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HOW TO: Professionally maintain and protect your leather seats so they NEVER crack
HI Everybody... this is Graham's professional advice for: how to clean and maintain your cars leather upholstery.
All right... well the story is: is that I used to be a professional detailer a few years ago... and there I learned of how to properly maintain leather seats... dashes... armrests... headrests and everything else leather.. including leather jackets.. wallets.. or anything else you can think of.
The Goal is to keep the leather in tip-top shape so that it NEVER cracks (which is ONLY due to dryness) and generally keep the seats looking new.
Just so you know... Leather is just cow skin.... thats all it is.... its nothing special at all... like human skin... it also has pores.. and can also dry out too.
Both of the above are real problems... if the pores fill up with grease and dirt in time (like human skin would if it is never cleaned) then the pores are filled solid and the leather cannot breath.... it also cannot take in moisture of any kind... so they dry out and crack (human skin does the same if not properly taken care of as you probably know) Since there is no flesh behind the cow skin anymore to keep it moisturized... the responsibility is now on you. So the steps and things about to be mentioned are how to clean the pores... and keep the seats properly moisturized so they never dry out and therefore crack.
The first pic is of the drivers seat of the car that I just bought... obviously the seats were never properly cleaned... otherwise they wouldn't be shiny from all the grease like they are... the seat pictured is mine.. I'm sure your aren't far off...
That shiny-ness isn't normal at all.. thats actually from the grease and other stuff in the leather pores. Leather should not be shiny... it should be dull like the pic second to the below one. (the pic of the seat: thats not being cleaned) The leather will feel very hard and resistant to any flexing... since there is so much dirt in the pores... the leather barely flexes at all.
so this is what you do.... you take a normal scrub brush (just like the one you would use for your fingers) as well a very mild cleaner. DO NOT USE A STRONG CLEANER!!!!!!! Engine degreaser is not a good idea!... if you wouldn't use that to clean your skin... dont use that on the leather.... (You think I'm joking about writing that dis-claimer? People have done that in the past so I wrote that to let you know!!!!) Use a very mild cleaner such as watered down pine-sol in a spray bottle. Water it down 2 parts pine-sol 1 part water. Just a simple house-hold one.. but one with out oil of any sort.
Then scrub it down like so:
Imeditately wipe down the seat... as soon as you can so the dirt doesn't sink back into the pores again. This will be how the rag will look probably... if its yellow or brown... dont talk to me ever again. (jokes)
Once you've done that complete to ALL the leather parts of the car... such as the head-rests... back of the seat (dont forget the rear seats too!)
as well as the shift-boot... arm rests in the doors and and the rear seat arm rests.. they should look like this:
This pic is of a freshly cleaned seat... notice the lack of shiny-ness.. its actually really quite dull... the same way the car was when it was brand new.
Thats exactly how the seats SHOULD look after they've been cleaned. NIce and clean.. they will feel twice as soft too... since the leather can bend freely now that the dirt is removed from the pores.
Next stop is moisturizing the seat:.. remember at the top of the post when I said that since the Leather is removed from the cow... the owness is on you towards moisturizing it? well that brings us to our next step..
To moisturize the seat... you need some really good stuff... this cheap crap is just that.. therefore avoid Wal-mart.. most automotive stores sell good seat moisturizer... mothers is not very good stuff... but unfortunately its the best stuff you can get at most automotive stores such as Canadian Tire or such... like pep-boys or whatever. Basically dont cheap out on the stuff... the better the stuff is.. the better it'll work. Also try a detailing studio where people pay outrageous sums of money to have a person do all this stuff for them... most detailing facilities can definately give you suggestions on the best stuff to use... Being a former professional detailer myself... I REALLY REALLY like "Car-brite" products, "Maalco".... or "Production detail supply" stuff
The stuff I have pictured is by "Production detail supply" this stuff is amazing.. its called prime... and does exactly what I am talking about... moisturizing the seats... its has a very important ingredient called "Lanolin oil" which is key.. that stuff is the liquid that makes the difference right there...
This is the stuff I now use, its replaced the PRIME lotion, and it does even a better job.
Item Detail <--- right here.
Its made by "Malco" which I provided a link right above this, and at the bottom of this post. Also.. .Lexol is great too.. so either the Malco Leather Conditioner or the Lexol stuff will work great... apparently you can get the Lexol stuff even at pet stores (so I've been told).
and if finding any sort of actual "Leather moisturizer" is a problem... as a last resort use human skin moisturizer... it works well too. but you need LOTS of it since there is LOTS of leather to be done... and its all very very dry and therefore needs LOTS. So expect to use about a cup full for all your cars interior. Try to make sure the skin lotion also has lanolin oil.
Do not use these so called "Leather cleaner *AND* moisturizer's; they are a joke.... you need to entirely separate chemicals to do this... you cant take a sponge and throw some of that crap on the seats and expect it to work... how can a person just use handcreme and never once EVER wash they're hands? would the creme work? not really because there is gobs of dirt in the pores.... so how does the lotion get into the skin? barely eh? Leather is WAY worse... so forget about that dual-purpose garbage
When coating the seats.. use a normal (CLEAN!!!!) sponge... just like a household one...
Drop a gob of the leather moisturizer on to the seat... and rub it in with the sponge... leave lots of it remaining on the seat... dont worry the leather will absorb the remaining lotion... basically you want to apply it a little more then what was done in the picture. but just do that as pictured.
Give the seat about an hour to absorb all the conditioner in it. Then re-apply the conditioner using the same sponge as needed to all the dry spots (usually the large flat surfaces) After an hour after that... you can wipe off all the excess conditioner if you choose too... otherwise leave it overnight... it will all get absorbed in time.
Well.. thats it right there... dont forget to re-moisturize all the seats and everything else that you cleaned... You'll be amazed at how soft the leather will be now... its really something..
If you want to keep your seats looking great forever... you need to do this on a monthly basis for the seats that get used the most... every second month for the passenger seat or the rear seats that dont get used as much. However at least twice a year is the minimum, even then it'll still eventually crack over time. The pores collect so much dirt in so little time you'd be surprised. Also, on leather seats with existing cracks, you CAN'T reverse the cracks, only keep doing this to prevent them from spreading; and new ones forming.
There you go.... try this out and see what you think... please leave a post on this thread with the result you've experienced..
