What does everyone use to protect leather ?

S

Striker

Active member
Haven’t had a car with leather in forever. What’s a good leather treatment for brand new cars or is it just a matter of keeping them clean so the clear coat on them doesn’t disintegrate.


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To a certain extent it depends on whether it`s coated or non-coated leather. Products with Mink Oil soften leather. Mothers makes good OTC leather products that work well for coated leather. Zaino makes a nice cleaner that isn`t greasy.
 
Most if not all auto leathers are coated. I was told just to keep them clean and that’s it. I have the sonax leather cleaner. Seems to work good.


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Connolly leather cleaner. Most good quality leather cleaners for Autopia will be fine. I’m going to apply Gyeon leather shield. I’ve used Pinnacle Black Label Leather & Vinyl coating on rest of interior and it’s an amazing product. Apply once every 3 months.


Maintain with an Interior quick detailer. Meguiar’s is an excellent OTC product. I’ve recently switch to Adams and P&S interior cleaners.

Adams is a kinda all in one and like that it has Microban in it. For the price tho the P&S is probable best overall value


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Been using Griots Garage Leather 3-in-1 Spray for years. Simple enough to use and the leather always looks great.
 
Striker said:
Most if not all auto leathers are coated. I was told just to keep them clean and that’s it. I have the sonax leather cleaner. Seems to work good.


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Some of the high end cars use real non-coated leather. Ford King Ranch is real non-coated leather as well. That being said, coated leathers tend to hold up better long term for most users. Non-coated leathers are a bit more work to keep looking good.

I have 20 year old coated leather(maybe I should call it cardboard) in my car and most of it looks pretty good. Just one spot where the leather dried and cracked.
 
I used Gyeon Leather Shield on a new car in June 2017 and it did very well considering the abuse that car got. Started using Sonax Leather Foam on seats last year, more frequent applications than the Leather Shield and it did very well, easy to use.

Recently picked up the Polish Angel duo; spray for occasional cleaning, lotion for a "mini-Leatherique" treatment yearly or so. It`s nice:

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I`d love to know just how chemical resistant LeatherShield really is. In my experience there wasn`t a trace of it left after cleaning with a different brand leather cleaner. (Gyeon`s are meh).
 
atbalfour said:
I`d love to know just how chemical resistant LeatherShield really is. In my experience there wasn`t a trace of it left after cleaning with a different brand leather cleaner. (Gyeon`s are meh).
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I`d guess at least somewhat resistant. I had it on my daily driver, about 58k miles before I used the PA stuff last month. I work at a pool service company and on frequent occasion i have fresh liquid chlorine (12.5% Bleach, essentially) stains on my clothes, residual granular chlorine, BiCarb, dry acid...you name it and I`ve probably carried into my car at some point and exposed the leather seats to it. Nothing scientific but it`s held up to my grimy self for quite a while now. Testament to Gyeon Leather Shield or the innate ruggedness oh Honda Leather interiors, I dunno.
 
Most of my vehicles over the last few decades have had leather interiors, including most dailies and dog-haulers. 99.99999% of the time I just use an Interior QD.

On the *very* rare occasions that I actually use a Protectant I usually go with either LeatherMasters Protection Cream or stuff from The Leather Doctor.

Yeah..many would say that I neglect..or even abuse..my leather, but I`ve had leather interiors for a good 40 years and in that time only *ONE* sport seat bolster, on my wife`s high-mile daily, ever needed redone. Even the "that`s trashed, you gotta have it replaced..." leather in my current beaters has held up perfectly fine since I cleaned it up, conditioned it (yeah...coated leather that I did condition. Although [individuals] say it doesn`t work...it sure did for me ;) ), and then kept it clean with the IQD.

IME auto leather is tough stuff and doesn`t need much attention as long as you don`t do something truly damaging (which would include leaving it dirty for long).
 
Accumulator said:
Most of my vehicles over the last few decades have had leather interiors, including most dailies and dog-haulers. 99.99999% of the time I just use an Interior QD.

On the *very* rare occasions that I actually use a Protectant I usually go with either LeatherMasters Protection Cream or stuff from The Leather Doctor.

Yeah..many would say that I neglect..or even abuse..my leather, but I`ve had leather interiors for a good 40 years and in that time only *ONE* sport seat bolster, on my wife`s high-mile daily, ever needed redone. Even the "that`s trashed, you gotta have it replaced..." leather in my current beaters has held up perfectly fine since I cleaned it up, conditioned it (yeah...coated leather that I did condition. Although [individuals] say it doesn`t work...it sure did for me ;) ), and then kept it clean with the IQD.

IME auto leather is tough stuff and doesn`t need much attention as long as you don`t do something truly damaging (which would include leaving it dirty for long).
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as always, great insight and most importantly, experience. I’ve shifted to keeping it clean. Some of the products like ultima sealant are nice, but it is some work. One of my favorite ‘detainees’ is garry deans forever rinseless at qd strength. Cleans and lays down some polymer protection.
 
Accumulator said:
Yeah..many would say that I neglect..or even abuse..my leather, but I`ve had leather interiors for a good 40 years and in that time only *ONE* sport seat bolster, on my wife`s high-mile daily, ever needed redone. Even the "that`s trashed, you gotta have it replaced..." leather in my current beaters has held up perfectly fine since I cleaned it up, conditioned it (yeah...coated leather that I did condition. Although [individuals] say it doesn`t work...it sure did for me ;) ), and then kept it clean with the IQD.
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I hear the consensus that conditioners are pointless on vehicle coated leather as well. But, particularly on the Q5 leather which is on the softer side, it certainly makes the leather feel nicer and look more supple for weeks at least. Not to mention most conditioners smell very nice. So I continue to apply it. I don’t know what it does for protecting or whether it is necessary, but I swear the seats look and feel great after use.

And with the leather coatings (Mckees, PBL) they leave a nice slick surface (not greasy slick) and a little shine. Things such as four year old children’s snacks wipe off a lot easier with the coating, which is very easy to notice.

So even though I understand the science of why conditioning (and coating?) coated leather doesn’t make much sense, I see pretty obvious, different benefits from each.
 
Accumulator said:
IME auto leather is tough stuff and doesn`t need much attention as long as you don`t do something truly damaging (which would include leaving it dirty for long).
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Guilty

Perhaps worth noting that when we picked up wife`s car after having PPF and coatings done I mentioned grabbing some Leather Shield for interior/seats. They said not to bother but rather to just give it an occasional hit with Sonax Leather Foam.
 
I will "steal" (more correctly hi-jack. What else is new, Captain Obvious!...) this thread and ask if anyone has used any of the leather-care products form Colourlock recently offered by Detailed Image? Just curious... seems like English-made products that mirror Leather Masters.

More forum thread info on leather care, please see:
https://www.autopia.org/forums/car-...-leather-reconditioner.html?highlight=leather
See post #54 from Stokdgs about Spinnybeck Leather Care products!!!!
 
The one time I felt a noticeable difference as far as leather softness was concerned was when I used a cleaner.

I use the sonax leather cleaner which suds really well and their leather brush. It came out great and super soft.


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imported_OneQuickGT1 said:
One of my favorite ‘detainees’ is garry deans forever rinseless at qd strength. Cleans and lays down some polymer protection.
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I use my old (v2.0) ONR on some household leathers, and it works just fine. So surprise to me that the Forever Rinseless works well too!

acuRAS82 said:
So even though I understand the science of why conditioning (and coating?) coated leather doesn’t make much sense, I see pretty obvious, different benefits from each.
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My guess is that there are sufficiently micro-fissures, or just porosity in the coating, or something else compromising it enough that the Conditioners penetrate.

What I found weird was that the results were so nice and uniform rather than "here`s where it soaked in, there`s where it didn`t".

The way my final e36 M3, the `93 Audi, and the Tahoe all softened up...and stayed that way...sure surprised me too. Pleasantly ;)
 
Accumulator said:
My guess is that there are sufficiently micro-fissures, or just porosity in the coating, or something else compromising it enough that the Conditioners penetrate.

What I found weird was that the results were so nice and uniform rather than "here`s where it soaked in, there`s where it didn`t".

The way my final e36 M3, the `93 Audi, and the Tahoe all softened up...and stayed that way...sure surprised me too. Pleasantly ;)
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Thank you for making me feel less crazy. And you’re the type of person/member/OCD car guy I like to have on my side in a game of “Yes it did. No it didn’t!”
 
Well...all you members who are being so on-board with me here oughta remember that I don`t mind creases/etc. in my leathers...shoes, interiors, any of it. If somebody wants their leather to keep looking like a freshly-ironed dress shirt, then I have no idea what to do.

FWIW, I`ve never had that creasing be a problem...and some of my dress shoes have been all creased up for >30 years with no problems and *IMO* still look fine with a good spitshine. But I gather some people don`t like it...

Just thought I`d better post that....hey, my skin has some creases in it too, goes with Father Time and beats the alternative IMO.
 
acuRAS82 said:
Thank you for making me feel less crazy...[from this]..game of “Yes it did. No it didn’t!”
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Isn`t it something how [individuals] who don`t know from the facts of a situation tell you that whatever you experienced first-hand didn`t really happen?!? I get that all the [freakin`] time on all sorts of subjects :rolleyes:

"Fine, don`t believe me. Discount everything I say as you obviously don`t grant me credibility. Have a nice life, you no longer exist to me. Just stay away from my [stuff]."
 
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