I have heard you only use a mild soap and water to clean your leather seats. The manuf. doesnt recommend using aftermarket cleaners and treatments because they can dry out the leather and possibly change the coloring of it.
Is this true? I have a bottle of turtle wax leather treatmentand and it seems to have worked great in the past. Do you guys use or recommend anything?
Thanks!

 

i bought the ford leather care kit for mine.....just my two cents

 

depends on the leather i think. The KR leather takes less care IMO and the lariat takes more care to make it like new

 

I just put the black fx4 leather in mine, I was kind of wondering what to use to keep them conditioned and looking good? any suggestions?

 

I use Mcquires Leather wipes on my FX4 leather seats, then wipe them done with a microfibre cloth to get any extra conditioner off. Leaves them looking new and shinny but not slimmy and gross, it also has a decent smell to it.

 

Do/have you owned a KR for a period of time? The leather is a pain in the *** to keep looking new. I'd take the coated leather anyday.

 

nope/nope, thats why i said i think, and actually never had any leather, other then my steering wheel wrap from ford

 

Other way around...

KR leather is aniline. This means that it has NO protective coating on the leather to help protect it from stains, dirt, and other contamination. Lariat leather, on the other hand, is non-aniline and features a clear coating on the surface of the leather to prevent the aforementioned types of contamination.

Trust me. KR leather is *work* to keep it in top shape. There's nothing simplistic about it.

To clean your LARIAT leather, I'd recommend going with a good two or three step procedure.

1. Clean the 'bulk' crud off. This can be done using a warm wash cloth and, if you're so inclined, Johnson & Johnson baby wash. Be sure to adequately 'rinse' the leather with another clean, moist wash cloth.

2. Deep clean. Using a product that is designed for cleaning leather (like Meguiar's Rich Leather Cleaner (part of a 2 step process from Meg's)), follow the directions and gently lather the leather to remove deep grime. This will allow the 'clear coating' that was previously mentioned to shed the body grime and such that is deep in the pores of the coating. Further, this will adequately open the pores so that the conditioner can better penetrate the coating. Mind you, this 'coating' is very porous -- it has to be to keep it pliable and such.

3. Condition. Using a product that is designed for leather conditioning, apply the product to your hand. Using a 'massaging motion', work the conditioner into the leather. Allow some excess to exist on the surface of the leather until you're done. At the end, using a clean soft dry cloth, lightly buff (lightly is the key word) off the excess.


The heat from the warm cloth in steps 1 & 2 will help open the pores to better complete the process.

The products that I'd highly recommend for LARIAT leather are:

1. Clean:

Meguiar's Rich Leather Aloe Cleaner



2. Condition:

Meguiar's Rich Leather Aloe Conditioner




The instruction per FoMoCo is put there to keep people from making use of WD-40's 2000 uses. In short, don't use WD-40 on any type of leather product! LOL!

Neglecting it by not cleaning it or conditioning it is EXACTLY WRONG and will yield premature wear and dry cracking due to a lack of emollients and such being introduced into the leather.

Leather is skin. Treat it as such.

 

You *DID* have leather on your wheel if you had a leather-wrapped steering wheel.

You see, there are varying grades of leather -- all of which are non-aniline in the Lariat. The steering wheel is actually, in most cases, a lower grade leather and thus, is more durable. The problem lies within the dying process and also the coating process. Once you compromise the coating, the dying will wear quickly.

In short, the steering wheels were, what we call in Ford land, cheapened-up.

RP

 

yah, thanks for the clarification RP, ive been wrong before....

 

Thank you kind sir, that is exactly what I was looking for.

 

Glad to help BestnTX! Thanks for the kudos!

 

Thanks RP, I just bought both for 17.95 shipped or so. The Meg's leather wipes aren't cutting it with the alchy stains I'm hoping these will. If they do you'll get some major thanks from me =]

 

Yo J, let me know how these work... where did you get them from?

 

Best deal on the web on Meguiar's 'stuff' ---- www.autodetailingsolutions.com

I deal with them 'frequently'. Rick (the owner) is a TOP NOTCH guy. Be sure to tell em' Rockpick sent cha! Maybe it'll score me a free shipping coupon or something...