Kia Soul Forums :: Kia Soul Owners banner

RAWR! Cigarette burn in upholstery, HELP!

31K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  Greg  
#1 ·
Last night I noticed a small but horrifying cigarette burn on the upholstery of the back seat of my one month old Soul! I've already done a fair bit of research and there seems to be many differing opinions on how to fix it; from using a needle and thread, to gluing on fibers from a spare patch of fabric, to buying a fabric repair kit.

Has anyone out there fixed a cigarette burn, and if so, what method did you use... and was it effective?

I should add that the hole is smaller than a pencil head eraser so I hope that it will be less noticeable once repaired.

P.S. - I know smoking is bad, and I know it's my own stupid fault so please no preaching, I'm just looking for a solution to fix the burn, not a lecture :)
 
#2 ·
Contact the dealer and see who they use for upholstery work. Do not have the dealer take care of it, as they will merely mark up the service. If the service department won't tell you, ask your salesman. They will be concerned with making you happy so buy from them again versus service making a few bucks. These upholstery shops do work on used inventory all the time to fix burns like yours so cars can be retailed. They use fibers and an epoxy that should come very close to matching your interior and usually this service only costs $50 or so. I wouldn't screw with it yourself and take the risk of making it worse. Good luck! :-D
 
#4 ·
I understand your wanting to smoke, but are you so desperate for them you need to actually smoke while you are in the car? That in itself wrecks the resale value and makes the interior smell horrifying. Park a little farther away from places and smoke on the way in, just a suggestion.....ok I'm done. That said, a suggestion for getting it fixed would be to go to an upholstery repair shop. When I still had my Spectra, my uncle lit up a cigarette in the backseat, and when I smelled it, I flipped out, scared him, he dropped it, upholstery burn. I took it to a small upholstery shop and they charged me $20, looked like brand new.
 
#5 ·
P.S. - I know smoking is bad, and I know it's my own stupid fault so please no preaching, I'm just looking for a solution to fix the burn, not a lecture :)
People don't listen, do they. :rolleyes: I get so tired of holier than thou folks preaching. I don't even smoke and it pisses me off. Some company here in Ohio is making it a policy that if you smoke they can fire you. I don't mean smoking on the premises, I mean smoking at all, anywhere. I can't believe this law could be legal. It's socialism if you ask me.

Anyway, I agree with the others, take it to a professional. This is a job for people who have experience and know what they are doing. I've had it done before and if done right you won't even notice it's there.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Some companies in North America give their Employees an extra 2 weeks off with pay a year because they DON'T Smoke. If you think about it, and I see it done here all the time...the people who smoke go down and outside once every hour, sometime twice an hour, sometime less..but every hour they take time to go downstairs, go outside and smoke away while non-smoking people are working at their desks.
If you add up all the 10-15 minutes they take to go for a smoke..it adds up..so 2 weeks a year with pay is nothing compared to the time taken to go for a smoke every hour or two.
Yeah, yeah...I know, the smokers will say that they make up the time...but do they really?

Hey, I used to smoke a long time ago..when I was 16 and quit when I turned 20. Hey the money I saved paid for my Soul and my previous car... and I don't cough, my teeth and fingers aren't yellow and I don't reek of cigarettes...any more :p
 
#8 · (Edited)
Dizzyrocks, the advice given is correct, there are people who go around to dealers and auto auctions just to fix such problems.

Greg, when you responded to this post you agreed not to preach IMO. I am a smoker but I never smoke in my car or in my house. When I have to shop I just load my stuff and stand by the car and smoke and look stupid, works for me.

Marc, Before retiring, I worked for a large 4WD tractor mfg. This mfg. is part of a worldwide conglomerate, I won't name names but this conglomerate also produces Ferraris and Fiats as well as now dabbling in Chrysler. Anyway, a corporate wide smoking ban was instituted shortly after I left, not only could you not smoke in the buildings but not even in your own car on company property. The kicker is though, the president of the company division pertaining to us visited from Italy and our plant had to construct a smoking area just for him. Go figure.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Update: I called the dealership and spoke to the guy who sold me the car and he told me he'd talk to the guy they use for upholstery repair who apparently is a "mobile" guy who comes to their shop when needed. I'm waiting to hear back. By the way, I did a patch job myself for the time being and it turned out pretty good, but it's not perfect, and knowing the upholstery is not perfect bugs the s**t out of me. I filled the little whole with foam, cut a patch to size from a spare bit of uphostery from under the passenger seat, and used this multi-purpose play-dough type adhesive compound called Suguru.

Btw, thanks to those who gave advice and didn't preach.

One of you mentioned that you had a cigarette burn fixed... did they patch the burn or did they completely re-upholster the burnt section... and how much did it cost you?
 
#11 ·
What he did was took some upholstery fibers from an area of the seat that wasn't visible, then used what he called "a color adapting, soft drying epoxy substance" to secure them to the burn. After the epoxy dried, you could not even tell. Cost $20, took less than 2 minutes. Unfortunately the Soul's seat material doesn't have those loose plush-like fibers, so that method probably wouldn't work.