I just received a 12 oz. spray can of "classic Leather Dye" that is matched for the blue-grey interior of my 80 450 SL.

I have removed all vinyl and leather interior parts including seats, carpets, windshield moldings, center console, door panels, rear panels, the only item not removed is the dashboard.

All vinyl parts were cleaned and holes, rips, etc, were repaired. As soon as the can of dye paint arrived via UPS from Calif. I sprayed several parts and found this stuff to be absolutely amazing! The color was 100% right on! The finish is perfect, looks like they are brand new parts right out of the box!

I used up the whole can and got 50% of the interior parts finish coated and are now ready to go back in the car.

QUESTION: I read in one of the forums here recently that SEM is a product like I've described above, and is available at NAPA, as well as some other retailers for $5 a can. With shipment to the east coast, my can of Classic Leather Dye, cost me $30!

Is SEM and Classic Leather Dye, the same product, but with different names?

Can I get the same color MB #238 in SEM? Does anybody have any info they can share? BB

Update: My dye job comes right off with water! Very disappointed! I'm waiting for a response from the supplier.

Anyone know what may be wrong with my application, or a proceedure I missed? Has anyone had this experiance? BB

if you had armor all on there or anything like that, the paint will come off right away

I work at a pretty large auto parts store, we don't have any such dye. At least, I haven't seen it.

Also, try clear coating it after dying it. Use protection!

I remember reading an article about car paint job that would not dry. It turned out that the supplier forgot to add an ingredient to the paint mix. Maybe that is what happened here?

Tried that and it is like trying to paint silicone!

I ended up removing all the dye and applied a SEM product, it is not water based like the dye I used, but rather a specially formulated vinyl paint. It worked but the color I selected was too light so I added black to it mixed and sprayed the stuff on with my spray gun, now it's a bit darker than I wanted but I'll live with it! All the parts look good and I'm pleased. SEM is the way to go, just make sure you clean your surfaces with a silicone remover and use a medium grit scotch-brite pad to abraise. BB