Red Stain on Leather

T

Togorashi

New member
I went to Fry's recently on a hot August Day. When I got back to my car, I threw my bag of gizmos in the passenger seat. When I got home, I picked up the bag and noticed that the red Fry's lettering had imprinted on to my seat. It was horrifying, but I assumed it would come up easily. After all, most bags are made with vegetable dyes and such. Not this one. One problem was that I was on my way out of town. So the stain in question, didn't get attention for a couple weeks.



When I did get around to it, I used Leather Masters Strong Cleaner and a white 3M pad. It did NOTHING. Any ideas?





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Dye transfer can be tricky and the longer it is on the leather the harder it will be to remove.

There are stronger detergent cleaners than LM Strong Cleaner around that have been specifically formulated for this problem. If these don't work then it is not a cleaning problem and becomes a more technical one where solvent based products need to be used. These generally damage the finish on the leather along with removing the dye and will then need replacing.
 
I have heard that hairspray can work to remove ink stains from leather and even red stains. Use with caution and always try a small inconspicuous area first.
 
Hairspary can make the matter much worse and should be used with extreme caution. If it makes the dye 'bleed' you will have a much worse stain to get rid of.If cleaning processes do not work then you would have to contact a qulaified technician to remove and recolour if necessary unless you feel confident about doing this yourself.
 
Eliot Ness said:
I posted your pictures so they would show up in case anyone else has some ideas:
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Thanks. Maybe because I'm new, the pictures won't post. It worked when I previewed the post, but they didn't go through.





EDIT: Got them to work. Just a problem with the photobucket HTML code I guess.
 
judyb said:
Dye transfer can be tricky and the longer it is on the leather the harder it will be to remove.

There are stronger detergent cleaners than LM Strong Cleaner around that have been specifically formulated for this problem. If these don't work then it is not a cleaning problem and becomes a more technical one where solvent based products need to be used. These generally damage the finish on the leather along with removing the dye and will then need replacing.
Click to expand...



Any products that you can recommend? I've never seen any.
 
If you have tried the diluted alcohol and there is no change then the dye would appear to have travelled into the finish quite quickly. We have a 5 step process that we use so that we remove the dye with the least damage to the finish.



The next stage after the alcohol, would be a product that combines a solvent and a cleaner (something like Remover 1) and then if this does not work a strong solvents (acetone based) will n be the only thing that will shift it if at all. These will also damage the finish or remove pigment which will need replacing so you will at some stage need to get a colour mixed to match and some high quality finish.
 
one easy way to attempt at getting that out is use a Mr. Clean magic eraser, it amazes me every time i use it at work. Make sure to apply some spray on leather cleaner or soap and water, some type of lubricant helps the process. The eraser removes black marks on vinyl as well.
 
Magic Erasers should not be used for cleaning leather (particularly on stains like this) as in removing the stain you will damage the finish on the leather which will need replacing. They alright to use as part of a restoration process when you would be using finish anyway but should not be used for cleaning.
 
I've never had any problems ever using a magic earser on any leather I've ever cleaned. And I do them almost on a daily basis. You just have to know how to use them. If you get real aggressive you can definatly take the coating off... About like getting aggressive with sandpaper on your paint... If you condition the leather afterwards you'd never know what you used (mild or abrassive) You have to have some common sense about it though. Can't just go in all heavy and then whine and complain about damage you did...



FWIW I use emlusifiers for ink on leather. They can take out permenent ink in seconds like it was never there. Uber expensive though. (I paid about $250/bottle for mine) but saves me all sorts of time and headaches.
 
'Conditioning' will never replace any damage done to the leather finish after using a magic eraser. 'Condirioning' does nothing to the leather or the finish so cannot possible be of any value. 'Conditioners' are not finishes and will not add a good sealing coat that is required to protect the colour on the leather.



Using a magic eraser definitely damages the finshes and this can be seen by examining with a microscope after cleaning. As a training company to the industry this is the sort of thing we are constantly testing and we have tested these over and over again with the same results.



Anything that definitely guarantees to remove ink from leather wil also do damage to the finish. Unless you understand how to identify damage that is being done to leather and the finish then you cannot tell waht a product is doing. The safest thing to do is to use products that have been well tested and rely on the results.
 
Well, I'm convinced the damage is permanent. The leather has obviously been dyed. I'm looking at repairing the damage on that seat along with cracking and a scrape on the driver's seat. Might as well do it all while I'm at it.



I've come across a few different companies and products.



Leatherique is well known. You can send them a small sample and they will color match and send you a kit with everything you need including preps, fillers, dyes, etc. Results seemed good but some cracking reappearing is possible apparently.



Vinyl pro is a website recommended to me by some professional upholstery people on another forum. I would get a SEM dye kit. SEM is really highly regarded for vinyl, but I'm not sure if it works as well on leather. They have some kits that are cheaper, but I'm not sure if it is as good as leatherique.

computer matched furniture, automotive sure-coat colors



Finally, I found this company. leather repair kit, vinyl repair kit, leather cleaner, leather cleaning, leather dye & paint Their kits are reasonably priced and they color match for my vehicle (2004 Tahoe) Don't know much about them, but it seems solid.





Any thoughts? Thanks.
 
jason@autogeek said:
I have heard that hairspray can work to remove ink stains from leather and even red stains. Use with caution and always try a small inconspicuous area first.
Click to expand...

With hairspray, even if applied to a cloth and then topically applied to the effected area, it will still more than likely cause staining, as it does on a lot of surfaces. I personally wouldn't use it on leather.
 
Let me throw my two cents worth in here. Jake brings a good analogy with the sandpaper on paint. Just like you are removing the paint with sandpaper, you are doing the same with some of these other techniques. Fortunately, the coating on auto leather is pretty thick, so a little coating removed may not be noticeable or even impact the durability to a great extent, but you are still removing some of the coating.



Togorashi said:
Well, I'm convinced the damage is permanent. The leather has obviously been dyed. I'm looking at repairing the damage on that seat along with cracking and a scrape on the driver's seat. Might as well do it all while I'm at it.



I've come across a few different companies and products.



Leatherique is well known. You can send them a small sample and they will color match and send you a kit with everything you need including preps, fillers, dyes, etc. Results seemed good but some cracking reappearing is possible apparently.



Vinyl pro is a website recommended to me by some professional upholstery people on another forum. I would get a SEM dye kit. SEM is really highly regarded for vinyl, but I'm not sure if it works as well on leather. They have some kits that are cheaper, but I'm not sure if it is as good as leatherique.

computer matched furniture, automotive sure-coat colors



Finally, I found this company. leather repair kit, vinyl repair kit, leather cleaner, leather cleaning, leather dye & paint Their kits are reasonably priced and they color match for my vehicle (2004 Tahoe) Don't know much about them, but it seems solid.





Any thoughts? Thanks.
Click to expand...



Let me start with leather world, stay away. I am pretty sure this is the same company that I redid a repair on about six months ago. The lady gave me the kit and I was not surprised by how bad it was.



Vinyl Pro of WP is a good company. Donna and Thad or really nice and will go out of their way to help you out. I don't particularly like SEM, but it should be ok for a small fix. Their computer match isn't that accurate, so they will have to match by eye in the end. I am not sure how you will get a sample to them.



Leatherique is well Leatherique. I don't think they are that great. You can send them a sample (again where are you going to get a sample from maybe underneath the seat) for a color match, but they will have to do it by eye. Any coating that was designed 40 years ago is not going to be any good today. If they have redesigned it in the last ten years, then great. I would like to see some tests on how good it actually is.



As for my recommendation, I have been saying LRT for awhile. Jon works for a major leather coating manufacturer and runs LRT in his spare time. His coatings are OEM spec and used at the same tanneries that supply the leather to a lot of new cars. Give him a call at 267-228-5682.
 
Thanks for your detailed response. Your recommendation sounds interesting. I did a google search and didn't come up with anything. Do they have a website?
 
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