restore red leather saddle- dye or paint?

[zennmotion]

Just a follow up for this thread, thanks for all the tips. I ended up using an acrylic leather paint that worked pretty well and seems pretty durable, though time will tell. Vintage saddles like the Regal, Turbos, Rolls etc aren't hard to find, but they're often beat, or stupid expensive if they're not, especially if you're looking for colors other than black and white. I took some bad advice from elsewhere and cleaned/deglazed the saddle with acetone- this removed the surface finish but it also roughed up the leather some in the worn spots which remain somewhat rough after the paint- I wouldn't do this again, I would just clean it next time maybe with some denatured alcohol or actually buy the made-for-purpose leather deglazer (doh! impatient cheapskate!). The paint comes in colors including black, yellow and white. Based on this experience, I think it would work pretty well with a synthetic saddle cover as well as leather, as people paint sneakers with it. I think you could take a beat up old white saddle and color it, or maybe even a black saddle with enough thin layers it would cover it. I have no idea what this will look like after some hard miles, but I'm confident it'll be OK. This is what I used

https://angelusdirect.com/products/a...QaAjIuEALw_wcB

[m_sasso]

Nice work, always like to see cycling equipment restored and the useful life of equipment extended. I found Angelus leather products quite good, hopefully the appearance holds up for you, never tried anything red, but the black products have held up well.