” Are you going to leave them on all the time? ”

If they answer is yes then I have to say that their seat probably won’t look new when they take them off say a year or two from now.

The reason for this is that seat covers may protect your leather seats from major dirt or spills but dust and dirt still get under the seat covers. When this dirt is sandwiched between the seat cover and the leather seat each time you sit on the leather seat this dust and dirt gets ground into the leather, and in some cases acts like sandpaper and actually rubs the dye right off the leather surface. Leaving you in worse shape then if you had used nothing. One other down fall to having seat covers is that they will actually act as a sponge to the oils in the leather which keep them soft. If left on for too long without replenishing the oils the leather becomes hard an brittle and will crack.

Now I don’t discourage anyone from putting seat covers on their leather seats because in all actuality they can be a great investment to the interior of your leather vehicle if, and I stress if, you take them off and clean and condition the leather seats periodically. It doesn’t take much to do this and it will make your leather seats last and look new for years to come. Take your covers off at least once a month and clean with a mild neutral ph detergent like Dawn dish soap mixed with warm water, then condition with your Lexol Leather Conditioner. This will eliminate any chance for damage from your seat covers.

Now here’s a great reason to invest in seat covers for leather seats. This one I see a lot, and that is for people that have pets that like to go for a ride. Our little furry family members are great to take along for a ride but their sharp claws play havoc on leather seats. Claw scratches are inevitable if you let your pet run around on bare leather. Another problem I have seen is body oils from your pet. Your pets have oils in their coats that can damage leather if left. I have even seen extreme cases where a dog has laid in a seat and the dye actually stuck to his fur and peeled the dye right off the seat. I also had a case where a lady had just put flea and tick stuff on their pet and they jumped up on the seat to go for a ride and the flea goo got on the seat and ate the dye right off the seat within a mater of minutes, scary what we put on our pets to keep them pest free. One way to prevent this is to either lay a towel down under your pet, which if your dog is like mine he never sits still and the towel ends up in the floor, or you can put a seat cover on. There are covers that you can just slip on and off so when your pets not with you and you don’t want to use the seat cover just slip it off and stuff under the seat.

But at least put something down for them, or I promise you, you will be calling me to fix your leather seat.

Now for those of you on a limited budget and would like to make a bad leather vehicle look great again, heres your answer…Seat covers.

Looking for a specific seat cover for a specific vehicle go to Auto Parts Warehouse and search by year make and model of a specific vehicle. No trouble shopping if you ask me. They have all kinds to choose from, and some I thought were pretty cool looking. Also they have a special going on right now Get $5 + FREE SHIPPING on purchases of over $99 or more at Auto Parts warehouse. Use this code upon checkout (5APW).

So go check it out if your needing seat covers for leather seats, and don’t forget to clean and condition your leather seats on a regular basis with Lexol Leather Conditioner to keep them soft and looking new for years to come.

Talk to ya soon, Mike “TIG”

CANINE SEAT COVERS: Dirty dogs? Clean seats. Choose from 16 colors & patterns. Cut to fit your car, they’re durable and washable.

CarCover-Depot.comK9.htm

I wanted to talk about a Volvo S70 that I worked on. This was a definite cracked leather repair. The drivers seat was the worst as usual, but this one I also did the passenger seat and the rear seat base where someone decided to dye it the wrong color. Gotta love the people that think they can cover up dirty seat with a rattle can of dye, what they don’t take into consideration is the customers that buy these cars, it’s pretty sad.

This car was one that I looked at last week. I had my customer take it to the upholstery shop first to have the side of the lean back replaced, due to some pretty large holes and cracks in the vinyl. I would have done a vinyl repair on it but the cracks were into the seam and where they were positioned I felt a vinyl repair would probably not hold or look good.

Thats one thing I’m not real keen on, doing a vinyl repair over a seam. If your looking for a repair to really stand out, then cover up a seam. It looks awful and just looks repaired. I’m into making leather seats look new not repaired. But I must say there are those customers that just don’t care what it looks like, they just don’t want a hole. Those are customers that will come back to haunt you, believe me. If you think your repair is going to show make sure you make it clear to them that it will, and try to recommend an upholstery shop. Bad repairs reflect on you.

The seat bottom on the drivers seat was pretty cracked where your legs go and the bolster. I took a heavy grit sandpaper, a 120 grit and my prepping solution and wet sanded the cracked areas. This not only leveled off the cracks, but also filled the cracks with the dye from my wet sanding with my prep solution.

If you’ve read some of my other stuff, you know what I’m talking about with the prep solution, but if not here it is again. Use rubbing alcohol, TSP substitute, acetone, ammonia, and water, mixed in fifths in a spray bottle. This is my prep solution, this stuff not only cleans but helps to soften up the existing dye and also opens the pores to the leather to accept the new dye. I have found this works as a great wet sanding solution with water based dye. It works a lot like Sem Sand Free, it melts the dye hence removing the edge.

I sprayed the cracks with the solution then sanded with the heavy grit sandpaper, the cracks were virtually gone after I was done. I then sealed off the cracks with my leather glue then filled them with a soft fill leather fill. After dry, with a little help from my hair dryer, I sanded them smooth with a finer grit sandpaper (240 grit) to smooth things out. Applied the grip base then dyed the leather seats.

I also had to dye the side pieces that had been replaced, they were a shade off, so to make the seats look right I dyed them too.

One thing to keep in mind is to make the cracks look like a natural crease. Don’t goop the compound on and make them totally smooth, it seems when you do the repaired areas stand out from the rest of the leather seat. There are some instances where you will need a totally smooth surface, but in this case it looked better to make them look like a natural crease.

Well hope this helps out on your next cracked leather repair. Try the wet sanding method and let me know how it goes.

Later – Mike “TIG”

Well in the process of all the mess with my forum I had gotten an email from my forum in regards to How to Remove Stains in Leather just before the upgrade from a guy needing help, and I was going to reply to him in the forum but as you read I had some issues. So here’s the post that was sent to me and I want to apologize for having to do this in a post but like I have always tried to do is help everyone I can in anyway possible.

Michael

I need your help. I had a freaky incident happen where 2 cycle gasoline (gas and oil mix) got sprayed into the interior of my Mazda Miata. The leather seats, and interior door panel were both covered with the gasoline. The leather seats have pinhole perforations in the design and I’m afraid some of the gas might have gotten thru the holes into the padding below. How do I get the gasoline smell out of my seats? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Tom

Well Tom the first thing is to wipe up the majority of the gas mix with a towel, that’s the obvious, then grab a bottle of dawn dish soap, a bucket of warm water, a sponge, a soft scrub brush and a towel. Mix up a solution of soapy water and get to cleaning. Clean all the effected areas down with the soap and water. This should remove the oil from the mixed gas and the gas as well.

Next let it air out and dry.

The gasoline will dissipate and the smell should go away soon.

Now it’s time to condition your leather seat with Lexol Leather Conditioner to return the natural oils back into the leather seats. You might want to hit the vinyl also with with Lexol Vinylex wipes, this will also help the vinyl that might have lost some of the natural oils in it.

Hopefully the gas didn’t discolor or spot the leather seats. If it did, you might try scrubbing the whole seat with a scrub brush and your soupy water, this should remove the spots. If not another thing you can try is Lexol’s Leather Cleaner, and if that doesn’t work then it’s time to call your local Automotive Interior Repair Specialist to have the leather seats dyed.

I hope this helps Tom. I can’t stand the smell of gasoline either, especially inside a car, yuck. The smell will go away over time though, and the damage hopefully was minimal.

I’m looking to get my automotive interior repair forum up and going in the next couple of days, so keep your eyes peeled for that. In the meantime if you need anything just email me with your questions or even leave a comment at the end of this post.

Now when I say small this can apply for a tear up to 1 1/2″ to 2″, probably might go a little bigger, but lets not push it, if it needs to go to the upholstery shop for an insert then that would be better then a crappy looking leather repair on something that probably wouldn’t hold anyways. When in doubt, insert it.

Prepping a seat is the key to success in any leather repair, and a lasting leather dye job. So, prep the whole lean back, and while your at it just clean the whole seat, why not, but you don’t have to, with your prepping solution removing all grease, dirt, and grime. You need a clean surface and a well prepped area to work with. When I prep, I use a solution of rubbing alcohol, acetone, ammonia, and a small amount of TSP substitute, with water in a spray bottle. Spray the seat with the solution and scrub with a scotch brite pad to scuff the leather seat for leather dye adhesion and remove any grime that’s on the seat, then wipe clean with a clean lint free towel. Once your clean, apply a grip base primer to the seat, I usually in most cases will dye the entire lean back when I do a repair or the entire seat, but sometimes it’s not necessary, so you may not need to prime the whole seat, but do clean the seat good this cuts down on the amount of leather dye used and the ending result will be a premium leather repair.

Now to the hole. Lets say it’s in a V shape, just for example. Like where you’ve gott’n out of the seat with something in your back pocket, ouch! I know the feeling, back in college I had a 1986 Mustang SVO, very rare and nice car (man I miss that car) and I got out to go to class with a pen in my back pocket and ripped about a 2″ V shape in the seat, I about puked right there, and of course at the time I didn’t know anything about leather repair. But now I do and here it is.

Sand the area around the tear with a 240 grit sandpaper, this gives a little more for the low heat compound to grip to. Take a piece of underpatch material and slide the under patch under the tear with a pair of tweezers, allowing about a 1/2″ on the inside all the way around. I usually cut my patches in a circular shape, it makes it a little easier to slide under. You can use different types of under patches, I like the kind that is coated on one side with a heat activated glue.

Now take a drop of leather glue and spread a thin coat on the patch on the underside of the leather repair area. If the leather will lay down smoothly and match up then great, but sometimes it just won’t. In this case we will use combo of the glue and your low cure leather repair compound and smooth a small amount over the patch then lay the leather down. Spread a small amount of low heat compound over the area and smooth it out with your pallet knife, remembering to keeping your area as small as possible, the smaller the better. Now heat the area with your heat gun, hold the heat gun out away from the leather repair and slowly move it into the repair area, this will give you just a little more control of the heat, you don’t want to burn and shrink the leather. The idea is to cure the compound and get it to adhere before you cook the leather, it’s a skill thing, practice makes perfect. Once the compound is cured immediately press the grain pad in your palm onto the repair, don’t press to hard, but firm.

At this time using a wet paper towel apply a small amount of grip base to the repair area and dye with your color matched water based leather dye. With your paint gun spray dry thin coats of dye, not wet. Then reapply and smooth out another thin coat of compound. Heat again and grain then dye, get the idea, what you are doing is building the repair up. Thin coats of compound applied and cured then reapplied, are much better then one thick coat. Once you have it built up and looking nice, blend the repair into the rest of the seat if needed, by applying thin wet coats of leather dye to finish it off. Drying between coats of dye with a hairdryer, and one great tip is rubbing the leather dye with your hands to force the dye into the creases of the leather helps a ton, don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. I say that but I’m allergic to rubber gloves, it bites, so I come home every day with leather dye all over my hands, it’s a pain, but I love the work and the job looks better with a little bit of love rubbed on those leather seat repairs. After the dye is cured, apply a top coat of satin or dull leather clear top coat mixed with a bit of slip additive added for the soft feel. Dry the seat thoroughly, then apply your leather conditioner to finish and give the seat the juice it needs and a great feel and look for you.

Now there are so many other variations to this fix, sometimes I will have to use an air dry leather repair compound over the top of the low heat compound to smooth out the leather repair. Sanding it with a 400 grit sandpaper until it looks right. You can also turn your air down on your paint gun until little droplets are coming out to give it a textured look, drying between coats. Texture coatings, can be used, but if you do it right the gun effect works great. When I do a leather repair I won’t give up until it looks perfect. Patience is a virtue, right. Don’t get in a hurry, this will only frustrate you more and then you really got issues.

Leather repair is a craft and profession. The dyes and compounds I use are top quality and are made to last. Giving you a lasting leather seat repair, and comfort knowing you have a leather repair that will last and look great for years to come.

I hope this was some help to you, in the coming months there will be more articles like this one but on different situations on leather repair, liked I talked about in the first. There are so many different ways that a leather seat can be damaged, we spend a lot of time in our cars and well “sh$$ happens”, right. So check back to see my next article on automotive leather seat repairs. If you have anything you would like to ask feel free to shoot me some comments on Leather Repair – How To Repair Torn Leather Seat.

Products to use, this is the magic question. There are so many out there. Lexol is one that I do recommend to all my customers, due to the fact that no petroleum solvents or silicone is used. But really theres one thing to keep in mind, as long as it is a conditioner for leather and not tire shine, or vinyl dressing, your good. Leather is skin, like your hands you wouldn’t put tire shine on your hands to make them soft now would you. Leather has microscopic fibers, under a microscope it looks like a mess of rope, that need oils to keep them flexible not brittle. These oils evaporate over time and need to be replaced. Conditioning keeps these fibers soft, allowing them to bend and flex not crack and break. The product you choose should be one that doesn’t contain neats foot oil, lanolin, mink oil, or any other lard based ingredient, although these are good conditioners, they will have undesirable effects. The animal based products leave your seats feeling greasy and can get on your clothing. So leave the mink oil for the boots. Some people have asked me about saddle soap, well if your trying to soften the leather for tanning, then maybe, but the leather is already tanned, all we are trying to do is replace the oils lost from evaporation not tan the leather. Always remember what you put on the leather stays in the leather.

Conditioning a leather interior of a car is really not rocket science but there is a trick so not to waste your money and effort.

Apply conditioner every 60-90 days depending on the weather in your area, hotter dryer climates need more conditioning. Using a damp microfiber cloth or terry cloth, making it damp keeps to much of the conditioner from soaking into the cloth, or just use your bare hand, it’s conditioner. Start by spraying the cloth or your hand with the conditioner, rub the seat in small circular motions. Start at the top and work your way down. Now depending on the vehicle, the face of seat is the only part you will need to condition. Most leather seats are a combination of leather and vinyl, the face is leather and the sides and back are vinyl, usually you can feel the difference, (but if not, BMW, Lexus, Porsche, most of your luxury vehicles, use leather over the entire seat) so heres where the saving money part comes in, you don’t have to put it all over the seat, just the face. Now after you have applied the conditioner to the face of the seat, wait….. usually about 20 minutes, about as long as it takes to wash the outside, this gives the oils time to be absorbed by the leather, then buff with a clean dry cloth to remove any excess. Keep the cloth you used to condition with, seal it in a plastic baggy, and use it over and over, conserve the oils still in the rag. Keep it in the glove box for touch ups.

Your done, easy huh?

By replacing the oils lost by the elements your keeping the leather soft and more flexible which can keep your seats from showing wear and can even save you from accidental punctures, the leather will flex and give more easily if its conditioned. So don’t forget every 60-90 days conditioning leather seats to keep them looking new for years to come.