leather care - removing "cloths" dark spots.

[supercharged]

I have a problem with my driver's seat. Bottom part of seatback has some "cloth" spots (dark spots from everyday driving, seems like from cloth) that I cannot remove with any leather cleaner. I even tried LIFTER 1 which promised to do the job - only removed 40%. They recammended to use water and toothbrush, and I worked with electrical toothbrush - Braun - still . A friend of mine has told me to try using warm-hot water, and soap. I do want to try it, but what kind of soap will be safe. I don't want to get dissapointing results, but I still want it to be safe. My leather color is Parchment. Car is 2000 Acura TL. Thanks.

[supercharged]

And by the way - any updates on how often should leather be conditioned?

[Rockpick]

Hello supercharged!

Unfortunately, I'm really not sure what to recommend on your cloth staining issue. My hunch is that the pigments/dyes from your clothes have simply adhered or bonded to the clear coating material that is on your leather. In a sense, I suspect that you've dyed your clear coat.

I'll see if I can do a little research and figure something out for you but, off hand, I'm really not sure which route to point you either.

As far as conditioning is concerned, you should condition when it's needed. Leather is skin (and in your case, skin coated with a protective layer). Like the clear coating on a painted surface, you must keep it protected, clean, and replenish it when needed.

Clear coated leathers, from my experience, are more difficult to diagnose than non-clear coated types as the coating does tend to sway the feel. The best way I can explain is to feel your leather immediately after you've conditioned (probably the day after to allow the product to 'work in') and note that feel to memory. Feel your leather periodically and use that as a basis.

Like paint, environmental conditions (heat, sunlight, UV, humidity, etc) will affect how rapidly your leather looses it's conditioned feel and ultimately, the necessary emollients which are in the leather that keep it supple.

For conditioning coated seating surfaces, I've grown especially fond of the Rich Aloe line from Meguiar's. The cleaner and the conditioner really perform well as a team.

I hope that helps a bit. I'll look into your dye problem and will hopefully report back with a clever trick or solution.

RP

[supercharged]

Thanks, Rockpick.

[Rockpick]

Originally posted by supercharged
Thanks, Rockpick.

No problem! I have an email into an individual that I know at an automotive leather manufacturing facility. Hopefully, he'll have an answer (and, at that, a good answer).

RP

[supercharged]

Any updates?

[jfelbab]

FWIW, I read of someone who washed all his dark colors in epsom salt to set the colors to prevent this from happening. He apparently wore some new jeans and they stained his leather. I don't know if he ever got the stains out of his leather.

[supercharged]

Cloth or leather?

[Rockpick]

Sorry for the very late follow up. I do this as a sideline and work has been taking a big priority over just about everything here lately. It's nice being busy (versus the opposite) but, it's about to stress everyone out over the edge... but, enough about my life saga.

To date, I never recieved a response. I will email my contact again and see if I can get a response...

BTW, you may try going a little bit different route and contact someone at Garden State Tanning (http://www.gstautoleather.com/) as that is where my contact is located. I know they have a 'contact us' link on the webpage however, I don't know if it's a 'clients only' type of link or not.

I haven't forgotten about you...

RP

[Rockpick]

Again, sorry for the horrid delay in getting back with you.

Long story short, my contact isn't sure what to prescribe. His hunch is that the pigments have actually penetrated the clear coating on the leather and thus, have dyed the leather beneath. (which is what I originally suspected). He knew of no product or procedure that could really remedy this short of having an automotive upholstery shop actually remove that panel of leather and resew a new one in its place.

I'm sorry that it's taken so long...

RP