) and they hold up great. Angelus colors stay more true with wear than the Tandy brand I have tried. The Tandy acrylics tend to fade over time from what I've experienced.

I believe the 1-shot paints are enamel. Correct me if I'm wrong. I've never used enamel on leather. Acrylic is the standard for painting leather because it is flexible and bends with the leather. Enamels are great for sign and car painting but I'm not sure how flexible they are.