Leather seat wear on a car

[Rawhide]

I have cream leather in my 2004 Mercedes. As has been mentioned the leather is really paint so needs something different.

I had good results with Gliptone products but recently as the car is not really a show car I tried something a bit easier with great results.

The product I used was poundland bike cleaner!. It's a poor mans 'Muck off' and comes in a similar pink bottle. I sprayed it on neat and foamed it up with a nailbrush and wiped off with a microfibre. It took barely minutes and the seats look way better than any other product I've used.

I can't imagine it's very agressive but it does work really well.

[Digga]

Chubbyross said:

That’s definitely colour transfer from either a belt or trousers. Colourlock leather cleaner is fantastic stuff (check out the forensic detailing channel on YouTube for demos). It’ll shift colour transfer on leather easily. They also sell a good leather barrier product which should make things easier in future.

^Yep. OP needs to spend a bit time time and elbow grease, or buy a car with darker seats, because this will happen every time with light coloured leather. My old P38 ranger Rover Vogue had lovely parchment seats, but they'd need a proper clean a couple of times a year to look their best. Jeans are the prime culprit, but any clothes dye can transfer.

[Wills2]

beanbag said:

I clean the leather gently on a monthly basis using Autoglym leather cleaner and cream to keep the leather oiled and supple, but it's not made any difference.

That's your issue, give it a damn good scrub with a leather brush + cleaner and remove the residue with a damp cloth, no need to oil the leather it's not going anywhere the leather is coated and sealed.

[W00DY]

cmvtec said:

I get a similar build up of dye in my X-Type - in a similar place, it's from one of my belts.

The car is high mileage so I spent a day cleaning the leather with a very mild abrasive paste, before completely washing down and putting a leather cream on. Brought it up lovely, has had 145k of arse on this seat in the last decade.

That looks fantastic, what products did you use?

[Evercross]

+1 for colour transfer. The scrubbing making it look worse is a red herring - the colour has been absorbed into the leather and it is just moisture making it look darker.

I'm another fan of Gliptone stuff but you will need to do something about the staining first so get a small bottle of their scuff-repair leather dye and dab it over the affected area with a sponge. Their colour match is spot on (although it looks lighter when applied until it dries properly).

[Chubbyross]

Evercross said:

+1 for colour transfer. The scrubbing making it look worse is a red herring - the colour has been absorbed into the leather and it is just moisture making it look darker.

I'm another fan of Gliptone stuff but you will need to do something about the staining first so get a small bottle of their scuff-repair leather dye and dab it over the affected area with a sponge. Their colour match is spot on (although it looks lighter when applied until it dries properly).

The colour won’t have been absorbed into the leather. Modern leather car seats have a ‘clear coat’ layer on top of the leather. This won’t wear off for many, many years of abuse. A good leather cleaner and a decent brush will get rid of the marks.

[AMG01]

Pears soap, used it on my BMW seats its brilliant

[Mr Squarekins]

I'm such a nerd that when I recently purchased a bmw with light carum spice leather, i bought lighter jeans!

+1 for just giving those seats a good clean.

[Chubbyross]

Mr Squarekins said:

I'm such a nerd that when I recently purchased a bmw with light carum spice leather, i bought lighter jeans!

+1 for just giving those seats a good clean.

A friend of mine won’t let anyone in his BMW (cream leather) if they’re wearing jeans. Utterly tragic.