How to: Leather Care!

[premiershine9]

Client today had me choose between their older Lexus 300 or their newer RX350, I chose to do the older sedan today...why? Because the leather has been untreated for 4 years! I wanted the most dramatic before and after so here we go.

You asked for a leather care write-up.....you got one!

I know its a ton of literature.....please take the time to read full through!

Overview
- Leather can be one of the easiest materials to maintain and with proper care can last for ages! Newer products on the market today have allowed detailers as well as car owners to revive faded, stiff and soiled leather back to life with just a few easy steps. Nothings better than climbing in a perfectly detailed interior with clean, soft leather

Why does my leather become soiled, greasy, shiny and CRACK??
- Leather is like your skin, its porous and needs to be fed with moisturizers and conditioners. When it ages and is not conditioned properly, it will crack and dry out. Cracking sometimes is just inevitable...the design of a bucket seat may affect the amount of wear and tear from its owner getting in and out of the car... generally the left side of the drivers seat is always worn more from getting in and out.
- Some leather.....domestic pleather cough cough..... will stain and sometimes even after deep cleansing certain areas will not be removed 100%....this is normal. If you think about it a lot of soil and crud gets onto the seat, add on black leather and 100 degree heat while letting the interior bake for 6 hours while your at work will also allow the soil to just penetrate more deeply!
- So your leather is cracked......no need to worry, you can still safely clean your leather!! With proper prep, the right products and a little more patience you can still improve your leather!


The Products
- Their are a couple different names for the chemicals used to treat leather......when all is said and done it boils down to 3 categories:
1) Leather Cleaner- to clean of course
2) Leather Conditioner- after cleansing away the soil....don't just leave it hangin! Throw some moisturizer on it!
3) Leather Hide Feed- usually given to you with your purchase of a Bentley or Rolls (fancy shit) very similar to a conditioner

Any product you purchase should be a pH balanced solution...the safer the better. Try to avoid products with silicone or petroleum products in them namely.......ARMOR ALL. :vomit:

The Tools
- Leather scrub brush or a general interior brush
- Boars or horse hair brush- for gentle use on cracked or delicate leather
- A couple Microfiber towels
- small or general size bucket to hold hot water
- empty spray bottle to hold hot water (optional)
- Tooth brush- Small and tight areas as well as to clean the stitching gently

Demo Time!

What I use and have been used on the various pictures at the end.
Lexol pH cleaner
Leatherique Rejuvenator oil
I have a gentle scrub brush attatched to my Porter Cable polisher that I use- Its fast, cuts time and effort during a detail!


Some before shots:





Leatherique Rejuvenator oil application

Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil is a rich conditioning oil that works best with heat and time. It penetrates the leather, conditions it and literally lifts dirt. With one application the difference in suppleness and moist feel of the leather is incredible. By far my favorite leather product. Period.

For those of you with older and much more neglected leather seats-
You can apply the leatherique, put a garbage bag over the seat, and park it somewhere nice and hot 8) The heat will create a sauna affect and after a couple hours your leather will be sweating out the dirt from its pores! You can apply and let stand for up to 48 hours!

On this application (due to time restrictions) I usually let it sit for somewhere between 1 to 2 hours.

Q- Why the Oil first? I thought you conditioned after cleaning.........
A- The oil is used to first lift and sweat out the dirt and soil, as well as moisturizing and softening the leather in preparation for cleansing. A moist, supple and moisturized leather is much easier and safer to scrub than a stick, cracked and dried out leather.....better chance of doing more harm than good.

Spray on and massage into the leather with your hands


Sitting in the morning sun (7:45 am)


After the Oil had been sitting and working its magic for close to 2 hours, I then prepared:
1) A bucket filled with steaming hot water - remember leather is like your skin- it has pores....lets open those bad boys up
2) 2 MF Towels- One to be damp with the hot water, the other to wipe dry



Take your damp MF towel with hot water, and wipe down the seat to strip the oil and all the soil and other crap that has been sweated out.
Don't believe me that the oil literally sweats out the dirt and grime? Check out the bucket next to you when you go to re-dampen your wet MF towel.....yupp you were sitting in that.

After wiping clean the dampened seat, you are now ready to re-dampen the leather once again so that you can begin the cleaning process.

Spray on your lexol:


Lexol works in conjunction with water, spray on the thick gel-like Lexol cleaner liberally and begin to agitate with a brush.
You should start to see a lather (foam) begin to appear....think of the cleaner as a "soap."

Heres a pic from a Z4 detail a couple weeks back showing the Porter Cable with attatched brush head that I use:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
TIP #1: start with the headrest and work your way down, no sense in cleaning the lower portion when your just going to have to wipe it clean again a second time when you clean the upper back portion.

TIP #2: Lay a MF towel behind the seat you are working on, a good amount of water is needed to work up a lather and it will drain nicely right through the back!


TIP #3: PERFORM THE CLEANING PROCESS IN THE SHADE AND OUT OF THE SUN. Allow the leather to cool and perform the cleaning process. Immature drying/ heat can sometimes cause the cleaner (any cleaner for that matter) to dry and possibly leave a residue

Note- You can also lay MF Towels across the center console and other dash areas if you are concerned about electronic devices/ areas. I have never once had a problem from any type of cleaner, degreaser or condtioner staining, eating through, or effecting any electrical components!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

After scrubbing every area with whichever brush you choose to go with, use a clean and dry MF towel to wipe down the seat.

Follow up with conditioner:
After a thorough cleansing any essential oils/ moisturizers are now stripped and absent.....replace them!
Apply some sort of condition or hide feed. I prefer to use Lexol Conditioner (brown bottle) and for one of my clients only use Connolly's Hide Feed (he's got his own pot) Quite pricey stuff but pretty amazing.

For the Lexol conditioner- Apply to a MF Towel or applicator pad, foam/terry/MF whichever you choose is fine. Allow the conditioner to sit for 10 minutes and soak in, Buff off with a Dry MF, if you put too much on you can lightly dampen a MF towel and wipe the area, following up with a dry MF.

Thats all!

Afters (same Lexus as pictured above)






___________________________________QUICK SUMMARY_____________________________________

My process....in recipe print version for you!

1) Make sure area is vacuumed and clear of loose debris, use compressed air if necessary
2) Apply Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil
3) Create sauna- give the oil some sort of heat so it can sweat, garbage bags, park it in the hot lot.
3) Wait 1-2 hours minimum......up to 12+hours for maximum results 8)
4) Fill a bucket with the HOTTEST water possible.
5) Grab two MF towels
6) Wipe off sweated crud/ oil mixture off with damp MF
7) Wipe area again with dry MF towel
8) Fill a bucket with NEW hot water
9) Grab a few MF towels
10) Re-dampen seat
11) Spray on Lexol Cleaner
12) Agitate to a lather/ foamy mix with your chosen brush
13) Use a clean/ dry MF towel to wipe down seat
14) Apply Conditioner/ hide feed
15) Buff off excess conditioner- follow specified instruction for whichever you choose
16) Sit in your now sterile and properly conditioned leather seat, feels like the showroom right?

Here's some other pics I dug up from the camera from details this season so far:









You can just choose to use the Lexol Cleaner by itself without the oil and you will get results, but for aged, cracked, faded and soiled leather, a combo of Leatherique Oil first and a cleaner second so far has been the BEST combo for seeing dramatic results. A little of the oil goes a LONG way!
Other places the oil/cleaner can be used:
- leather shift knob
- leather inserts in the doors/ armrests
- the steering wheel
- and......your GF/ Wifes purse/ handbag.....use it as an excuse to purchase the chemicals


Remember to always preform a test spot before doing all of the above step!

Hope this helps!
Cheers guys! :thumbup:
- Dan K.

[caa337]

Awesome results, thanks for taking the time to write this up! I'll definitely have to do this on my leather, its really dry.

[JustinG]

:thumbup:

[ScottyB]

wow! man that armrest was gross. i also can't believe how effective a relatively small lineup of products can be.

i gotta ask, what do you do when its time to move the car from the sun to the shade? sit on a MF towel and drive the car over? push it? do the hover while driving? :lol:

[premiershine9]

wow! man that armrest was gross. i also can't believe how effective a relatively small lineup of products can be.

i gotta ask, what do you do when its time to move the car from the sun to the shade? sit on a MF towel and drive the car over? push it? do the hover while driving? :lol:

HAHHA!! And yes I sit on a MF or leave the garbage bags I use on the seat.....doing the "hover" while driving would probably freak out some of my clients hahah

[WRXtranceformed]

That is exactly how my seats are starting to look.

[RawrImAMonster]

Dan, is it worth waiting until spring to leatherique my seats since it's cold out now? The M3 has real leather which is still in good shape so I want to take care of those. I doubt I'll bother with the Trans Am's fake stuff.

[premiershine9]

Hey man-

The trans am and all GM leather is primarily super cheap pleather, mostly urethane backed/ composite material- leatherique isn't designed to work with urethanes and most pleathers-

Leatherique however works well on most german leathers, you can most certainly perform it now, just use the trash bag method/ leave in sun all day to enhance the effect.... regardless you can clean/ condition as normal.


- Dan

[RawrImAMonster]

Dan, have you ever re-dyed seats like the process described here? The results look amazing. Might be a spring project for me.

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[SlimKlim]

I have re-dyed seats like that using LeatherWorld products. I'd refer you to my project thread but all the images in there were on an old server that's not up anymore. I did the whole nine yards, crack filler, texture match, complete redye, etc. The initial results from my attempt were fantastic, they took seats that were close to death and at least made them all black again and a bit smoother.

HOWEVER, they didn't hold up at all, within a few weeks they were fading and cracking all over again. Obviously other people have done it with excellent results, so I don't know where I went wrong. Maybe I didn't let the crack filler cure long enough (I let it sit overnight), maybe I didn't sand the leather down enough, or maybe it just didn't hold up because all the foam under the leather had collapsed a little bit and the filler is more brittle than the actual leather, I dunno. Maybe if you're more patient or your seats are in better condition you'll have better luck.

I just ended up replacing my vaders with E46 M3 seats after a few years, which I would highly recommend if you're up for it. Black vaders are in incredibly high demand and perfect sets can go for over $1200 and beat to hell seats still fetch $4-500. However, black E46 M3 seats can be had in perfect condition for $5-600. I got mine with very little wear and cracking from a 100k mile car for $500 with power, heat, adjustable lumbar and power adjustable bolsters. They are infinitely more comfortable and functional than the vaders, and the swap just requires a little wiring and dremel work, nothing too crazy.

[RawrImAMonster]

Out of curiosity, did you use the matte clear coat after you re-dyed the leather?

I was thinking about the e46 m3 seat swap at some point as well. I would like heated seats and I could see the vaders getting old after a while. We'll see how I feel about them once I get a little more seat time.

[SlimKlim]

Don't remember if there was a clearcoat in the kit I got. I liked the retro look of the vaders, but that's the only thing I liked about them. My driver's seat in particular had lost whatever minimal lumbar support it once had, and got really uncomfortable after about an hour. On top of that the seats seem like they were designed for a 48" waist, so my skinny ass just bounced around between the bolsters like a ping pong ball.

If you do the E46 swap try to find some with the adjustable bolster option, It lets you inflate them until it grips your hips and holds you in place when you're diving into a corner like a mad man.

[D_Eclipse9916]

E46 M3 swap or get the vaders recovered. I had a convertible that had the seats redyed, and was VERY well done, but after about 8 months they started cracking again, and it jus wasnt the same.

I really think an E36 M3 is best with non-reclineable race seats, but I wasn't willing to plop down the mone for them at the time in my sedan. Maybe in 6-8 months if I keep the LS1/Sedan, you can buy my E46 M3 seats and ill be getting race seats.

[RawrImAMonster]

E46 M3 swap or get the vaders recovered. I had a convertible that had the seats redyed, and was VERY well done, but after about 8 months they started cracking again, and it jus wasnt the same.

I really think an E36 M3 is best with non-reclineable race seats, but I wasn't willing to plop down the mone for them at the time in my sedan. Maybe in 6-8 months if I keep the LS1/Sedan, you can buy my E46 M3 seats and ill be getting race seats.

The vaders I have now are actually in exceptionally good shape for the age. I don't need to re-dye them and probably won't now that I read it doesn't hold up very well. There is just a little wear on the driver side bolster.

Let me know about the e46 m3 seats if they're heated. I'll probably be interested.

[SlimKlim]

Are yours gray or black? You could actually make money on the swap if they are black.

[RawrImAMonster]

Are yours gray or black? You could actually make money on the swap if they are black.

Black, and that's what I was thinking. Sell the vaders, get e46 seats, gives me cash to spend on whatever parts I want for it.

I'll put some pictures of them in my project thread tonight after I put the rear shock mounts in.

[WRXtranceformed]

Just realized how long ago this writeup was put on here but thanks for putting this up here Dan. I went ahead and ordered some Lexol cleaner / conditioner to keep my leather in good shape until I can get your hands on it

[RawrImAMonster]

Dan, any considerations to take into account with a red leather interior? I'm going to do mine on the 135i soon. It has boston leather as opposed to the leatherette they use on base models. Apparently the boston leather doesn't hold up quite as well if you don't take care of it.

Also you never got back to me about the opti-coat question I sent you

[Jake]

+1 to Stephen's question, I have the same red "Boston leather" and you can see the dirt in/on it. It's gross. Been thinking for a while now that I should do this cleaning while it's hot and sunny outside so the stuff can "bake" for a few hours.

[JPolen01]

Guys, Dan started a new job recently and seems pretty busy with it. Might be better reaching out to him directly via call/text.