I wish I took a before picture
Thread Starter
Winter sucks
Joined: Jan 2004
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From: Newberg, Oregon
I wish I took a before picture
I just spent a couple hours trying to make my old faded, stained, and DIRTY leather seats from my parts car into something I can use in my DD....
After finishing, I hated myself for not taking a before picture. They were WAY faded... had a HUGE stain on the butt area of the drivers seat (looked like pen ink or something... was there for YEARS), also had TONS of old "people soil" mung stuff all over them...
Anyways, here they are now... once again, imagine them all shitty looking, and NOW look at them. This is AFTER they dried too.. not wet at all, and soft to the touch.
Whaddaya think?
After finishing, I hated myself for not taking a before picture. They were WAY faded... had a HUGE stain on the butt area of the drivers seat (looked like pen ink or something... was there for YEARS), also had TONS of old "people soil" mung stuff all over them...
Anyways, here they are now... once again, imagine them all shitty looking, and NOW look at them. This is AFTER they dried too.. not wet at all, and soft to the touch.
Whaddaya think?
Thread Starter
Winter sucks
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,083
Likes: 0
From: Newberg, Oregon
So.... People are gonna laugh at me when I tell you what I used.... But, I tested this on some other old faded seats (that had tears all over... trash), and they still look decent where I tested them....
Here's proceedure A (poor mans solution):
1: Spray the seats down with simple green, paper towel them off... I did mine twice each. let them dry completely afterwards.
2: Get some baseball glove oil from your local sports shop. comes in a white bottle for about 2 bucks.
3: Soak a paper towel in the stuff and apply to every inch of leather/vinyl.. let it soak for a couple hours. Wipe it all off with clean paper towels until no more comes off and apply it again. Let it soak for a couple more hours. If your leather is really dry, it will probably drink this stuff up like mad... keep doing it until it won't soak it up anymore. Towel it off really well when done.
Thats the poormans method.. Works almost as good as proceedure B (below), but costs a couple bucks. Make sure the baseball mit oil has "neatsfoot oil" in it. That seemed to be the key ingredient. Same oil in the proceedure B stuff.
Proceedure B:
1: Clean them off with simple green, let them COMPLETELY dry.
2: Coat the bitch in Lexol leather cleaner (http://www.lexol.com)
3: Let it sit for 15min or so, then wipe as much off as you can with paper towels.
4: Take a warm damp sponge and rinse it off really well. Leave no residue
5: Let it try all the way.. again.
6: Spray on a liberal coat of Lexol Conditioner. Spread it around really good with a paper towel or something... let it sit for an hour or two... The first time I did this, I came back and the seat was dry to the touch.. the leather soaked it ALL up. I applied it again, and again until it wouldn't take anymore...
7: Wipe it off entirely... with dry hands, you should be able to wipe it and get minimal to no oils on your hand.
Thats all I did.. I did, however, revisit the seats every couple hours and re-coat them with oil lightly. I did this probably twice.
Before I did this, the seats were hard and crusty.. I didn't want to sit in them, because I felt like they would split. Now I've sat down in them a couple times just for giggles.. they feel great.
Here's proceedure A (poor mans solution):
1: Spray the seats down with simple green, paper towel them off... I did mine twice each. let them dry completely afterwards.
2: Get some baseball glove oil from your local sports shop. comes in a white bottle for about 2 bucks.
3: Soak a paper towel in the stuff and apply to every inch of leather/vinyl.. let it soak for a couple hours. Wipe it all off with clean paper towels until no more comes off and apply it again. Let it soak for a couple more hours. If your leather is really dry, it will probably drink this stuff up like mad... keep doing it until it won't soak it up anymore. Towel it off really well when done.
Thats the poormans method.. Works almost as good as proceedure B (below), but costs a couple bucks. Make sure the baseball mit oil has "neatsfoot oil" in it. That seemed to be the key ingredient. Same oil in the proceedure B stuff.
Proceedure B:
1: Clean them off with simple green, let them COMPLETELY dry.
2: Coat the bitch in Lexol leather cleaner (http://www.lexol.com)
3: Let it sit for 15min or so, then wipe as much off as you can with paper towels.
4: Take a warm damp sponge and rinse it off really well. Leave no residue
5: Let it try all the way.. again.
6: Spray on a liberal coat of Lexol Conditioner. Spread it around really good with a paper towel or something... let it sit for an hour or two... The first time I did this, I came back and the seat was dry to the touch.. the leather soaked it ALL up. I applied it again, and again until it wouldn't take anymore...
7: Wipe it off entirely... with dry hands, you should be able to wipe it and get minimal to no oils on your hand.
Thats all I did.. I did, however, revisit the seats every couple hours and re-coat them with oil lightly. I did this probably twice.
Before I did this, the seats were hard and crusty.. I didn't want to sit in them, because I felt like they would split. Now I've sat down in them a couple times just for giggles.. they feel great.
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Thread Starter
Winter sucks
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,083
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From: Newberg, Oregon
Note: If your seats are REALLY tight... Simple green MIGHT crack/split them when it dries.... But, I used simple green because its LESS abrasive than say.... 409.. .or... whatever...
The reason I used simple green at all was to clean the leather out, not leave any crazy chemical smell or residue, and because its pretty gentle. My leather was pretty nasty... and it called for this. If you've been cleaning your seats regularly, it might not be required. But, I'd definately clean them deeply with SOMETHING and let it dry BEFORE putting the oil/conditioner step on. Allows the seats to "drink" the stuff in better...
Anyways.. thats my simple green disclaimer.. hehe.
The reason I used simple green at all was to clean the leather out, not leave any crazy chemical smell or residue, and because its pretty gentle. My leather was pretty nasty... and it called for this. If you've been cleaning your seats regularly, it might not be required. But, I'd definately clean them deeply with SOMETHING and let it dry BEFORE putting the oil/conditioner step on. Allows the seats to "drink" the stuff in better...
Anyways.. thats my simple green disclaimer.. hehe.
Thread Starter
Winter sucks
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,083
Likes: 0
From: Newberg, Oregon
Thread Starter
Winter sucks
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,083
Likes: 0
From: Newberg, Oregon
I forgot to add that I used black shoe polish in a couple areas (hard to tell, but some areas were faded brown, so touched them up). I updated the write-up in my wiki to reflect this.
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 3,284
Likes: 2
From: Jamesport, NY..."Movin' on up, to the east side!"
Originally Posted by Spraintz
duh, mit oil......why the hell didn't I think of that
I have only used the stuff about a thousand times!micaheli- Great job on the Boy Scout ingenuity!
I love the smell of my baseball glove. *runs to closet-o-sports stuff....then runs to car*
White Hot
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
From: GVRD bc
Originally Posted by micaheli
So.... People are gonna laugh at me when I tell you what I used.... But, I tested this on some other old faded seats (that had tears all over... trash), and they still look decent where I tested them....
Here's proceedure A (poor mans solution):
1: Spray the seats down with simple green, paper towel them off... I did mine twice each. let them dry completely afterwards.
2: Get some baseball glove oil from your local sports shop. comes in a white bottle for about 2 bucks.
3: Soak a paper towel in the stuff and apply to every inch of leather/vinyl.. let it soak for a couple hours. Wipe it all off with clean paper towels until no more comes off and apply it again. Let it soak for a couple more hours. If your leather is really dry, it will probably drink this stuff up like mad... keep doing it until it won't soak it up anymore. Towel it off really well when done.
Thats the poormans method.. Works almost as good as proceedure B (below), but costs a couple bucks. Make sure the baseball mit oil has "neatsfoot oil" in it. That seemed to be the key ingredient. Same oil in the proceedure B stuff.
Proceedure B:
1: Clean them off with simple green, let them COMPLETELY dry.
2: Coat the bitch in Lexol leather cleaner (http://www.lexol.com)
3: Let it sit for 15min or so, then wipe as much off as you can with paper towels.
4: Take a warm damp sponge and rinse it off really well. Leave no residue
5: Let it try all the way.. again.
6: Spray on a liberal coat of Lexol Conditioner. Spread it around really good with a paper towel or something... let it sit for an hour or two... The first time I did this, I came back and the seat was dry to the touch.. the leather soaked it ALL up. I applied it again, and again until it wouldn't take anymore...
7: Wipe it off entirely... with dry hands, you should be able to wipe it and get minimal to no oils on your hand.
Thats all I did.. I did, however, revisit the seats every couple hours and re-coat them with oil lightly. I did this probably twice.
Before I did this, the seats were hard and crusty.. I didn't want to sit in them, because I felt like they would split. Now I've sat down in them a couple times just for giggles.. they feel great.
Here's proceedure A (poor mans solution):
1: Spray the seats down with simple green, paper towel them off... I did mine twice each. let them dry completely afterwards.
2: Get some baseball glove oil from your local sports shop. comes in a white bottle for about 2 bucks.
3: Soak a paper towel in the stuff and apply to every inch of leather/vinyl.. let it soak for a couple hours. Wipe it all off with clean paper towels until no more comes off and apply it again. Let it soak for a couple more hours. If your leather is really dry, it will probably drink this stuff up like mad... keep doing it until it won't soak it up anymore. Towel it off really well when done.
Thats the poormans method.. Works almost as good as proceedure B (below), but costs a couple bucks. Make sure the baseball mit oil has "neatsfoot oil" in it. That seemed to be the key ingredient. Same oil in the proceedure B stuff.
Proceedure B:
1: Clean them off with simple green, let them COMPLETELY dry.
2: Coat the bitch in Lexol leather cleaner (http://www.lexol.com)
3: Let it sit for 15min or so, then wipe as much off as you can with paper towels.
4: Take a warm damp sponge and rinse it off really well. Leave no residue
5: Let it try all the way.. again.
6: Spray on a liberal coat of Lexol Conditioner. Spread it around really good with a paper towel or something... let it sit for an hour or two... The first time I did this, I came back and the seat was dry to the touch.. the leather soaked it ALL up. I applied it again, and again until it wouldn't take anymore...
7: Wipe it off entirely... with dry hands, you should be able to wipe it and get minimal to no oils on your hand.
Thats all I did.. I did, however, revisit the seats every couple hours and re-coat them with oil lightly. I did this probably twice.
Before I did this, the seats were hard and crusty.. I didn't want to sit in them, because I felt like they would split. Now I've sat down in them a couple times just for giggles.. they feel great.
http://www.angelfire.com/amiga2/aurora0/10ae.htm
Originally Posted by micaheli
I forgot to add that I used black shoe polish in a couple areas (hard to tell, but some areas were faded brown, so touched them up). I updated the write-up in my wiki to reflect this.
clean the area
put a light even coat of liquid shoe polish on
let dry
rub/buff the excess off until no more comes off onto your cloth
repeat if needed in most cases one coat will do the job tailight surrounds take a lil more work
and your done
