HELP with leather seats

[erw38]

OK, so I tried to "clean" my leather seats. I was "smart" and decded I should do one seat dirst in order to see how it turned out. Well.......it didn't work so well.
Here are the before pictures:


and here are the after effects:




as you can see, the product I used Meguiar's gold class rich leather foam cleaner/conditioner made the seats appear even more dirty. And in one place appeared to eat through the leather to show the foam. Can anyone help me with this.......I just want clean/soft leather seats.............HELP!!!!!!!!!

[JimW]

The later pics appear to be more reddish the the top ones (for they look more grey).

What color are they exactly? Tan? Grey?


Try taking some Lexol to the seats. If they use em in leather shops for furniture etc. then it works wonders on car leather

[erw38]

The color difference is mainly due to lightling (lack of) or the flash. My car's interior is the same as yours Jim.

[Aurora40]

erw38 said:

as you can see, the product I used Meguiar's gold class rich leather foam cleaner/conditioner made the seats appear even more dirty. And in one place appeared to eat through the leather to show the foam. Can anyone help me with this.......I just want clean/soft leather seats.............HELP!!!!!!!!!

Well, I would find it hard to believe a conditioner ate through your leather. It could be the leather was already crumbling there, and by applying a product you just finished it off. Or you could have pulled stitching that was on its last legs with the scrubbing action, I've no idea. Maybe a picture of that part would help.

However, you are using the wrong product for the job. Your seats in those pictures are impressively dirty. A cleaner/conditioner will not cut it as they have incredibly light cleaning. You want to remove all that dirt first, and then condition the leather.

I think what you are seeing from a "dirtier" aspect is that the cracks are just as dirty, but the flat part is slightly cleaner, making the dirt in the cracks stand out more. But it's very hard to tell from your photos as they are fuzzy and the lighting varies so much.

When I cleaned the seats on the Regal when we got it, they were pretty disgusting with dirt, though no areas of specific staining. I used a product called All Purpose Cleaner Plus, diluted about 9:1 and a scrub brush. I scrubbed carefully, and never sprayed the cleaner directly on the leather. Then I quickly wiped the cleaner off with a towel, then cleaned it with water and Lexol's leather cleaner. The APC+ is not really made for leather and I didn't want it to soak in or strip oils out of the leather. I wouldn't make a habit of cleaning leather in that way, but it was really dirty.

I then followed up with Lexol leather conditioner, which is one of the best ways to get your leather to feel soft. I love the way Lexol makes leather feel, but wish it smelled a little different. The leather was noticeably softer, though the leather itself just isn't as soft as my Aurora's leather. You can only do so much, and the leather itself is what will determine how soft it will get.

If your leather is falling apart, though, then maybe you don't want to do something this aggressive. You need to evaluate the leather on your car and decide what is the right course to take. It could also be that you just pulled the dye off the leather, not that you actually split it. In that case, you might need something like leatherique to re-dye your leather in spots.

[erw38]

Thanks Aurora40!

I don't think my leather is in bad condition at all, just dirty as heck. I will probably try your solution this weekend. Just out of curiousity, do you think the cleaning could be done with the product called Simple Green. Also, when I cleaned my Explorer's interior doors (previous car) I actually used it full strength. Do you think that would harm the seats. I think the Explorer might have been leather-like vinyl, but it didn't crack.

Thanks for the reply.

[Aurora40]

erw38 said:

Thanks Aurora40!

I don't think my leather is in bad condition at all, just dirty as heck. I will probably try your solution this weekend. Just out of curiousity, do you think the cleaning could be done with the product called Simple Green. Also, when I cleaned my Explorer's interior doors (previous car) I actually used it full strength. Do you think that would harm the seats. I think the Explorer might have been leather-like vinyl, but it didn't crack.

Thanks for the reply.

I personally would not use Simple Green, but it's up to you. If you do, dilute the heck out of it, and do not spray it direct on the seat. I have Simple Green. The bottle sat on a painted metal shelf, and the Simple Green corroded the paint off of it. Simple Green may be non-toxic and biodegradable, but it's strong and corrosive for sure!

If you don't want to buy a big bottle of something, you could try to find Meguiar's #39 Vinyl and Rubber cleaner. Sure, you have leather, but you're looking for something a bit punchier, and in actuallity coated leather isn't all that different from vinyl.

Whatever you use, just be careful, try it on a small area first, and use common sense.

Also, it sounded like that Leatherique cleaner was a winner. And if you will be using Lexol cleaner to clean off the stronger cleaner (I would) then why not buy the Lexol cleaner first, give it a shot, and maybe it'll be strong enough you don't need anything else.

[Aurora40]

I have sort of an after on the seats I did, though no before shots (the afters were more of the whole thing, so not that close on the seats). The driver's side was really really gross, very discolored with dirt though no hard stains anywhere. The creases were almost black with dirt. The whole car had sort of a dirty film.

Imagine a car with 100,000 miles where the interior was never actually cleaned. It was driven by a neat person, so there aren't stains and trash and such, but there was this film of dirt on everything. I used APC+ at about a 9:1 dilution on everything in the car, the leather, the doors and dash, the carpets, and I used it with a vac to get all the crud out of all the crevices everywhere (a great way to do it). I recleaned the seats with Lexol, then conditioned with Lexol after using APC+. The plastics all got Meguiar's #40 after the cleaning.

Afterwards, it looked almost brand new except for some floormat wear/dirt that wouldn't come out on the driver's side and some wearing on the steering wheel.

[omegaic]

100,000 miles on a 2 year old car?

[JimW]

Thats not the Aurora, that is a pic of the 1997 Regal GS

[Aurora40]

Yeah, what Jim said... Didn't you think the interior of the Aurora must have gone downhill a bit if you thought that was the new one?

Plus, the Aurora's interior never gets dirty. I clean it probably 4 times a year or so.

[omegaic]

Yes...I am an IDIOT. I missed the humongous BUICK logo staring me in the FACE on the steering wheel.

[RADEoN]

not to mention the regal logo on the side of the dash