I have been reading a ton on the leather car. I currently have the Leather CPR, Lexol, duragloss 221 and the 4-Way either with me or on order. My KR is a 2005 with 80K on it and while the seats have never been "abused" they haven't been conditioned as I think they should have been.
My question is about "shine"
My rear seat when I applied the CPR to my seats (put it on my hand and worked it into the leather like mosturizer) the seats seemed to suck it up. However....
THe rear's have a nice sheen to them now where as the front seats steering wheel and armrest now look sort of dull.
I see people talking about buffing with a microfibre towel but when I did searches it didnt really say anything about that. Nor did I actually see HOW to apply most of these products.
Any buffing I do seems to bleed a little color into the towels is that normal?
The steering wheel etc was very shiney and is now very dull but not really sticky. Any buffing seems to bleed color onto a towel.
I guess i need care for dummies rather then specifics on products because it seems a certain amount of knowledge is assumed which I dont have.
Thanks in advance guys!
Brian
PS just in case there was any question I did not have any stains etc to work through but I did hot towel and use duragloss cleaner prior to conditioning.
I am not sure the front seats will ever regain the sheen that the rear has. I believe that this is predominantly due to wear and usage. I only use KR conditioner, and give a good wipe/buff about ten minutes after conditioning. All this wiping/buffing does for me, is keep the dreaded white haze away.
The color comes off of my steering wheel as well, but then again, I use baby wipes... The color is usually dirt and maybe some of the steering wheel color. I have no other idea of what to do. Theres a cat by the name of JackandJanet that uses a sealer, and his steering wheel shines. I am not a big fan of using it until mine totally craps out and loses all of its color. Then, I will become a fan. Who knows, I may eventually get the wood steering wheel. I wish I had bought it that way. Anywho, hope this helped a little.
Location: Rio Grande Valley, Tx and the United Kingdom.
Vehicle: 2005 Ford Expy KR
Posts: 2,380
Bear in mind that the rear seats in our vehicles will in general always have a different appearance from the front..........at least after the initial honeymoon period with a new truck.
This is partly because in general the rear seats just don't get the use that the fronts are subjected to, but mainly because of the greater degree of rear window tint that means any fade is far less noticeable.
Now...the thorny subject of applying conditioner and getting some degree of 'sheen' on the seats.
If that is indeed what you want, since the new leather does have more of a 'matt' finish.
For what it's worth here is the method for using microfiber.
When I'm in the States I generally buy mine from Sams Club, getting 2 colors.
Orange and green....I always keep one color for applying conditioner and the other for buffing off.
When applying conditioner....and here I state quite strongly that it doesn't really matter one jot which one you use as long as its a recognised make.
As I think some of you know I have in the course of a long life tried most..In fact today I laid out about 20 different types in my garage to take a photo, to show everything from Connolly to KR.
(Then I got distracted and didn't bother!!)
Anyway squueze a reasonable dollop onto your microfiber and gently wipe onto one section of the leather on each seat...try to wipe in one direction.
I will complete one seat a panel at a time, then do a second seat, thus allowing the first to dry somewhat.
Then with your buffing microfiber, screwed up onto a fist sized ball, without any seams showing on the bit you will apply to the seat, again gently wipe over the seats.
You won't notice a lot of difference immediately, though you will notice if you press too hard or press on a seam of the microfiber, that it will leave a 'scrape' on the leather. Don't worry, this will buff out.
If you really want a sheen on the leather wait until you are sure the leather is dry, then again with your microber start to 'polish' but applying more pressure. Try to polish back and forth rather than in circles, which will more likely mark the leather.
You may have to do this several times if you do want a sheen on the leather.
When I had the Expedition in the States I never bothered with this procedure, and in general could condition the whole 6 seats in less than half an hour doing it about 3 times a year.
Now the vehicle is 3 years old and there is noticeable color change expecially on the drivers seat, I am 'polishing' to give the darker areas this sheen......it makes it appear more natural rather than just dirty or discolored.
Reference my other thread I may at some time try some degree of re-coloring, but I am really against that if it can be avoided. At the moment I am learning to live with the different appearance of the drivers seat....after all it's just the 'patina' of which I have spoken so often in the other threads under leather care !!
Good luck anyway...I'm sure we all develop our favorite methods and adopt our favorite products.
I still stand by the KR conditioner myself.
I'm no expert, but my seats weren't in the greatest condition, and I got them looking really nice. I scrubbed the seats with warm to hot water and with a normal towel. I did that twice, but only the first time. I only scrub one time now. I let them dry, then apply the KR conditioner with a microfiber cloth. I use microfiber because the normal towels just soak up the KR conditioner, while the microfiber does not. So all the conditioner goes into the seats. Anyways, I did that process like 10 times over a month and they look like new IMO. The steering wheel was the hardest to clean.
I'm no expert, but my seats weren't in the greatest condition, and I got them looking really nice. I scrubbed the seats with warm to hot water and with a normal towel. I did that twice, but only the first time. I only scrub one time now. I let them dry, then apply the KR conditioner with a microfiber cloth. I use microfiber because the normal towels just soak up the KR conditioner, while the microfiber does not. So all the conditioner goes into the seats. Anyways, I did that process like 10 times over a month and they look like new IMO. The steering wheel was the hardest to clean.
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