'How To' Restore your Leather

[ericglo]

Ummm, if they are cracks that have actually split the leather then they are not coming out. They would have to be repaired or the leather replaced. To clean into a crack, stretch the leather apart. Incidently, if no one wants to use a delicate duty scuff pad then a friend of mine uses a scrub brush. As long as you are gentle with it you shouldn't damage the leather. Also, with a scuff pad, water and a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid I can clean the leather as good as the other methods described. This is much gentler on the leather as well.

I am redoing my seats in my SHO to take care of some damage that accrued on my way to Raleigh last weekend. I will post some pics, so everyone can tell me what they think.

Ericglo

 

[KentuckySHOoff]

cleaned my 162000+ mile leather yesterday - other then the fact that my driver seat is in rough shape with the crackes it look and feels beautiful expecally the rear seat. also scrubed the carpets a little too. but the outside is still nasty supposed to rain today. thanks for the advice

 

[Minnesho]

I just used 409 to clean my seats, and THEN read this post, luckily it didnt seam to do any damage to the black leather, I got them from a car at the junkyard and there was tons of stuff sitting on them, and literally buried in broken glass, they seem to be cleaning pretty nice, however i still have to work out all the divits from stuff sitting on it for months, no rips or tears though! best part is they were free since they were so damn dirty

 

[SHORACETEAM]

This is great write up! The original photos dont seem to be working. Can someone re post them. I cant wait to do mine

 

[SHORACETEAM]

I was inspired by this thread and decided to stop off afterwork and pick up some Simple Green and leather conditioner. But when I got home, the wife was waiting with the kids to go grocery shopping. I was able to talk her into letting me stay home with the kids while she went shopping. As soon as she left, I told our 7 year old to watch the baby while I ran out to shop and took out my passenger seat. I brought it into the house and begain to work on it. After about 2 hours, 2 dirty diapers and four beers. I was done. See the pictures below Before After

 

[wally05]

Does simple green make it smell weird?

 

[ericglo]

Does simple green make it smell weird?

It should go away in time. You can also come back and wipe it down with wet rags to remove as much of the residue as possible.

Ericglo

 

[Silver95]

Hey guys, im looking for a real good leather CONDITIONER. I used mother conditioner, it worked well for about 2 days and then the leather became hard again. What are they good ones out there?

Is it true mink oil makes the leather real soft?

 

[SHORACETEAM]

Hey guys, im looking for a real good leather CONDITIONER. I used mother conditioner, it worked well for about 2 days and then the leather became hard again. What are they good ones out there?

Is it true mink oil makes the leather real soft?

I had the same results with Mothers. I used Eagle One with realy nice results.

 

[SHOtimer]

I have found that Lexol works best with my stock leather.

Doug

 

[Silver95]

Ive heard very positive things about lexol leather conditioner.

 

[DDakRT]

I just cleaned the leather in my new blue car. I was going through autopia and found that many people recommand Woolite (1 part Woolite, 6-8 parts water) as an effective leather cleaner.

It looks like the original owner had some sort of blue seat covers on the front seat and the fabric melted onto the leather over time, leaving that jean like texture on the driver seat.

Anyway here's what it looks like before I started:


Cleaned a bit, you can clearly see the difference:


Results:


The rest of the interior is much better, gave those a quick cleaning as well:





I'll use the Lexol conditioner and mink oil tomorrow. I want to put those on while the interior is nice and toasty.

 

[DDakRT]

Got done with the Lexol and the mink oil. The oil also gave the leather a shine that the Lexol didn't.

The leather itself is a lot softer than before, but still very obviously not high quality leather by any means. I'm pretty happy with the results though.






Looks like the "jean like texture" is actually the coating of the leather, only melted and wrinkled... Doesn't look like it'll be coming off at all.

 

[Epi]

Use Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner. i used it on my gray leather ,it gets into the the creases quite well. Apply a thick layer over the area you want to clean( do small areas at a time) just when the cleaner starts to turn from foam to liquid wipe it off. When you are done use a good leather conditioner. As for carpets,Home Depot sells a cleaner called Spot Shot its in a blue and orange can( do it outside on a warm day because the stuff stinks) just spray it on spots and blot it out like the directions say.

 

[Minnesho]

I read on the back of the simple green bottle not to use it on leather either.. anyone have negative results with the simple green or is it ok if it is diluted enough?

 

[Robert93SHO]

BLAH. You don't need all that toothbrush, 409. etc. All you need is some Zep Upholstery & Carpet Spotter towels. You would not believe how well these work.LOL! I have removed any stain you can possibly think of from leather seats with these. They work great on carpet and your tennis shoes. lol.
Of course I get these free from work .
The product description in the link below says do not use on leather BUT I have used these on many different auto manufacturers seats and I have yet to have a problem. All you have to do is apply a leather conditioning product after using them such as Lexol or Meguire's.

http://www.zepmfg.com/ProductCatalog/ProductBrowse.asp?img=products&section=202&subSection=1130&superSection=25&pageNumber=3

 

[01SVTSnakebite]

hm...cool , useful information...now about the center of the seat(for me, mine is cloth) ..can just carpet cleaner work there...?

 

[93nighthawk]

hm...cool , useful information...now about the center of the seat(for me, mine is cloth) ..can just carpet cleaner work there...?

Yes a carpet cleaner will work there, I have used a wet vac (bissel to be exact) to clean all of my Ford's carpets/seats/doors and it works wonders in getting them clean and keeping them in good condition. Depending on the stains, you might want to try a pre-treater and scrub a little with a plastic brush. Also if there is grease stains, use something like Orange and cleaner to pre-treat it, it comes right up.

 

[01SVTSnakebite]

so you're suggesting precleaner AS WELL AS a regular cleaning? ...that might work...lol . Mine are real dirty, but i dont have a steam machine or green machine or anything. i usually do my carpet by using industrial carpet cleaner(lol) and vacuuming the excess stuff with the shopvac ....but maybe the seats and the foam will absorb too much cleaner and make it kinda "damp" ??? (the only other car seats i have is suede/leather in the cobra,so thats y im clueless)

 

[93nighthawk]

In my suggestion, I was giving several examples of what you might need to attack dirty seats, there is no one way to cover all the bases, also sense I have not seen your seats, I have no clue how dirty they are, and if they are stained/what they are stained with.

If you don't have some sort of carpet cleaner, you can try using the dry cleaning/auto car cleaning products sold. I have issues with those because you use a rag or vacuum to suck up the crud, which leads me to the conclusion that most of it is just smashed deeper into the fabric and foam, your seats are not getting truely clean as to compared to using some sort of water/vacuum machine. of coarse you could use a spray bottle with soapy water, clean the seats/carpet, shopvac it, then use clean plain water in a spray bottle, than shopvac that up to get the rest of the soap and crud out.