I have a major catastrophe on hand. My wife keeps a little pump sprayer of deep woods off in my son's diaper bag (due to the west nile virus scare). Apparantly the bottle leaked, soaking throught the diaper bag, and the green dye from the diaper bag is now on my medium parchment leather seats! I attempted to clean it with lexol (the only product I have used on the seats) but it actually removed the original color and left what I like to call a "divot" in my seat. There are still the green stains in other places, but I do not want to put any more "divots" in my seats.

I take meticulous care of my baby, and now I feel she is marred for life! What should I do? Are there other products out there to help solve my problem? Should I just take her in to an upholstry shop and have them take a look? Somebody please help!

If you keep deep woods off in your vehicle, beware. It most have some substance like chlorine in it! If anything, people can at least learn from my mishap.

 

Hrrm. Seems like I remember seeing this somewhere else... *shrugs*

Same answer as the last place. GET IT TO A DETAIL SHOP (and slowly torture your wife).


GOOD LUCK MAN!

RP

 

Rockycarl,
Alright, keep an open mind. A buddy of mine does detailing on the side and did my wifes Maxima for me. Believe it or not, he uses 4-0 steel wool with leather cleaner. You just spray some cleaner on the seats and lightly go over it with the steel wool. I agree, it sounds crazy but he showed me and I couldn't believe how good they look. It even gets out the dirt in the grain of the leather. The only thing you need to do after is just go over it with a good moisturizer. Also works well on door panels.

 

Contact the folks at Leatherique. They specialize in restoring auto leather and should have some ideas to help you out.

 

I'd be more worried about the Deep Woods Off (the carrier of the green dye).

That is what probably damaged the leather.

 

Spray 9. I first used this stuff on my boat and recently cleaned the whole interior of my Lariat truck. It works really well on the leather as well as all the plastic bits. It actually took the grim out of the leather seats, the stuff that is ingrained in the leather wrinkles. I have used a lot of different cleaners from S-100 for my bike, to simple green and everything in between, and this stuff is the best I have ever see. Works great on fiberglass boats too.

 

Just remember, LEATHER IS SKIN. If you don't keep skin mosturized, it gets brittle and will crack.

Cleaners such as what are used to clean fiberglass and vinyl ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR LEATHER AS THEY DO NOT HAVE A MOISTURIZING AGENT!!

The leather in the regular Lariat is a 'clear-coated' leather, similar to the clearcoat on your paint. It acts as a first barrier to dirt and grime. Using something mild to remove the loose dirt is typically okay but, you MUST remember to use a good conditioner such as Lexol or Fiebing Four-Way to re-condition the leather after cleaning.

You'll notice that most leather conditioners only recommend using a damp rag to clean the leather prior to conditioning. The more of the oils and moisture that you can keep in the leather, the better.

RP