Mothers Leather cleaner, New Sheriff in town.

rzatch

rzatch

New member
I wasn't going to do this yet but..... My plan was to do a full product review and it's coming but when I saw this today I just had to post it. Call it a teaser if you will.

Today I started on my mom's 1998 Cadillac Eldo. This is a 47,000 mile garage kept car and has very little done to it other than the yearly wax job and swirl O matic car washes, quick vac, wipe the dash and windows.

First up was the interior which was actually quite clean but the arm rest had what looked like smeared black leather, almost like it had delaminated and pushed to the side like tar. So i got out the OPC 1:3 and started scrubbing. It didn't take long and it was black suds. After a bit of scrubbing I wiped it off and it looked clean but the tar looking stuff was still there.

Not satisfied I got out my Mothers leather cleaner and gave it a squirt and hit it with the same brush. OMG it looked like black shoe polish and I'm thinking oh sh!t the finish just came off. So I gave it a wipe down and all was good but the tarry(sp) smear was smaller and I'm thinking I'm on to something here and gave it a second coat. It wasn't nearly as black but the dirt was still coming off.

After a wipe down I could see that it was all gone and looked good. So after a coat of Mothers Leather Conditioner here are the results.

Conclusion is that OPC has been the go to in leather cleaning by many but the Mothers defiantly out cleaned it this time hands down!

This after using OPC 1:3. As you can see the Mothers cleaner is on the thick side so it clings to the upholstery.

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First application and scrubbing after using OPC. You can see the melted dirt and body oils that were still there. YUK.

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After the second application and a softer brush.

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Finished looking good!:rockon

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Mothers :yourrock
 
Mother's is my go to cleaner. Haven't been using the conditioner since I read the threads about conditioners not penetrating the coatings on leather.

I usually just go with 303ap after the mother's cleaner.

I also have those mother's brushes but would be terrified to use them on my leather...
 
embolism said:
I also have those mother's brushes but would be terrified to use them on my leather...
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Don't be this is the second interior I've used them on with no problems. That's 12 year old leather that hasn't been cared for in the past other than a wipe down with a damp cloth.
 
Thanks for the information. Other than going through the Leatherique process, it is hard to find a "leather" cleaner that has heavy cleaning ability.
 
Thanks for the info. I was just getting ready to buy some leather cleaner and wondering which one to get.
 
12 years old d**n.

All that dirt probably formed it's own protective layer on top of the leather!

Any pics of the armrest before it got sprayed with any cleaners?
 
embolism said:
12 years old d**n.

All that dirt probably formed it's own protective layer on top of the leather!

Any pics of the armrest before it got sprayed with any cleaners?
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No sorry, I had no intentions of posting anything. I have a review I'm in the process of putting together now that is going to show it's cleaning ability and was just going to go with that. But when I saw this I just had to take more pictures and post them. With a little imagination I think you can get a good idea of just how dirty it actually was. The black color really hid a lot of it.
 
Mothers cleaner looked like it did a great job on cleaning!

It does appear to be more then dirt and wondering if it really was black shoe poilish!?

Ive never had dirt appear so black,usually its brown or darn brown in color.
 
detailchick said:
Mothers cleaner looked like it did a great job on cleaning!

It does appear to be more then dirt and wondering if it really was black shoe poilish!?

Ive never had dirt appear so black,usually its brown or darn brown in color.
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No it was dirt. I was visiting my mom tonight in the hospital and telling her about it and all she said was "well it hasn't been cleaned since I bought it" I don't use the arm rest I drive with my right hand! :rofl
 
Are you talking about in the sixth photo? If so then yes it does appear to be a bit shinier toward the rear of the arm rest and there are two reasons for this. One, because the front of the arm rest is where the tarry substance was heaviest and it was scrubbed more than the rear of the arm rest. That is shown in pic #3. Two, the picture was concentrated on the front of the arm rest and so was the flash.

I will also add that the next day the arm rest was cleaned again because the front to back became more evident once the conditioner had soaked into the cleaner area.
 
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