I normally like to treat the leather in my 575 at least once a year with Leatherique. Tips and suggestions always say its better when you can heat the car up in the sun for a day or 2 but during the summertime the last thing I want to do is spend time detailing and not driving so today I decided that since its winter here in NJ and the car wont be driven for at least 2 months I wanted to Treat the leather. Although my garage is heated its not the same as rolling the car in the sun for a day. I concocted this circus act and its working out just perfect. First step was to heat up the interior to around 90 degrees for an hour so the pores of the leather open up a bit then wiping the car down with a generous amount of Rejuvenation oil. I will let the car sit with the heat on overnight and come back in the morning with Pristine Clean. My leather has always been supple. I just like to maintain it before it dries out. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Leatherique will work ok at lower temperatures, just takes longer to soak in. I love the leatherique product, but after leatherique I use a product by Claphams, link as follows: Home - Clapham's It has bees wax, so the finish ends up being a bit glossy compared with the almost matt finish of the leatherique (which many prefer to the greasy look of some treatments) but is very durable and smells nice. It also tends to mute minor leather scuffs much better than anything else.
I am curious what technique you use to get corners and stay away from controls, etc? Cloth, sponge, etc??
Ok, this is just hard-core. It's 30 outside here in NNJ and mine is begging me for a full detail including pulling the seats & cleaning the carpet.
I hope this doesn't happen to you, but some of us here have found that soaking seats in Leatherique at elevated temps has resulted in a sticky film that's very, very difficult to remove. In case it matters to you or anyone else, the best thing I've found to remove that film is regular off-the-shelf Zymol leather cleaner in the amber spray bottle. Again, I hope it's a total non-issue for you, but thought I'd throw it out there for the benefit of the archives. In any case, I love your side window heating duct idea.
Thanks for that info Mike. I wiped everything down today with the Pristine Cleaner an the leather seems just fine. It did ave a slight tackiness to it before I wiped it down but the instructions claim that normal. I would like to follow up with a leather dressing that gives it that leather smell. I am not that crazy about the Leatherique scent but eventually the natural leather scent usually returns
Interesting Dom as I like Leatherique sent and personally, I think it helps restore the natural leather scent. Chemical guys conditioner smells great but it's too shinny.
My 575 and my 430 have entirely different leather scents. The first time I ever sat in my 575 the scent brought me back to my high school days. The 575 scent is exactly like my 1978 Vette I had. My 430 smells more like a leather jacket with a spicey scent Both smell good just different.
Our 360 interior smells like a vintage Rolls or Jag because I use Gliptone on the upholstery. Pretty strong scent but I like it and it's done a great job on my leather over the years. If you like the scent, Gliptone sells "scent cards" you can put under the seat to keep that fresh Rolls aroma for 3 or 4 months
I've had my car for a couple years and want to treat the leather too but have to admit its a bit confusing. So far I've only used Zymol leather cleaner on the whole interior. Man is there a lot of leather! Lots of contorting and must be flexible especially to get to rear window/roof areas from the front seats. Am a bit cautious to use Leatherique due to all the temp cycling and cleaning steps. Also rumors of: White residue? Tacky? Shiny? The Zymol cleaner has a slight smell that dissipates very quickly leaving only the factory leather smell. The question is what to treat it with that will leave the leather with the original factory matte finish, no surface tackiness and original leather smell while feeding it and keeping it supple. Does such a product exist?
This exact thing happened to me and I could not get rid of the problem. Both the seats and door panels where sticky and not very presentable. Leatherique had never heard of the problem and I do not dare use it again after refurbishing/respraying the total interior. This was almost 40 years old original leather with faded and oxidized color. I believe the general condition of the leather had something to do with the sad result. Leather in better condition would maybe cope with the deep penetrating product better.
Well...I don't know if it is relevant, but there is a door in the family house that consists of a wood frame and leather panels over this; it is used as sound-proofing against another one (each one being on one side of a stone wall 70 cm thick). That leather door is original to the house, so was manufactured in 1770. I treat this 250 years old leather with leatherique, and never had any problem. And I have been treating the leather of both my 328s with Leatherique for almost ten years and never had any problem whatsover; Im very happy with it and wouldn't use anything else. The leather is original and has not be resprayed. But you can never be 100% sure with leather beforehand. Rgds
I suspect that the troubles I had can relate to what other products previous owners have been putting into the leather over the decades. A thorough scrubbing/cleaning may have prevented the sticky result. Leatherique supposedly has powerful capacities in desolving old dirt and grime - that may have been what I experienced - although several rounds with Prestine Clean did not resolve the case.
I think the seats in my car were not well cared for and they are 42 years old. The first couple of times I used the leatherique there was a ton of the white sticky stuff on it and it was a real chore to get it off. Every time I use the leatherique there is less and less of the residue and the leather looks better and better.
You may very well be onto something with the bit about previous treatments causing the stickiness, although I didn't have the problem after treating the seats wrapped in plastic in the car in a pretty warm garage. But the door panels I treated and kept in a very warm room (90 F, maybe) got extremely sticky. Took forever to remedy and I'm not sure it's completely gone even now. I still like Leatherique a lot but I'm now much more paranoid about using it. Very happy to hear that the OP did not experience this problem. It does seem to be a pretty rare phenomenon.
I have been using colorless Kiwi shoe polish for years. Once a year I smear a whole can all over the leather and come back a few days later with a clean towel and wipe away the excess to a satin shine. I like the feel and look of it and you end up with the smell of refreshed hide as opposed the perfumy smell that comes with some of the designer products. john