So I just bought my 2nd G35 coupe for a price that was way too good to pass on but there's one thing about it that is killing me - the previous owner painted the beautiful black leather seats red along with some other interior trim pieces and I want the paint gone so bad. Is there any way that the paint can be removed from the seats or am I going to have to buy used ones? The red is fading really bad in some areas so it makes me think if it's coming off there's gotta be a way to speed up the process without damaging the seats. Would really like to save them so they aren't wasted and don't want to spend the money on buying a set off eBay, etc. I'll upload pics tomorrow

 

Not concerned about the center console because it's being manual swapped but I would really like to save the seats

 

Paint 'em again? What have you got to lose? Those are hideous. Would make me want to pass on the car if the previous owner did that to it. Who knows what other horrible things were done that you can't see.

 

yeah man it's a shame that this car was treated the way it was. When I bought it it was fully riced out but I'm slowly getting it back to the factory look. I bought it for 500 bucks with a blown motor but the title was clean and there is no frame damage. The motor and manual transmission will be swapped into the car next week so it will be fully saved from its previous owner lol.

I considered painting over them again but I'm trying to find a way to remove the paint first. Might just have to paint over it again though, what kinda paint would I even use to do that? leather dye?

 

I'm not sure what the right product would be. I've toyed with the idea of trying to paint/dye another vehicle of mine that has a completely 2010's tan interior. Tan for miles..... I've watched a couple videos but I'm worried it'll come out bad so I haven't done anything. Good luck whatever you do. Come back and show us how it turns out.

 

I'm gonna try to use black leather dye to mask it all. Will report back after that's been done

 

The previous owner must of fell in love with the Q50 Red Sport.. I also love that interior and wish i had it in my 07 but it's too damn expensive!
What i would do is remove them from the car, get dye remover and remove as much as possible IF you are painting them black again. I would use SEM paint for the seats, no dyes as you can see how they come off. SEM paint is very good if surface is properly prepped by removing wax, grease, bodily secretions and food..

Look at the video i made about coloring balm (chinese word for leather dye) and how it performed:

 

Thank you for this information, this is really helpful. I'm trying to hold off on spending any money on the car until after I've paid for the motor swap but when I finally get around to addressing the seats I'm definitely gonna use this method and I'll report back

 

Update: came across someone on Facebook who had an aftermarket lookalike version of the full leather covering for an 07 g35 coupe for 80 bucks and it retails almost 600 brand new (!!!) it's not a perfect fit because the seats from an 03 to an 07 aren't identical but it looks ****way**** better than it used to. The seat cover was made by Ridies and I highly recommend this product if you find a used one for a good deal or have the extra cash to buy a new one. Do note though that this involves removing the entire factory leather cover (which was a major PITA) and installing the new one (also a major PITA) I got to the point where I couldn't be bothered reinstalling all of the hogties so the cover looks a little loose and I'll probably have to go back and tie them all back together but I'm happy for now.