This weekend my step brother asked me to help him clean the leather seats in his 1996 i30. He Just bought the car, and the seats are atrocious. Just a leather cleaner/conditioner job would definately not do the trick. We ended up finding some purple degreaser. We put some on a towel and gently rubbed the dirty seats with it. We used a seperate towel to take the dirt off. The difference was amazing. After we cleaned the seats, we applied meguires leather cleaner/conditioner. Now his seats look just as good as the ones in my 2001. Has anyone else tried this before?

 

The Mr. C lean magic eraser was pretty popular around here for a while. I've never heard of using degreaser before, interesting...

 

the mr clean eraser worked great for me. my back seat had lots of black dirt in the leather grain. went over the whole seat and it looked a whole lot better. it was almost like new again. followed up with meguiars conditioner and it felt nice and soft.

 

Leatherique.....

 

what is leatherique???

 

perhaps i can start a focus thread on my front seats to see if you guys know what would remove the stains on them from when i bought them...i've tried maguires, lexol, mr. clean eraser, still there. i'll have to get pics up and hopefully someone can help me make them look new and real soft.

(sorry for butting into your thread like this, but it's all related so hopefully what you used will work for me, too!)

 

3m general purpose adhesive remover works wonders. just be sure to use a good conditioner afterwards, its available most all auto parts stores, pep boys, napa, carquest.

 

let me know how the degreaser method works for you. i doubt you will be dissapointed.

 

What about treating leather? My driver seat is showings its 106,xxx miles of use. I have heard that leather products with lanolin are good for restoring the seats. Any suggestions on how to "renew" the leather seats? I already use the Meguiar's Leather conditioner spray...but it only seems to cover up the fading, not really help replenish the leather.

 

leatherique

www.leatherique.com

 

Go to a supermarket or drug store or some place that sells cleaning products (not necessarily for your car). Pick up a can of DOW, or Scrubby Bubbles. It is used for cleaning bathrooms and such, it comes in a large can with a green cap and is foaming. Also pick up a green scrubby, the thin, rough feeling pad that is used in conjunction with Scrubby Bubbles in the bathroom. Spray the seat down with DOW and scrub gently with the green scrubby until all the dirty spots are gone, and simply wipe away with a rag and follow up with a good conditioner.

I do this on almost all of my customer's cars and it is the cheapest, most efficient way I've come across to clean leather and it is completely safe if you are gentle and only scrub when wet. It is also great for getting in the cracks of the lining so you can vacuum out easily. I also use another product that I get from my supplier which is an all purpose interior cleaner, and with that I use fine grade steel wool.