Leather problems - what products to recommend?

[DrYazz]

Fellow PH brethren,

one of my vehicles is beginning to show lots of wear and ageing in various leather trimmed interior components. These include the side seat bolsters, bits of door trim and mostly where the sun beams down - around the instrument panel surrounds and front fascia.

Which products do you recommend to treat the leather and prolong its life?

[LuS1fer]

Anything that feeds it. Even a good shoe leather cream like Lord Sheraton will do the job. I use something they sell for saddles in the local pony shop.

[marshalla]

Liquid Leather : http://www.liquidleather.com/

It's done a fantastic job of bringing the 20-year old leather in my Excel back to suppleness.

[DrYazz]

LuS1fer said:

Anything that feeds it. Even a good shoe leather cream like Lord Sheraton will do the job. I use something they sell for saddles in the local pony shop.

No problems with discolouration? My seats are beige leather. Very light colour.

[Dog Star]

LuS1fer said:

Anything that feeds it. Even a good shoe leather cream like Lord Sheraton will do the job. I use something they sell for saddles in the local pony shop.

This has the additional benefit that you get to see lots of fresh faced young ladies with powerful thighs in tight pants. Ooerrr!

[Shaw Tarse]

marshalla said:

Liquid Leather : http://www.liquidleather.com/

It's done a fantastic job of bringing the 20-year old leather in my Excel back to suppleness.

This ^^ also smells leathry

[r11co]

Liquid Leather on its own won't be enough. Another product from the same company (Gliptone) is leather dye which they can mix to match a sample from your car or you can select from their list of vehicle colours they have already sampled. The dye is water based and can be sponged or even sprayed on (using an artist's airbrush) yet dries to the same durable finish as your original leather colouring.

Click on the 'Scuffmaster' tab on the above link to see examples of what can be done with it.

I have used it on two cars now and it is utterly amazing stuff!

Edited by r11co on Sunday 13th June 12:11

[Shaw Tarse]

DrYazz, do you have pics?
Saddle soap may clean the leather, Liquid Leather may help, but as r11co says it may need colouing?

[DrYazz]

This is the most important area to address, the instrument panel:

[AndrewW-G]

Take pod off, treat leather with hide food / leather oil, pull leather back into correct place and secure with glue and staples . . . . . . . . . . which I believe is the exact thing that was suggested to you by Chas in the Ferrari section some time ago

As for wearing through bolsters etc, hide food or leather oil (I use the stuff from croftgate) or if the leather is starting to crack and wear on the seat bolsters, you'll be wanting to look into having it re-conolised

[redgriff500]

I have used the Gliptone dye and whilst the initial results were good it soon started to wear off - like a paint rather than a dye and yes I followed all the instuctions.

[r11co]

DrYazz said:

This is the most important area to address, the instrument panel:

That isn't wear - that is shrinkage. The leather needs re-moisturised and pulled back into place (as suggested above). No magic liquid for fixing that....

[liner33]

Zaino z10 is awesome stuff , leaves the leather nice and supple and smelling great without being greasy

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/zaino/z-10-leather-i...

[S3_Graham]

if your feeling lazy you could always call in a professional?? Expensive but well worth it IMO. its like cleanig your car and getting a detailer to clean your car...

[Vidal Baboon]

There's a good thread in the TVR general forum about leather treatment.

IIRC it was a product from JML called Magic Marker, or similar that they were raving about.
Have a look, most posted pictures of their results.

I tried to get some from my local hombase, but they had sold out.

[DrYazz]

S3_Graham said:

if your feeling lazy you could always call in a professional?? Expensive but well worth it IMO. its like cleanig your car and getting a detailer to clean your car...

I just like the idea of doing alot of 'little bits' myself. Cambelt change will be left to the dealer, rest assured.

I haven't got a clue what I am doing, but if it goes completely aarse-over-head, I will ensure the professionals can salvage something from the mess.

If it all goes right, and it occasionaly does, it only heightens the pride of ownership

[Baggio850]

My 355 seats need doing as the bolster is worn and the leather is starting to crack.



These guys look good:

http://www.leathercaredirect.com/car_renovation.ph...

Anyone had any experience of them?

[AndrewW-G]

Baggio850 said:

My 355 seats need doing as the bolster is worn and the leather is starting to crack.



These guys look good:

http://www.leathercaredirect.com/car_renovation.ph...

Anyone had any experience of them?

Yep, used them a few times, always with good results

[Mario149]

Baggio850 said:

My 355 seats need doing as the bolster is worn and the leather is starting to crack.



These guys look good:

http://www.leathercaredirect.com/car_renovation.ph...

Anyone had any experience of them?

Okay, really, you should see my driver's side bolster if you're worried about that

FWIW, I've been considering the same sot of thing recently. I ended up buying some Turtlewax leather restorer stuff to try in order to prevent my dash doing what yours has done. The way I see it is that you can't put too much on, the leather will absorb what it needs. So basically, a couple of times in the last month, I've got a food brush (one of those things you use to paint an egg coat over pastry to make it shiny) and given it plenty all over the leather everywhere (none of this rub in a pea sized amount crap), left it for 10 mins or so, then buffed/wiped the excess off. Not sure it's made a massive difference, but it hasn't hurt and my cars been in the sun a fair bit recently.

Failing that, getting the simple bit of the interior re-trimmed appears not to be too expensive....

[plasticpig]

Baggio850 said:

My 355 seats need doing as the bolster is worn and the leather is starting to crack.



These guys look good:

http://www.leathercaredirect.com/car_renovation.ph...

Anyone had any experience of them?

That's not bad. This is bad:

[

Halfway through sorting it at the moment and the seat currently looks like this: