Leather care kit - which one - Xmas!

[Ken Figenus]

I have always been paralysed by a fear of screwing up the acres of leather in the Rapide because its so much softer and quite different to the stuff in the BMW (that I use £7 Autoglym Leather Cream on).

Is there a better deal than this 'safe bet' guys: http://www.astonmartinparts.net/Details/Item/1589/...

I found some great blurb by LTT:

[i]The type of leather you have is 'coated' leather. This is essentially a 'painted' leather with a clear coat finish over the top. The leather may or may not be dyed through with aniline dyes prior to the finish coating. Essentially it is this top coating that needs looking after. Cleaning is vitally important as the top coat will wear away if allowed to become dirty.
Dirt on the surface will also become ground into the finish by constant abrasion.

'Conditioners', balms, feeds etc (traditionally oil and wax based) cannot penetrate this finish so are not worth applying - they can also leave behind residues on the finish which will only attract more dirt if allowed to remain. 'Conditioners' will not do any protecting on leather even if they say they do as there will not be enough active ingredient in them to do anything.

A protector will make the finish easier to clean and also inhibit dye transfer etc on pale coloured leathers.

Leather however finished has to remain breathable and it will allow the movement of moisture back and forth (transpiration) so the use of water based cleaners and protectors will keep the leather correctly hydrated which is essentail to keeping it in
good condition.[/i]

So this looks like a good bet Xmas present to me from Mum http://lttleathercare.com/product/auto-leather-car... and will never mention again - promise!

[Ken Figenus]

OMG - what a minefield i t is: http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

NEVER use creams/conditioners/greasy solutions! Glad I held off!

[paddy328]

The LTT stuff is good, so you won't go wrong there. Leather creams just make seats smell a bit better, but they don't do much else on modern treated leather.

[Carbon_monkey]

It's all a little bit of bks. What you need is a great cleaner that leaves your leather clean, matt and smelling nice. I've found that the best stuff is Dr Leather for cleaning with the occasional use of 'Liquid Leather' stuff. I've met the chaps at LL and they really know their stuff.
From what I understand, they do a LOT of bespoke interiors and reconditioning of seats. They have a lot of work worldwide for airlines and 'private' aircraft which was the basis of the stuff they supply.

[Ken Figenus]

Thanks Paddy! Nice and succinct

Also considering Dr Leather cleaner wipes http://www.drleather.com/Leather-Cleaners/Our-Leat... (less three bottle palaver compared to LTT and gets rave reviews) followed by maybe a GTechnic Leather guard that may help protect dash top from UV http://gtechniq.com/products/auto/l1-leather-guard...

[dbs2000]

I use Zaino Z-9 to clean the leather and Z-10 to make it smell nice. The latter makes is look a little more 'treated' somehow and it looks a little newer as well.

Horses for courses.