cleaning leather seats - before and after

[coetzeeh]

My next door neighbour Nick bought a Cerb a few months ago which needs some TLC. While Nick was lying under the Cerb in the cold and wet weather cleaning chassis and changing bushes I sat in my lounge with a warm cuppa cleaning the Cerbs seats. I used Gliptone's leather cleaner.

Some before and after pics.

Front of the seat base.







Seat squab




Satisfying afternoon's fun was had with background entertainment as Nick was cursing that diff bush . At one point I heard him muttering " NOW I am going to beat the st out of that bush"

Edited by coetzeeh on Monday 31st January 10:37

Edited by coetzeeh on Monday 31st January 10:38

[sweeper]

So which one is before, and which one is after then?!




Just kidding, of course.... Well done, looking very good now!! Does the cleaner that you have used have any coloured pigments in to freshen up the colour of the leather?

Cheers

[coetzeeh]

sweeper said:

So which one is before, and which one is after then?!




Just kidding, of course.... Well done, looking very good now!! Does the cleaner that you have used have any coloured pigments in to freshen up the colour of the leather?

Cheers

the cleaning product is a PH neutral gel with no colourants. After cleaning I added a conditioner to the leather to feed and soften.

There are a few small places where the leather has lost colour (where one's backside chafes over the side of the seat when you get in and out). The next step would be to get a colourant (and you can order this from Gliptone) which I belive will restore the colour. Not done this yet.

[sweeper]

To freshen up the colour I can strongly recommend the product from German firm "Lederzentrum": http://www.lederzentrum.de/tip/english/carleathers...

They have also stuff to repair dents, etc. and offer a broad range of colours (just get in touch with them to pick the correct colour code). I have worked with their products before, and brought some pretty bad leather back to life.

[scotty_d]

coetzeeh said:

At one point I heard him muttering " NOW I am going to beat the st out of that bush"

That made me LOL for real

As i know where he is coming from


And good work on the seats

[caduceus]

coetzeeh said:

sweeper said:

So which one is before, and which one is after then?!




Just kidding, of course.... Well done, looking very good now!! Does the cleaner that you have used have any coloured pigments in to freshen up the colour of the leather?

Cheers

the cleaning product is a PH neutral gel with no colourants. After cleaning I added a conditioner to the leather to feed and soften.

Smells nice too that stuff
Good job btw

[nrick]

sweeper said:

To freshen up the colour I can strongly recommend the product from German firm "Lederzentrum": http://www.lederzentrum.de/tip/english/carleathers...

They have also stuff to repair dents, etc. and offer a broad range of colours (just get in touch with them to pick the correct colour code). I have worked with their products before, and brought some pretty bad leather back to life.

Swissvax - England
Unit 14 - NDD Valley Business Park

Market Flat Lane - Lingerfield North Yorkshire

Tel. [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]
WWW:www.swissvax.co.uk

UK agent

[nrick]

Haven't used it so can't comment, but will be ordering some in the near future.

[Mr Cerbera]

This could run as an arc in Eastenders "oooeer -I've been polishing my next door neighbour's seat"

Wonderful results - you've insprired me !

[sweeper]

nrick said:

Swissvax - England
(...)
UK agent

nrick, is that supposed to be the same as the stuff from Lederzentrum, just with a different label?

Cheers

[Smooth Smith]

Coetzeeh - how did you manage to clean the ingrained dirt in the cracks? Everything I've tried doesn't lift this. Did you just use a cloth or a brush?

[amazon]

They look fantastic Henk, good job!

[sweeper]

Smooth Smith said:

Coetzeeh - how did you manage to clean the ingrained dirt in the cracks? Everything I've tried doesn't lift this. Did you just use a cloth or a brush?

Have you tried to apply the cleaner with a sponge? This is what I do, and it works very well.

[coetzeeh]

Smooth Smith said:

Coetzeeh - how did you manage to clean the ingrained dirt in the cracks? Everything I've tried doesn't lift this. Did you just use a cloth or a brush?

I used the Gliptone leather cleaner with an old tooth brush and just kept working it slowly. I did at one point use a soft spunge to clean the larger surfaces but was careful not to damage the leather.

To clean that one seat took me about 3 hours, perhaps a bit more.

[coetzeeh]

amazon said:

They look fantastic Henk, good job!

Yeah I was amazed how well the seats came up - what looked like cracks was mostly just old grime and dirt.

T'was very satisfying (a bit sad I know..)

[Smooth Smith]

coetzeeh said:

I used the Gliptone leather cleaner with an old tooth brush and just kept working it slowly. I did at one point use a soft spunge to clean the larger surfaces but was careful not to damage the leather.

To clean that one seat took me about 3 hours, perhaps a bit more.

Thanks. I think I'll order some of this & use a soft nail brush. My seats aren't bad but could be better. Other products which have done well in car mag tests haven't really worked......unless it's just me not putting the elbow grease in!!

[Smooth Smith]

coetzeeh said:

I used the Gliptone leather cleaner with an old tooth brush and just kept working it slowly. I did at one point use a soft spunge to clean the larger surfaces but was careful not to damage the leather.

To clean that one seat took me about 3 hours, perhaps a bit more.

Thanks. I think I'll order some of this & use a soft nail brush. My seats aren't bad but could be better. Other products which have done well in car mag tests haven't really worked......unless it's just me not putting the elbow grease in!!

[aubrey9160]

I have used a JML magic sponge and leather cleaner before and it cleaned the seats in minutes not hours. Im sure I read about it on the detailing section on here. It saved hours of work compared to just gliptone by itself.

[coetzeeh]

aubrey9160 said:

I have used a JML magic sponge and leather cleaner before and it cleaned the seats in minutes not hours. Im sure I read about it on the detailing section on here. It saved hours of work compared to just gliptone by itself.

Yes there are more aggressive cleaners on the market but there is always a trade off - bearing in mind leather is in fact skin it's probably best to be cautious when you clean IMHO and use a cleaner that is PH neutral and not loaded with chemicals.

[aubrey9160]

theres no chemicals in the sponge its just a synthetic sponge. I dont know how it works but it does. I got them form tesco for a fiver its worth a look as the time they saved helped me to clean all of the leather.I did take some before and after pics I will try and uplaod them later.Like I said I got the idea from a thread on the detailing section and those guys do it for a living.