Any Way to Get Ink Out of Leather?

M

mborner

New member
Hi. I just picked up a 2017 Honda Accord with leather interior. Unfortunately, I just discovered that the tint guy may have had a ball point pen in his back pocket. There are about 3 or 4, pretty faint ink marks, less than an inch long on the tan, coated leather. I`ve already tried Lexol and rubbing alcohol and they didn`t even phase stains. I`m scared to death of ruining the brand new leather. Is there anything that can be done?
 
`PRND[S said:
;2097960`]Talk to the tint guy, it is his problem.
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Yea, unfortunately, enough time has passed he would probably deny all liability. I`ll try the hairspray, I guess, I`m just afraid I`ll ruin the leather.
 
mborner said:
Yea, unfortunately, enough time has passed he would probably deny all liability. I`ll try the hairspray, I guess, I`m just afraid I`ll ruin the leather.
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the leather is probably coated and will stand up fine .. have a damp soapy cloth to wipe after and then maybe a leather conditioner
 
I`ve steamed it off before
I purchased that leather master stick referenced above but never used it (steam and a bhb worked for me in the past)
 
Accumulator said:
That. I`ve damaged stuff with steam that *NEVER* would`ve expected (and I`ve used steamers since the `70s) and even if the hairspray works I`d just knee-jerk towards using a product specifically designed for this exact job. Eh, that`s just me though....
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what year did you do the damage with the steamer? I`m using a new model that is not as high powered as probably what you`d think its just a little McCulloch unit
the only thing it`s ever damaged was my skin so far
 
Accumulator said:
I`d just knee-jerk towards using a product specifically designed for this exact job. Eh, that`s just me though....
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For a one time isolated use, unless PBMG is offering a sale and free shipping, the hair spray is the most economical means of of getting it off in 1 shot. Doesn`t take much at all if I recall, just spray and wipe. Comes right off. It`s been forever since I did it, so maybe there is a slight level of scrubbing involved, but I was surprised on how easy it was.
 
512detail said:
what year did you do the damage with the steamer? I`m using a new model that is not as high powered as probably what you`d think its just a little McCulloch unit
the only thing it`s ever damaged was my skin so far
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I`ve done damage now-and-then since forever. Usually with a fairly mild approach too, it`s almost a complete wild-card situation that makes me wonder whether whatever was done previously (perhaps unknown to me) set the stage for disaster.

E.g., aggressively steaming the leather of an old Benz (service loaner with a zillion miles) went *fine*. No damage at all, came out great. Doing it *less aggressively* to another almost identical one bleached out the pigment. Had that happen a few times with interior plastics too, most recently on the beater-Tahoe where I`d done far more aggressive steaming in the past with zero problems.

E.G.#2- I steamed the carpet of my Mazda MPV (terrible, *terrible* vehicle...) numerous times with zero problems. Then doing it *exactly the same way* somehow melted the carpet. I mean..this was my usual regimen that I was doing quite frequently and then suddenly it was too aggressive and I had damage. What the...?!? "You did something differently"...well, sure that comes to mind, but !oh man! was I trying to be consistent.

It sounds like you`re not being all that aggressive, which is probably good. I just get leery about stuff that seems to go haywire for inexplicable reasons, especially when the damage is permanent.
 
mobiledynamics said:
For a one time isolated use, unless PBMG is offering a sale and free shipping, the hair spray is ...
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I probably sounded a lot more critical of the hairspray approach than I intended. Eh, I just tend to have shelves full of "I`ll probably only use this once.."-type products.
 
Accumulator said:
I`ve done damage now-and-then since forever. Usually with a fairly mild approach too, it`s almost a complete wild-card situation that makes me wonder whether whatever was done previously (perhaps unknown to me) set the stage for disaster.

E.g., aggressively steaming the leather of an old Benz (service loaner with a zillion miles) went *fine*. No damage at all, came out great. Doing it *less aggressively* to another almost identical one bleached out the pigment. Had that happen a few times with interior plastics too, most recently on the beater-Tahoe where I`d done far more aggressive steaming in the past with zero problems.

E.G.#2- I steamed the carpet of my Mazda MPV (terrible, *terrible* vehicle...) numerous times with zero problems. Then doing it *exactly the same way* somehow melted the carpet. I mean..this was my usual regimen that I was doing quite frequently and then suddenly it was too aggressive and I had damage. What the...?!? "You did something differently"...well, sure that comes to mind, but !oh man! was I trying to be consistent.

It sounds like you`re not being all that aggressive, which is probably good. I just get leery about stuff that seems to go haywire for inexplicable reasons, especially when the damage is permanent.
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well I guess next time I`ll use the ink removal stick I purchased a while back
 
I`ve gotten ink off using steam, just approach carefully and check progress rather than scrub non stop. I agree with Accumulator and the steam, I haven`t had any accidents like his, but I had an accident with a steering wheel emblem on a Honda before (those chrome laminated plastic ones) without even being aggressive at all. The steam barely touched it and the clear film that protects it came right off. Thankfully those are replaceable.
 
I hear ya. It`s on my radar of how well it worked, as I believe of the ~no scrub factor~.
I`m a stickler for sheen and texture on leather.. I like to minimize scrubbing if need be. On steering wheel cleaning, I`ll use like 6-7 MF`s just because I clean one spot and then use another MF, to minimize the potential of oils transfer to another spot on the steering wheel.

Leather sheen/texture for one is one of those things, I pick up on.....
 
Oh yeah folex does too. Most leathers today are coated and pretty tough some aren`t even leather anymore but synthetic stuff


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MattPersman said:
Hand sanitizer should work too..
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Oh man be REALLY careful with that, the alcohol in it can do damage. My wife and I are SOOOOO careful using that stuff on our hands in leather-equipped cars after an !oops! that bleached the pigment once..we sure never touch the steering wheel until it`s *completely* flashed off. Gee, guess we`ve had all sorts of !oops!es over the years...
 
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