355 Interior Seat Care

Given the issues around sticky interior pieces in a 355, has anyone had successful experience 'treating' the leather seats? Some threads have suggested when it comes to sticky pieces, to avoid any chemicals or cleaners in the interior. I wasn't sure if this 'pre-caution' applied to the leather seats as well.

My seats are mint and I don't want them to crack or dry up.

Any ideas?

Ptrav355

 

I use a leather treatment on the entire interior about every month. I use Lexol, but I bet about any of the big name products will work fine. It takes a while, there is a LOT of leather in there. You just have to be careful not to get it on anything else.

The best was is to remove the seats, but that takes a little extra time.

 

I bought my F355 with 6200 miles on it and the seats were perfect condition with absolutely no customary wear on the drivers outboard bolster and outboard flare. I have religiously applied Griot's Leather Conditioner every 2-4 weeks on every leather surface on the car over the 5 years I've owned it. Eventually at 29,000 miles the leather is softer than when I bought it and for the most part beautiful. However the driver's seat outer bolster and lower seat flare are showing signs of color loss, even though the leather itself is soft and smooth. (I make a point of grabbing the upper door hinge when I get in and out of the car so I don't scrub that surface-but it still shows loss of color because I let people sit in the car to have their picture taken).

We have a guy locally in Seattle who supports all the high-end car dealers, who is an expert at dying leather. He said my seats are going to look brand new when he is done, because of the condition they are in. He is locally redying the portions that have lost their dye. He questioned why my threads were dark rather than the white nylon Ferrari uses. I told him it was the Griots mixing with the road dust over the 29,000 miles and he said oh that's good - no problem I have a way of cleaning that to look original. His total charge since i removed the seats and brought them to him is $200. I suspect you have a guy in your area that is the guru and will do the same for you at 29K miles.

The only downside is my wife hates it when I come to bed with her after I have been using this stuff. Because it has a strange odor and I don't use gloves when I apply it. It is like heavy duty hand cream the way it attacks your skin and soaks into it and you can't wash the smell out.

 

Not all car sites give you this kind of info.

 

Leatherique!!!

 

How about this for a weird one then

If you have a smell on your hands that you cant get rid of use my granny's trick.

Ready ...

Get some toothpaste and rub a little onto your hands (same amount as you would clean your teeth with) then offer your hands to the nearest cat (of the pet variety, not tried a Tiger). It will smell the mint and start licking until all the toothpaste and whatever else is gone, cats tongue is a mega cleaning device . Then just wash you hands as normal, dry, sniff them and think "how weird was that"!!!.

Granny used that trick to get onion and garlic smell off, no idea how she thought of it!!!

 

The trick is to use rubber gloves lol!

 

+1

Lots of info about Leatherique on Fchat.

 

Thanks for the info...

 

Cat method gets rid of the smell of rubber too

 

Here are the before and after photos. I hired the local expert who supports all the high end dealers with touch-ups. I un-did the 4 bolts on each seat and brought the seats to him. Total cost for the re-dying on both seats is $250. I can't afford to spend my time to learn how to do it and possibly screw it up for that price.
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Totally agree, excellent results - and for that price...

 

Putting leather conditioner on your seats will definitely help maintain them. All leather seats will eventually get some wear marks, but there is a way to slow this down.
Dirt is the biggest problem for leather. When you have dirt on your seats, every time you sut on it the dirt acts like an abrasive and digs into your seat. This also applies to faric tops on convertibles. The tops that last the longest are the ones that were kept the cleanest, regardless of what type of treatment you apply to them.
At my detail shop we clean leather by lightly wetting a section of the seat with a damp rag, applying a diluted all-purpose cleaner, and use a small soft britled brush to pull all of the dirt out of the texture of the seat. We pay special attention to the seams and push on the seats to spread the seams out so that we can clean inside them. The seat is dryed, a coating of lexol is applied, and the seat is rubbed out with a soft dry cloth.
If you apply leather conditioner without cleaning the seats then you may just be rubbing the dirt in with the conditioner.
This does not work for all types of leather (suede, non-sealed leather) so spot test an area low on your seat for to make sure it is colorfast.

 

In Las Vegas we have a company called Granite Auto Grooming. They are by far the best high end auto detailers I have seen. The owner, Rich Light, has done a lot of research on car care product (inside and out). He has wound up making quite a bit of his own products over the years. He has a leather conditioner he formulated that is fantastic. It not only preserves the leather, but it works great on the vinyl parts as well. Also, the conditioner gives the leather that great "new leather in the car" scent. He has a new site being launched for this and his other detail products (www.gloss-it.net). Once up you can order online. If you want to give him a call, he can mail it out to you. His number is (702) 252-4000.