Leatherique or Leather-renew

I have used Leatherique on my previous car's seats. It was a 1982 308. However, with the dyes that are on these Ferrari seats, Leatherique WILL NOT penetrate into the leather through the dye, so you are wasting your time on that front.

What WAS beneficial is when I stripped all of the old dye off, encountered dry leather, and treated it with the Leatherique.

If your seats are crackly and stiff, you probably need to strip the old dye off, then leatherique several times, then re-dye. Anything else will be futile. Trust me, I've been there.

 

I've heard a few bad things regarding Leatherique from folks who blatantly screwed up with the product, and didn't bother to read the directions when applying it to their leather. Why people expect miracles to happen despite their own stupidity, I have no clue. If you follow the directions, Leatherique works great!

As for their customer service, there is no question. I briefly inquired to the owner of Leatherique about his product, and he sent me an overnight package with enough free samples to do the entire interior of my 308 four times over. Oh, and did I mention that it works???

I have some Connolly Hide Food, but I wouldn't use it much except as a 'maintenance' product after you accieve the desired softness from the Rejuvinator Oil from Leatherique.

 

The dyes on the Ferrari seats preventLeatherique from penetrating into the leather through the dye.

You will be most succesful if you completely strip all of the old dye off, find the dry leather then hit it up with some Leatherique. But whatever you do, please make sure to read the directions carefully. To many people have screwed it up by ignoring the instructions.

 

I did a few spots on my 355 and had great results with Leather Renew - check out this thread for more info...


http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23958&highlight=leather+renew

Rich

 

A recent British car magazine (Octane? Sportscar&Classic?) compared leather treatment products, including Connolley Hide Food. They rated the Gliptone stuff #1. From my experience I completely agree. Leather drinks the stuff up, and it smells divine--like a Ferrari should. Connolley Hide Food, according to the magazine, was disappointing.

 

I used Liquid Leather from the UK to repair some very bad areas on the tan seats on my 328 and the result is excellent. Check out their website

 

Thank you, peajay. That's the correct name for the Gliptone product.

 

Here's a link to their website, along with a picture of the seats I did on my 330 using their products.
www.liquidleather.com

(The seat on the left is the "before" example...)
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Hello,

I have used Liquid Leather too; previous to my leather restoration job with Leatherique. Liquid Leather has a fantastic scent which was so intense, that my wife complained about burning eyes while all windows were closed. Liquid Leather doesn't do anything more to the leather. It remains on the surface, period.
Then I treated my seats with Leatherique after I stripped the leather completely.
Some time ago I wrote a thorough report for a german Alfa Romeo website. Unfortunately it's only in german language yet, but there are some pictures, which show my seats before and after.
It was A LOT of work, but like someone mentioned before, if you follow the manufacturer's instructions, the results are great.

http://www.alfisti.net/325.2.html

Best Regards from Germany

Martin

 

I recently ordered the complete re-do kit for my 82 308. The leatherique folks were very helpful, sent me exactly what I needed, and I had good results. I'd recommend you spray the dye instead of using a brush since the results are more professional. Don't rush and certainly follow the directions. Remove the seats from your car as a first step if you're going to do any coloring.

 

Has anyone tried the Leather Healer product from www.swissol.com ? It is a sponge on dye product .

 

I have had problems with spraying the dye, since it began to cure on the nozzle of my spray gun and plugged it. I suspect it has something to do with the heavy and relatively big pigments of the dye.
How did You adjust your spray gun ?
So I used soft brushes and got a decent smooth finish without any brush traces. It's important not to brush in one direction back and forth and simply applying the dye onto the surface, but working in different directions and working the dye into the leather.
There are two pictures before and after of the driver's seat, which was the worst.

Best Regards

Martin
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I've always used Hide Food (or whatever it's called these days). Never had any problem with it or had any reason to try something else. I think the key is to use it regularly (3-4 times a year).

Don't know if the regular conditioning is the reason but I've never had a problem with cracking or even bolster wear.

 

I once asked the owner of Leatherique some advice about which product I should use for my 328 seats. After one week I tried it again with another email. He never replied to me.

 

Sorry to bust in here, but there's also the option of applying it with a rag, gentle swirling motions. Do a search with "Leatherique" on this site and you'll find some great advice. With a rag there's no brush lines, and you still have the leather grain/pattern visible. Two coats and there's no evidence what method you used, it just looks great!

 

hmmm, that's unusual. During my Leatherique job some questions occured and I had a lively conversation with George from Leatherique.
Sometimes he replied within 24 hrs, sometimes it took a few days, but at last I got all answers.

Best Regards

Martin

 

George travels to a lot of car shows...

 

See the "how-to" article at www.fca-se.org/conc_leather.htm

 

Guys, how do you "strip" leather? Is it as simple as rubbing a stripping agent on, or are there other steps involved?

 

A couple of years ago I re-dyed my 308's leather seats. Stripping the old dye off took lots of paint stripper, and lots of elbow grease. After a lot of trial and error, what I found worked best was the Paint Stripper that was a "gel" type of liquid available at Home Depot, etc. The regular stripper evaporates very quickly and you have to apply and re-apply over and over again.

With the gel, I slopped a healthy dose on and just let it sit for an hour. Then I wiped off the gel (along with tons of leather dye), and kept repeating the process until it was mostly all off. You'll never get it ALL off, but you want to get to the point that you are down to pretty much the bare leather.

The "gel" stripper made this job a lot easier!!

 

I am currently re-dying the leather in my 328. I used Leatherique and I believe it has turned out very nice. I will post some pictures when I learn how. To strip the old dye off I used lacquer thinner. It took several times and a lot of scrubbing with extra fine sand paper. Be super careful not to go too deep when sanding the leather. You don’t want suede.

 

How do you guys know you've hit the leather, and that all the dye has come off. Just by feel?