How to restore leather seats

[jam38]

Hi,

What do I need to do to restore the shine on my leather seats? The leather is a little worn in places and a little ‘dirty’ but luckily no rips or tears. I want to restore the seats back to original condition.

What I want to know is, what product/s should I use?
Is it difficult to do?

The seats are the standard grey seats (unless there are different types of grey).

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ted]

Gliptone Liquid leather.

Not the cheapest, but the results are fantastic.

 

[jam38]

Gliptone Liquid leather.

Not the cheapest, but the results are fantastic.

Can you provide a link to the exact product please? There are just so many to choose from!

Have you used the product yourself? Was it straight forward to use?

 

[WDB124066]

Do you want to clean them properly and moisturise/feed, or do you want to coat them as well?

 

[Ted]

Car Leather Cleaner

Scroll down to the kits - pretty sure I just had the 250ml kit for my clk, and there was at least half left over.

The cleaner is really really good.
The conditioner is excellent. Even getting into some of the cracks and getting out some of the dirt that the cleaner hadn't pulled out.

The dye is very easy to put on goes on evenly and the colour match is perfect.

Once treated my tired/cracked old seats were almoost perfect.

Over one year on and the seats still look fantastic - the dye is colour fast and still looks good.

Be aware that there are quite a few 'value adds' in the kit - cloths, a brush, air freshener, 'shiny' leather coat etc, but for £54 all in, it has massively improved my interior.

Edit: VERY easy to use. You will need to leave the seats overnight at least though.

 

[WDB124066]

Sounds like good stuff Ted, what colour seats do you have. I have the good old fashioned Mushroom, do you think it would work well on lighter colours too?

 

[jam38]

Car Leather Cleaner

Scroll down to the kits - pretty sure I just had the 250ml kit for my clk, and there was at least half left over.

The cleaner is really really good.
The conditioner is excellent. Even getting into some of the cracks and getting out some of the dirt that the cleaner hadn't pulled out.

The dye is very easy to put on goes on evenly and the colour match is perfect.

Once treated my tired/cracked old seats were almoost perfect.

Over one year on and the seats still look fantastic - the dye is colour fast and still looks good.

Be aware that there are quite a few 'value adds' in the kit - cloths, a brush, air freshener, 'shiny' leather coat etc, but for £54 all in, it has massively improved my interior.

Edit: VERY easy to use. You will need to leave the seats overnight at least though.

Thank you, will try it and post back results!

 

[Ted]

Sounds like good stuff Ted, what colour seats do you have. I have the good old fashioned Mushroom, do you think it would work well on lighter colours too?

I have Quartz/Siam beige - not too far off mushroom.
Worked a treat, and as I say, the colour match is perfect.
As it goes on the colour looks wrong, but when dry all is ok.

 

[mrcgibb]

I will be restoring my Orion grey driver seat this week I will take pics and do a how to if you want , I am using gliptone scuff master dyes I need to remove the seat to try and fix the electric motors so perfect time to restor the whole seat

 

[bassist]

+1 for Gliptone.
Simple to use with great result. Have completed all the seats in the SL and the colour is a perfect match.

 

[Chrishazle]

I investigated mobile leather restorers a while back for doing the seats on my 968 and got a price of £120-150. Had them done as part of a partial restoration by a pro detailer, wish I'd used the mobile restorer as the colour is too dark and the sides are stripey!

 

[longhoughtonlad]

The work done by the pro detailer ie.(In House) should be quite easy for them to make good the sides as defect work and lighten the colour for nominal charge.

Twist their arm!

 

[mrcgibb]

ok guys seat is done took all of 15 mins , 2 coats dabeing with sponge , bear in mind that the car is over 12 years old ! colour match is great . there was enough toner black stuff to colour some of the greay to the same or as close as dam it to the worn steering wheel and gear shift , both look like new

seat in bad need to repair

seat after carefull dabbing on of the dye , its quite thick and wont run after 2 coats i did the whole panel so the match would be perfect

steering whell looked bad before , the black was showing through the grey
here it is finished

and gear knob

 

[clever dicky]

That's amazing. Do you mind if I share a little 'experience' here and maybe get some 'advice. (Not a subject to start a new thread on)

Took 'mum' out the other day. 70 odd and post stroke. She had a little accident while I had popped into bank. I wont go into detail but people must of thought I had a strange dog when driving home !!

Anyway once she was inside and in the shower I turned my attention to my black leather seats. Well again no details but forget dog comparisons, this was zoo keeper stuff. There was sadly no other recourse but to tip half a bag of cat litter over, well everywhere - sob!
Took me 3 hours after that to look even reasonable, but I dread to think of the damage to my leather.

 

[Chrishazle]

The work done by the pro detailer ie.(In House) should be quite easy for them to make good the sides as defect work and lighten the colour for nominal charge.

Twist their arm!

Unfortunately there is far more to it than just the leather, ongoing "discussion", but there's no way I would let him touch my car again!

 

[sl300 ireland]

ok guys seat is done took all of 15 mins , 2 coats dabeing with sponge , bear in mind that the car is over 12 years old ! colour match is great . there was enough toner black stuff to colour some of the greay to the same or as close as dam it to the worn steering wheel and gear shift , both look like new

seat in bad need to repair

seat after carefull dabbing on of the dye , its quite thick and wont run after 2 coats i did the whole panel so the match would be perfect

steering whell looked bad before , the black was showing through the grey
here it is finished

and gear knob

This is the gliptone stuff ??

 

[babyblueCE]

That looks amazing mate really good job on that. Will defo try this on my W124 CE that i've just bought the seats are not that bad but want them looking nice, after seeing your pics i'm going to invest in the Gliptone leather products.

 

[mrcgibb]

Yes it's gliptone and nps glad it helped just take your time

 

[longhoughtonlad]

Tremendous work-well done!

 

[jam38]

Looking good