Painting Tonneau cover

[Bluesbrother]

Hi everyone,
Has anyone ever tried to paint a tonneau cover? I am thinking of painting mine black from grey/tan..

[khammack]

If you are talking about the OE Boot Cover which is used to cover the top when it is down, then you should be able to recolor it. It is leather and any good upholstery shop should be able to help you out. (Just FYI, the tonneau cover is what covers the cockpit of a car). But I would not try to paint it.

[s8ilver]

Are you certain the boot cover is leather? I assumed it wasn't.

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[Tigershark48]

Judging from the scuff marks on mine, I would say it’s some kind of semi-flexible molded plastic. Someone else may have a leather one, but I don’t. Regarding coloring, I would be worried about the new color rubbing off in places. It has to be bent, flexed and forced into tight areas every time it’s installed or removed. Rub marks on my solid black cover are bad enough, but reasonably inconspicuous. Having those areas with the base tan color showing through would look a whole lot worse. Better off to sell the tan cover and buy a black one.

[Vintage42]

... It is leather...

I assumed that mine was vinyl, that BMW would not use the expense of leather for such a thing.

[khammack]

Are you certain the boot cover is leather? I assumed it wasn't.

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Mine seems to be leather. I guess it could be a real good alternative, but I believe it is leather.

[CB750]

VHT Vinyl Dye is amazing stuff; with proper prep and application it looks great and is incredibly durable:

https://www.vhtpaint.com/specialty/vht-vinyl-dye

Dupli-Color vinyl coating is pretty good too:

https://www.duplicolor.com/product/v...abric-coating/

[Tigershark48]

There you go Bluesbrother.

[Vintage42]

Mine seems to be leather. I guess it could be a real good alternative, but I believe it is leather.

I can't find any specs on it, but I think many people believe it to be vinyl as in Post #8:
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...2#post20806332

[Tigershark48]

Mine seems to be leather. I guess it could be a real good alternative, but I believe it is leather.

Is it soft or hard material? Looking at the linked post #8 above, there are both kinds. My boot is a hard plastic material.

[khammack]

Mine is hard, but flexible. I think it is the backing which makes it stiff and the surface is leather.

[JeffPortland]

Is there really much difference between most "leather" products and Vinyl? One is just the Vinyl and one is Leather pulp mixed with Vinyl. I have a cover and I don't think it's leather but I'm not sure I could tell.

[Vintage42]

... one is Leather pulp mixed with Vinyl...

Vinyl is plastic made from oil. I have not heard of mixing organic leather pulp in its manufacture. Do you have any information on this process?

[nevan]

There was a guy in SJ that did a similar project. I think he painted his from beige to red to match his interior color. It looked pretty good from photos, I thought. Pretty cool guy too. I wish I saved the to share that with you. I'll dig my email and see if I can still find it. If so, I will post more info.

[Edit]
Here you go:

...As for the red boot cover, when I bought her I did a deal with my dealer. They gave me a tan boot cover instead of the black I was supposed to red. I took the car & the boot cover over to a local guy who dyed leather. He was able to dye the tan cover to an almost exact match for the seats. The only thing was that the dye didn’t work perfectly on the fabric edges of the boot cover. I’d say it was a 85% match there and a 99% match on the leather parts. Overall, a good deal. I think he charged me $200, but that was back ’98....

http://rcaslis.xkill.net/vehicles/19...r/index.1.html

[JeffPortland]

Vinyl is plastic made from oil. I have not heard of mixing organic leather pulp in its manufacture. Do you have any information on this process?

I am not an expert at all but most of the cheaper leathers are just "bonded leather" which is just "leather" created from scraps of real leather and adhesive. The final product is ~17% leather so that they can call it "leather". It smells and feels like leather. There is full grain leather which is the actual authentic cow skin and that's what most people think they are getting.

[Tigershark48]

If it were mine, I’d sell the tan cover and buy a black one. You might even find someone who wants to trade.

[Vintage42]

... cheaper leathers are just "bonded leather" which is just "leather" created from scraps of real leather and adhesive...

I looked up bonded leather and understand it:
"Bonded leather, also called reconstituted leather or blended leather, is a term used for a manufactured upholstery material including animal hide. It is made as a layered structure of a fiber or paper backer, a pulp made from shredded leather and a polyurethane coating which is embossed with a leather-like texture."
But you first mentioned it was leather pulp mixed with vinyl, which is not the case.

[Tigershark48]

So, what does the leather do, make it more flexible? The bottom line is you’d be coloring polyurethane, not leather.

[Vintage42]

So, what does the leather do, make it more flexible? The bottom line is you’d be coloring polyurethane, not leather.

In upholstery, bonded/blended/reconstituted leather is the body of the material, and the polyurethane is the leather-grained coating for surface appearance and durability.
I don't think we have any bonded leather in a Z3. I think the boot cover is a molded fiber board covered with naugahyde (vinyl).

[rasmuw]

My cynical self thinks the use of bonded leather allows manufacturers to advertise that their products have "leather upholstery."

[Tigershark48]

Probably right and exactly what I was thinking. Personally, I don’t care if my cover is leather or plastic. It looks much better than the exposed, retracted top.