Buix893

Hey, I just got a 2005 es330 with under 45k miles. Car is super clean. Rear seat has a small ink spot it looks like. How would I go about removing it. I tried griots leather cleaner and zymol cleaner and it helped a tiny bit but still is there. Also the driver side bolster has some yellowing. I tried to remove that also but no luck. Any ideas?

speedkar9

80es300

That wear on the seat might need redyeing. Any leather upholstery shop would be able to clean and re-dye

Oro

I have the same yellowing and have had nothing touch it. I am at the point I am about to go with the Leatherique brand clean/feed/re-dye routine on the front seats.

I have not tried the baking soda technique above but I'll give it a try and see. Likely won't touch the yellowing, which I think is UV damage, but it might help enough to postpone the re-dye. The car really looks good in every other category so this one weak point is irritating.

LeX2K

As a clarification the seats are not coloured with dye they are sprayed with a urethane coating. If you want to restore part or all of the seat here's the basic process.

• Treat with Leatherique, if your seats are not especially dirty or dry you can skip this step.
• Wet sand any cracked areas, you may need filler for the worst parts
• Clean with a grey Scotch-Brite pad and SEM soap, this step is critical the seats must be 100% clean.
• SEM Classic Coat Ivory 17293 should be a match but I have not used it so can't verify.
• Paint the seat like you would any surface use 3-4 light coats the first being the lightest.

Using the above you can get a restoration that looks just like factory assuming the colour matches. Cleaning with the SEM soap is the most critical step and the leather must be 100% dry before painting. Using Leatherique and SEM products I went from this:



To this:

Oro

That's good to know. I've read a lot on restoration and not seen the SEM products. I just read about them and they look excellent and well priced compared to some of the stuff out there.

That they have a color match in an aerosol is great; I had no idea. Did you spray that center rest?
This is what I am looking to fix:



I wonder if that Toyota ivory is the same as the Lexus (stands to reason...). Does anyone know how to read the interior color code from the VIN or somewhere? I'd like to do this soon, while the weather is warm and dry to get the best results.

LeX2K

The colour codes are on the drivers door for the interior mine is WZ03. The Lexus ivory (see this post) looks the same as some Toyota's I've seen around the same year but not 100% sure if it actually is, on the SEM ivory you could always grab a can and paint a spare piece of vinyl to compare. I sprayed the arm rest with SEM 17083 Dark Graphite which is a very close match to the other grey parts, I did forget to post one step I used SEM 38353 leather and vinyl prep just before I sprayed.

So to summarize you'll need:
SEM soap 39362
SEM Plastic & Leather Prep 38353 (spray can) or 38351 (liquid)
SEM Leather & Vinyl Repair Compound 38422
SEM Classic Coat Ivory 17293


For wet sanding I used 400 and 600 grit paper Norton brand. For cleaning with the SEM soap you must use a grey Scotch-Brite pad. Don't kid yourself doing an entire seat is work ideally you'll need to remove the seats from the car to do it right. But if you religiously follow the procedure the seats will come out almost like new.

fortitude

I found Woolite a good cleaner for the leather. I dilute 6 parts hot water with 1 part Woolite (3 to 1 for really tough dirt) into a spray bottle. Spray on, work in with cloth towel, let sit for 30 seconds, then wipe off with wet bath towel.

Oro

Thanks. This is pretty much what I had decided to do based on research last night. I had read good things about the SEM soap/cleaner and was going to use it instead of other products. I still will likely treat with the Leatherique Rejuvinator or Nova conditioner a weekend ahead. I will dedicate a whole weekend to it as I know it will be some fair scrubbing, cleaning, sanding, and careful masking/painting. I have moderate experience restoring other finishes and painting - just never leather. I know how much prep goes into a good job.

My color code is LA07, which is the ivory/taupe scheme. I'll try to figure if that would be a very close match or go with another maker's color that is better matched.

surgeon0

Great info. I have used warm water + baking soda + (few times baby shampoo for light soap) on light ivory, light beige, and light gray leather. Worked great. Most recently, used warm water + baking soda + few drops of bubble bath liquid on Infiniti G35 leather seats prior to sale. They were as good as new in terms of clean. The crease lines like on Oro's seat were still there but just clean without dirt.

Oro

So, a question on the cracks.

I take it these are really cracks in the synthetic finish and not really the leather?

I read varying results on different crack fillers - anyone know a particularly effective one? Is the SEM one long-lasting?

LeX2K

I used a generic one from Ebay no issues but on the armrest it won't see rough use I don't know if the SEM filler is good or not but their other products are so probably. The cracks are mostly in the finish not the leather what I did was wet sand carefully until the remaining finish was about level with the leather itself. Be careful when doing this you don't want to turn the leather into suede, once you have the leather as smooth as possible fill in any obvious low spots.

Honestly the whole process is like doing body work except the surface is flexible.