Leather Seat maintenance?

[marty]

I have a 1996 Q and my passenger leather seats has cracks on the seat part, and one crack broke through and now there is an actual slit! i can put up a picture if you guys would like. i dont want to get any worse, and i have to fix this, it looks trashy. what can i do? PLEASE HELP

p.s. i remember a infomercial once about this leather gel stuff that you put on and you cant even tell there was a hole/slit, anyone heard about that product?-marty

[AZhitman]

Skip the quick fix - Fred will chime in here with his upholstery experience.

Get it professionally done.

In the meantime, go get some Lexol cleaner AND conditioner. Use it several times in the next few months.

[Q451990]

Ditto on Hitman's advice... a good upholstry shop can replace the bad leather. There may be some cost advantages to buying a whole hide at a time since the majority of the cost is in the materials, not labor...

Lexol is a great product. I'd clean everthing really well then let the conditioner soak overnight several nights in a row. It'll eventually absorb in and that's what you want....

Heath

[Mayhem_J30]

AZ, are you using the Lexol that's a cleaner & conditioner in ONE bottle? Kind of like a Head & Shoulders for your car. haha. My GF and I used the Lexol C&C on her cream interior (I30)and it did wonders. The cream interiors show dirt REAL bad and dirt gets in all the leather pores, but the cleaner pulled it all right out and looks new.

The best leather conditioner I've found is used on horse riding saddles. Can't remember the name of it, but if you have a saddle shop around town, stop in and get some of their leather products as they got the dizzo!

[AZhitman]

No, I use the seperate products.

Find out what the saddle shop conditioner is, as I don't like the Lexol conditioner as much as the cleaner... Let me know, as I'd like to try it.

[Jason B]

I've been using the Lexol™ cleaner and the conditioner for many years. Our local Mercedes dealer also uses it on their cars.





The cleaner is in the orange bottle/jug and the cond. is in the brown bottle/jug. I haven't tried the spray version yet.

[szh]

Where does one buy the Lexol products from? Do local auto parts places carry them?

Z

[Jason B]

PepBoys™

[PalmerWMD]

get the elather fixed at a upholstery shop.

Up holstery shops can do small sections of a seat if youneed them to.

Execcute a NICO Search the site for "upholstery" and look for posts by myself (:oface, not bragging just being helpful guys).There will be more detail in those threads.

Suffice to say doing a lot at one time will save some money and may help restore that joy with your car.

Thats the effect it had on me.

Fred...

[PalmerWMD]

PS: I like the much cheaper esy to apply , easy to soak, nice smelling Armor-All leather treatment creme.

I have owned cars with leather for many years tried many products and that one is still my favorite.

Fred...

PS: But it wont fix any existing damage of course

[Woodmister]

I have a Q, with leather, but its SUPER cold up here in VA, does anyone know of any seat covers that fit the seat to a 1st gen Q??

[Jason B]

Not sure if this is your style, but here are some for the 2002/2003 Q.







You may want to check their site for your year.

http://www.ramsheadusa.com/gallry42.html

[Woodmister]

Dang....to rich for my blood

[reggiegsd]

The best leather conditioner I've found is used on horse riding saddles. Can't remember the name of it, but if you have a saddle shop around town, stop in and get some of their leather products as they got the dizzo!

Sadles and tackle use a dyed leather with special characteristics for that application. The leather in a car is dyed from the back to the front and require a completly different type of treatment. A lady friend of my wife's is a big time horse person and decided to use her tackle leather treatment on her Merc. It stripped the leather surface and left her beautiful gray leather looking tie dyed.

Beware. Test an out of sight area first.

[socalj30]

Thanks for the tips with the leather, I just got my J30 last week and I love it, I cleaned the entire thing today, washed, waxed the outside, washed the inside, scrubbed the floor mats and cleaned/conditioned the leather. I used the Lexol Spray and it was easy to use, it turned out really nice and I hope it makes the seats last longer. I also used the leather cleaner/conditioner on my dads F250 and they look and feel alot better.

[Mayhem_J30]

turns out the saddle cleaner my sister uses is none other than Lexol. Wouldn't ya know it. So stick with the Lexol then.

[AZhitman]

HAHA That's the same thing I found out when I went to the local saddle shop this weekend...

Shame on us for thinking there's a better way.

[greg_atlanta]

I have a Q, with leather, but its SUPER cold up here in VA, does anyone know of any seat covers that fit the seat to a 1st gen Q??

Better to just warm the car up for 10 minutes on cold mornings (better for engine, transmission too).

If you're in an "insecure location" like me (apt complex) get a spare key (if you don't have one), start the car with one key, lock it from outside with 2nd key, come back in 10 minutes and it's toasty and ready to run!

[Woodmister]

I just wanted to find some seat covers theat fit, and to cover the tearing of the leather ones, sort of killing two birds with one stone kinda thing. Does anyone know what covers would fit and are cheap?

[Tgvince]

If you never used http://www.griotsgarage.com products before you owe it to yourself to give them a try.Ive tried just about ever other line out there...I used there leather care stuff on my 97 Q and the stuff is just as good as the paint care products.

Terry

[LAQ]

what is the big deal about lexol? i used it on door panels to get some dirt out, but it really didnt do anything.

should i be using a buffer pad like the pictures on the bottle , not a towel?

[AZhitman]

409 or Simple Green for the door panels (lower part - not leather).

Use a towel.

[Q451990]

I've found that a very soft natural bristle brush with water and the cleaner (orange bottle) first is very effective at cleaning leather. Then glop on the conditioner and let it soak for a while... buff off with a little more conditioner and you're done.

Heath

[marty]

i wanted to give yall an update of my fix.

I took my car to get it fixed and they charged me $170 for that whole peice of the seat and the labor. they used latex instaid of real leather, because latex is mantainence free. The color is an exact match and it looks great. if anyone wants pictures just ask.

[maxnix]

Neither does latex breathe. Better sit on a towel of something breathable if you travel in the south or any where else in summer.

[AZhitman]

Latex? Ribbed for her pleasure?

Are you sure it's not vinyl?

[elwesso]

Well make sure that when you sell it you dont tell them you got the seats done, or make it look like all of them are in the same condition. Non origional seats not done in resale will kill the resale.

id like to see some pics, i am going to get my seats fixed, but with real leather. They quoted me 475 for driver side seat bottom, passenger seat bottom, and driver side lumbar thing.

[marty]

oops vinyl not latex... brain fart.. :doh

[marty]

heres the fixed seat:

[elwesso]

Wow, that looks golden. How much did you say it was???