I have a beautiful 2001 KR. Unfortunately the seats have not been taken care of like they should have. We have tried various products over the years. (I wish I could have seen this web site earlier, because I could have tried other things as well and would have worked on the seats more often.) But now I have a beautiful truck with faded front seats, with some stains. Is there anything I can do to get the color back?

And some advice to everyone with a new truck: Get your windows tinted!!!

 

How faded? Got any pictures?

You could consider this
http://colornew.com/locations/

 

So, if I understand correctly, your seats are sort of colorless and "lifeless".

My experience with both the King Ranch conditioner and Leather CPR is that they don't change the color too much (but KR conditioner does seem to bring the life back to the leather).

I'm not at all impressed with CPR.

I tried Fiebings Aussie Leather Conditioner (contains beeswax) on my armrest before I got more serious and used Tandy's Satin Shene. It darkened the leather in a very pleasing way and seemed to restore the "finish". The only thing I didn't like was that it emphasized the differences between areas where there was wear and areas where the finish was still good.

Overall, though, I liked how it worked (and it was easy to remove with leather cleaner when I decided to redo it with Satin Shene).

You might give the Aussie stuff a try.

- Jack

 

Jack do you happen to have any photos of the before and afters of what you did?

I would be interested in seeing what they look like.

Cheers

 

my KR is 2 years old and have tried various products. the seats are in pretty good shape. last week i tried leather cpr and it has by far done the best job.

 

I do, at least how the armrest looked when I cleaned it and then after applying the Satin Shene. Trouble is, I don't know how to post them. (And I just retired from 20 years teaching computer programming!)

Anyway, if you'd like to enlighten me, I'll be happy to post them. We'll be gone for the next three days, so it will probably be Sunday at the earliest.

- Jack

 

To post photos they have to be hosted somewhere, you cannot CTRL C, V them here.

Either create a Gallery on this site or use something free which a lot of us do, www.photobucket.com

After you have the photos hosted or stored on the net, you need to click the icon for phtos then paste the entire location in that box. Presto.

The cool thing about Photobucket is that you can copy the [IMG] data and paste it here in a text field.

 

Thanks, RR - Let's see if I can do this!



IT works! This is how the armrest looked after I cleaned it (sitting on our kitchen counter, my Wife loves me when I do this). Notice it looks sort of lifeless and "dry". If you study the picture, you notice it looks a bit different different in the middle - that's where the oniginal finish was still intact, same as on the KR logo and on the sides. I wish I had gotten the original finish off in the middle for the next step, because the difference shows.



This is how it looks after two coats of Satin Sheen - still on the kitchen counter. Notice the middle is quite a bit lighter. From past experience, I know 91% isopropyl alchohol will take a finish off of leather so it can be refinished. (Don't use the 70% rubbing alchohol - and I wouldn't recommend drinking either of them ).



Back in the truck. It really looks much better than it did when it was dirty and it has a finish that is not too different from the original - just a bit darker, which I find pleasing.

Thanks for your help RR, I've really enjoyed the F150 forums since I got my truck. You guys have some great advice.

- Jack

 

Nice job Jack

Make sure you resize the photos to Bullenton board size.

Thanks for posting

Does that leather stuff you are using have Netsfoot oil it by chance?

 

No, no Netsfoot oil. I think this is an acrylic product. There's no contents on the bottle. Just says: "durable, water repellent, flexible SATIN finish for natural carving leather". It's easy to apply.

The Fiebing's Aussie Leather Conditioner doesn't have any contents listed either except that it "contains Beeswax". It's a yellowish gel that reminds me of Vasaline in consistancy. It looks like CPR when applied, but then "dries" to a more "finished" look later (and a somewhat darker tone).

One warning, Tandy is changing the formulation to an "Eco-friendly" product. I don't know what this means, since the original was "soap and water cleanup". Anyway, I have a quart of the original, because I like the way it works. Seems like we're always fixing things that aren't broke on the off chance that some kid will drink it or something. You might be able to find the original in your local Tandy's store if you look soon.

Is there some trick to resizing the photos to bulleton board size? I reduced them in Photoshop Elements to about 200 KB each before uploading to PhotoBucket. (But, I see they're kind of "big" in the post). Sorry bout that - I'm willing to learn.

- Jack

 

Photobucket has a feature, on each photo you can resize them and you'll see the feature for BB/

The reason for my questions is that there is a thread sticky here about KR leather care. The product you are using isn't listed as a solution to KR care so i am interested and I know others are.

I use leather CRP, Poorboys LeatherStuff, the KR cleaner conditioner, and something from Ranchitout...custom stuff. My fronts are faded but they are in better shape than when I bought mine (It was a program truck).

 

Good grief! We seem to be in a chatroom!

OK, I tried the resize trick, but it's not at all clear. Here's what I got:



This is my steering wheel, cleaned and refinished with Super Shene. I like the Satin Shene better and will probably refinish it soon, but it repels dirt, grease, etc. and has a nice color. It was absolutely black on the top before I cleaned it. Again, it looked "lifeless" after the saddle soap cleaning but isn't that way now.

I went all through the sticky on leather care and didn't find more than one small comment on saddle soap. I started a new thread on that and didn't get much back except for lots of recommendations for KR Conditioner and CPR. I've tried both, and think KR Conditioner is better. I've used Lexol on my old combat boots, and it softens them, but I was reluctant to try it on my KR leather (my seats are still in good condition). The latest post on faded leather seemed like a good place to start again.

Thanks for your help RR, I like being able to learn and contribute to this forum.

- Jack

 

Chat room? No just a area where foliks are really passionate about their trucks

Here are some photos of my front seats





you should have seen them last year when I bought the truck.

 

Clean the inside of that thing, RR! Geesh!