Leather Wrinkles

Nickc0844

Nickc0844

Owner and Tech. Rep
Hey y'all,

I believe before the "button" was hit, someone posted a way to remove those wear wrinkles from leather with a heat gun....could you explain this process again please?

I would appreciate it!
 
nick I spent a little time googling on this topic and found nothing definitive but a couple of references. The best is below.There was also a couple of references to using a heatgun or iron to warm up the leather surface prior to conditioning to improve absorbtion (sp?)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1228253 - 3 It's recent so the author can probably be tracked down for followup.


summarized below:
by 2turbo4x4 leather experts....advise on improving older seats (pigbladder)_»
2:58 PM 3-15-2004


You can get wrinkles and creases out by doing this method:

Bucket with HOT water in it
Soak terry cloth towel or detail pad in HOT water and wring until damp

Use a leather conditioner (I use Lexol)
Spray a small area of the leather and use small circular motions with the terry cloth / detail pad.

When the warmth goes away in the cloth, resoak in HOT water and wring until barely damp. Continue with this method until crease / wrinkle is gone.

The idea is the warm up the leather a bit so that the pores will open up and soak in more conditioner.

You can also use a damp cloth and a heat gun, but you will need to practice a bit so you don't heat up the leather too much.

This method works very well for removing creases and strech spots.
 
Thanks Dalmore for that. I thought it was just the heat and then the conditioner, but I didn't want to try it and ruin anything.

Pepboy's has a heat gun for $18, I figured I would just try it to see if it works.

Thanks again!
 
Most heat guns that I have seen are $50+

Not that it is a lot by any means, I just don't know if I would use it ever again...but for >$20, heh, we'll go for it.

I'll keep you posted.
 
I used the hot water bucket method and it made a noticable difference on the wrinkles in my 6 year old black leather seats. If I could eliminate them with the heat gun method, I'd be exstatic. I was thinking maybe use a small peice of terry cloth, saturate the cloth, spead the product over the area to be treated then heat the conditioner filled cloth with the gun and work the area.

When I used the water bucket method I boiled a pot of water then let it cool for a bit. USING GLOVES (don't want anyone to burn himself) I dipped a terry cloth into the water, let it sit for a few seconds then pulled it out, wrung the water out, then worked the conditioner that was on the seat into the seat. It was a bit messy (I don't think i got enough water out), but it did work.

Another thought I had was to put some leather conditioner into a smaller dispenser and then heat it in the microwave.

I think the trick is to get the leather hot (without burning anything or anybody) and then work the product in.
 
Be careful with the heat gun!! - if I remember correctly (I read this one too a long time back nick) the trick with the heat gun was two fold - softening the leather to get the conditioner in there but also (assuming it is coated) softening the vinyl coating to "smooth" it out as well...the old expansion and contraction method - you have to be careful not to stretch out the leather (coated) but condition it and keep it taught so that as it cools and contracts the wrinkles go bye bye - I've never actually done it so I can't say how it works but if I remember my reading (and I have killed wayyyyy to many brain cells between then and now) that was basically how it worked -
 
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