Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

[flamingspartan3]

I've read on other forums that because most modern cars use leather coated with a polyurethane coating, traditional conditioners are useless since it won't be able to penetrate. However, I've also heard that cracks in leather and the stitching are areas that the conditioner can penetrate through. I have Meguiar's Gold Class Cleaner currently and it works very well; I'm debating whether I should get the Gold Class Conditioner. My seats have some signs of wear that I would like to alleviate. Does anyone have any advice or any before/after applications of conditioner? I appreciate any help.

[The Guz]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

See Michael Stoops post in this thread. It's a good one.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?63217-Confused-what-to-use-on-cleaned-COATED-leather&highlight=leather+conditioner

Vega has a good post as well in post #18.

http://www.autopia.org/forums/interior-car-care/181676-top-leather-cleaner-conditioner-picks-leather-steering-wheel-2015-vw-golf-2.html?highlight=leather+conditioner+vega

I just wrote this review thread.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?63445-Review-D180-Leather-Cleaner-amp-Conditioner-amp-D181-Leather-Cleaner

[flamingspartan3]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

See Michael Stoops post in this thread. It's a good one.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?63217-Confused-what-to-use-on-cleaned-COATED-leather&highlight=leather+conditioner

Vega has a good post as well in post #18.

http://www.autopia.org/forums/interior-car-care/181676-top-leather-cleaner-conditioner-picks-leather-steering-wheel-2015-vw-golf-2.html?highlight=leather+conditioner+vega

I just wrote this review thread.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...eather-Cleaner

Alright, thanks for the links. So if I should now condition the leather, should I buy the combined cleaner/conditioner or use the dedicated cleaner that I have and purchase the dedicated conditioner?

[The Guz]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

You can use what you already have.

[flamingspartan3]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

You can use what you already have.

Thanks for all your help!

[flamingspartan3]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

I cleaned my leather seats a few days ago and again today. However, the seats still look horrible; there are marks here and there, tears, wear lines and uneven coloring. My car is a 2011 Volvo S80 with 120K miles. I'm wondering if a conditioner will change anything or the seats are bound to look that way for the life of the car. I've attached a picture but the seats look worse in person.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

A conditioner alone won't fix the problems with this seat, it will only moisturize the leather and coating. You may not be able to bring this back to 100% new looking (especially the tears, obviously) but you can give it a good deep cleaning. Our Gold Class Leather & Vinyl Cleaner (not the cleaner/conditioner) does an excellent job at this sort of deep cleaning, provided it's used correctly. Here's what we'd recommend:

Spray the product directly onto the surface of the seat (this is one of the very few times we recommend spraying any product directly onto any surface inside a vehicle) and agitate it with either a soft bristle brush (horse hair or boar hair work best for this) or with a clean, dry microfiber wash mitt. Wash mitts are great for this as the microfiber is an excellent cleaning mechanism in its own right, plus they are fairly absorbent so they'll hold onto the cleaner as you work it over the surface. Be very careful to not scrub vigorously in a small area - the coating on automotive leather is pretty thin and delicate and it can be rubbed through quickly if you concentrate on a small area. Scuff marks and abrasions can NOT be cleaned off - that is physical damage to the surface of at least the coating, if not the dyed leather underneath it. This cleaning process will remove embedded dirt from deep inside the lines and small cracks, making them less visible. They will not, however, go away completely. Their presence is simply part of the natural wear and tear that leather goes through. Very routine conditioning (moisturizing) from new will help, but most people won't bother putting in the little bit of time needed to do that.

You may need to repeat the cleaning process a couple of times, but this product is an excellent cleaner for both leather and vinyl surfaces. Depending on how deeply embedded that streaking is on the backrest it may not go away completely. But it looks like it's mostly just dirty and another cleaner of some sort may have been sprayed on, run down the backrest but was never properly worked into the surface. Your efforts will tell. The seat itself should be fairly straightforward, but we will admit that we've seen some Volvo leather to be rather stubborn when it comes to cleaning. That's mostly with demin stains at the lumbar area of the backrest, but at times it just doesn't want to let go of soiling. We say that only to manage expectations here, not to scare you off!

Bottom line - while the car isn't terribly old in terms of years, it does have 120k miles of use, and that's a lot of sitting and ingress/egress which is what stresses the seating surfaces. Sometimes not everything can be restored to true "as new" condition with something poured out of a bottle. Steam cleaning is a great step up for this type of cleaning but not everyone has access to a good steam cleaner. Go with a liberal application of the Gold Class Leather & Vinyl Cleaner and a microfiber wash mitt and you should see some impressive improvement.

[flamingspartan3]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

A conditioner alone won't fix the problems with this seat, it will only moisturize the leather and coating. You may not be able to bring this back to 100% new looking (especially the tears, obviously) but you can give it a good deep cleaning. Our Gold Class Leather & Vinyl Cleaner (not the cleaner/conditioner) does an excellent job at this sort of deep cleaning, provided it's used correctly. Here's what we'd recommend:

Spray the product directly onto the surface of the seat (this is one of the very few times we recommend spraying any product directly onto any surface inside a vehicle) and agitate it with either a soft bristle brush (horse hair or boar hair work best for this) or with a clean, dry microfiber wash mitt. Wash mitts are great for this as the microfiber is an excellent cleaning mechanism in its own right, plus they are fairly absorbent so they'll hold onto the cleaner as you work it over the surface. Be very careful to not scrub vigorously in a small area - the coating on automotive leather is pretty thin and delicate and it can be rubbed through quickly if you concentrate on a small area. Scuff marks and abrasions can NOT be cleaned off - that is physical damage to the surface of at least the coating, if not the dyed leather underneath it. This cleaning process will remove embedded dirt from deep inside the lines and small cracks, making them less visible. They will not, however, go away completely. Their presence is simply part of the natural wear and tear that leather goes through. Very routine conditioning (moisturizing) from new will help, but most people won't bother putting in the little bit of time needed to do that.

You may need to repeat the cleaning process a couple of times, but this product is an excellent cleaner for both leather and vinyl surfaces. Depending on how deeply embedded that streaking is on the backrest it may not go away completely. But it looks like it's mostly just dirty and another cleaner of some sort may have been sprayed on, run down the backrest but was never properly worked into the surface. Your efforts will tell. The seat itself should be fairly straightforward, but we will admit that we've seen some Volvo leather to be rather stubborn when it comes to cleaning. That's mostly with demin stains at the lumbar area of the backrest, but at times it just doesn't want to let go of soiling. We say that only to manage expectations here, not to scare you off!

Bottom line - while the car isn't terribly old in terms of years, it does have 120k miles of use, and that's a lot of sitting and ingress/egress which is what stresses the seating surfaces. Sometimes not everything can be restored to true "as new" condition with something poured out of a bottle. Steam cleaning is a great step up for this type of cleaning but not everyone has access to a good steam cleaner. Go with a liberal application of the Gold Class Leather & Vinyl Cleaner and a microfiber wash mitt and you should see some impressive improvement.

Thanks for the help. The streaking on the backrest was in fact caused by the very cleaner you described - the Gold Class Vinyl and Leather Cleaner. When I sprayed it on the seats it would initially streak but eventually the streaks would disappear. I wasn't sure if that was normal or not.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

Thanks for the help. The streaking on the backrest was in fact caused by the very cleaner you described - the Gold Class Vinyl and Leather Cleaner. When I sprayed it on the seats it would initially streak but eventually the streaks would disappear. I wasn't sure if that was normal or not.

OK, so the streaking tells us that the product is doing it's job of cleaning, but it looks like you maybe a concentration of it toward the top of the seatback that ran down and cleaned as it went. Perhaps not enough cleaner was used and/or it wasn't agitated properly, which would explain the less than uniform cleaning. Try spraying it in side to side motions, starting from the bottom of the seat. You might want to stuff a folded towel into the area where the seat and the backrest come together to catch excess product, but don't be afraid to use a good amount of product, then agitate with a microfiber towel or wash mitt as needed and remove the excess with a clean, dry towel.

[Top Gear]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

I use Gold Class Leather Conditioner, and I've found it's better (and better smelling) on my various leathers than sticky Lexol (both bottles). I even sometimes use GCLC as a general wipe and semi-protectant on plastics in place of the Ultimate Protectant I have - that is, usually just using the GCLC residue on the towel to wipe the plastics near the leathers I just covered. So, I use it heavy on some leather, but lighter on other surfaces. I have very little dye transfer, if any, or additional wear because of aggressive cleaning. I'm sure my leather and leather-ish surfaces are all coated.

GCLC not a leather repair product, but a preventative to hopefully avoid needing repair. You can't fix leather issues with a spray bottle, but you can keep it looking and smelling nice. Also, I use sun shades front and rear to reduce the UV rays reaching most surfaces, and the UV glass on my car is impressive as well. After more than 3 years, the leathers and other surfaces still look new. I don't know if that's just Hyundai, or if Meguiar's has helped as well

[PatrickW]

Re: Leather Conditioner on Coated Leather

My leather seats have the same problem. They have some wear marks in them, but no tears yet. I don't think that they have ever been cleaned or conditioned, so I really wanted to try and restore them back to their original form. How often should you apply this conditioner?