Car Leather Care

Car Leather Care is an area loaded with much confusion and bad information!

Bentley car leather care

Think about the following:

Do you know if your car really has leather or not?

Which cleaners are safe?

Which cleaners actually work?

Do any of those "specialty" leather cleaners really work and are they worth the money?

The Results Please

Before I even discuss the area of leather conditioners, let's talk about the area of leather cleaning. Follow along below and see some dramatic before and after shots.

Example 1- '03 GMC Denali

The above before/after shots are taken from an '03 GMC Denali. This customer of mine prefers keeping the leather seating covered in sheepskins. Like so many areas of life, you trade one benefit at the expense of another.
Such is the case with sheepskin seat covers; they prevent permanent damage to the leather seating, but trap any dirt and dust underneath where it is worn deep into the leather, which only makes for difficult cleaning.

Example 2- '04 Chevy Suburban

The above before/after shots are very dramatic; absolutely true, but dramatic to the point of almost unbelievable. The leather within this Chevy Suburban was the dirtiest leather I have had to ever clean to date! I can promise you this, if I used traditional methods of car leather care, these kinds of results would not be possible.

Some Answers Please!

Early on in my professional auto detailing career I was frustrated by such poor results with all the leather cleaning products; both commercial and retail. I started experimenting with my own techniques to find a solution to getting really clean leather. It seems we have been mislead once again by the industry, which has lead me to certain conclusions:

Leather is much more durable than we have been lead to believe.

Leather cleaners are basically ineffective due to being way too mild.

My Professional Car Leather Cleaning Tips

Use an interior carpeting shampoo instead; this type of product will be a bit more aggressive.

I also recommend a solution of Simple Green product; dilute according to manufacturers medium duty cleaning.

Instead of scrub brush, use a Scotch-Brite pad, or some kind of nylon scrub pad like you would use on kitchen pans for cleaning.

Consistency is King! A little effort applied consistently will provide instant benefits and lasting results.

Simply wiping your leather down with a damp terry cloth rag, sprayed with a little cleaner, once a month will get you 98% there if you do this one step consistently for the life of your car.

It might help to compare your cars leather to that of your hands; both have the natural intricate pattern of hand prints/finger prints. Look at your leather closely and you will see all the details of this natural material; this makes for plenty of places for dirt to really get into and remain. Because we have been lead to believe that we must be oh so gentle with our leather, we as consumers are too gentle with our leather, and therefore get poor results.
Think about how hard you have to scrub your hands to get them really clean after working in the garden, or on your cars engine.

Car leather care is a confusing area for many; even most experienced detailers fail to get the kinds of results that are possible with the proper techniques of leather cleaning.

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