Old, Dirty, Abused leather cleaned w/Soft Scrub Bathroom/Kitchen Cleaner.. Results!!!
 

Used Soft Scrub kitchen/bathroom cleaner to clean my 94 LS400 as suggested from an old posting here for deep cleaning leather and wow did it work!

I wanted to share with everyone how amazing this method is... Seems to have reversed years of abuse the previous owners put on the leather. Feels MUCH softer and not as rough, removed 'water stains' from various drinks and cleared up the leather nicely. NO other over the counter leather cleaners could do this much! After scrubbing so hard those leather cleaners didnt do anything for me. Softscrub = WIN


Hope this helps anyone with similar condition leather! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:



Materials Used:
Softscrub Lemon (Not the one with bleach)
Meguiars Rich Leather Conditioner
Kitchen Sponge with rough and smooth side
Cotton Shirts
Papertowels/wipes to clean off dirt.

Procedure
-Squeezed a quarter sized squirt of softscrub on each section of leather working it in with the rough end of the sponge.
-After cleaning, I wiped it off with a dry cloth to remove the dirt.
-After wiping it off with dry cloth, I used a damp cloth with water to remove residue
-Dried with towel
-Applied Meguiars



Check out the pics..

Half cleaned, half dirty...
http://i13.tinypic.com/725x26r.jpg

All Clean!
http://i5.tinypic.com/732ulxe.jpg

Another View of 50/50
http://i2.tinypic.com/6pecwn6.jpg

Dirty Back Seat
http://i12.tinypic.com/6jnr8t2.jpg

Clean with Meguiars Leather Conditioner
http://i11.tinypic.com/8faz3h5.jpg

Cleaned arm rest, look at the stitching on the armrest, its clean and no longer brown.
http://i8.tinypic.com/7yqyp9k.jpg

NASTY
http://i3.tinypic.com/8btk2mr.jpg

Thanks for posting this.

The leather in my '98 is looking a little rough so this is a timely post for me.

Eddie

I have a 98 GS too, i kept my leather in good condition but the armrest is stubborn. Going to do that this weekend maybe. I'll post pics of how that goes too

Heres some pics of a member on CL (Horta) that did this process on an ES300 ... this persons leather is in way better condition than mine was. to begin with. Great results. Thanks for the inspiration! More people should know about this

Before
http://www.ewylie.com/images/sc400/bolsterpre.JPG

After
http://www.ewylie.com/images/sc400/bolsterpost.JPG


Before
http://www.ewylie.com/images/sc400/seatlowpre.JPG

After
http://www.ewylie.com/images/sc400/seatlowpost.JPG


Half Clean Half Dirty

http://www.ewylie.com/images/sc400/inproc4.jpg

Just in case anyone needs image confirmation of products...


http://www.softscrub.com/images/soft...ome_new_01.jpg

http://www.meguiars.com/estore/produ...uct_G10916.jpg

wow this looks great! damn beige interiors, I own a 2007 lexus IS, and it's getting too dirty.

I assume you failed to check their web site where they state.

Thanks, but since my leather seats do not contain "soap scum, lime scale or kitchen grease", I'll stick with my dedicated leather cleaner rather than the harsh abrasive cleaners in Soft Scrub.

As I just posted this in another thread I thought I'd post it here as this is what is recommended by GST AutoLeather, the manufacturer of the leather in your Lexus.

No I didnt fail to check their website I am fully aware what exactly the cleaner is used for if you want to try to be smart about it leave the thread if you dont like the information shared here then you dont need to use it. Those pictures I posted of before and after... the BEFORE pictures were after 3 brands of leather cleaner with me scrubbing, rubbing and wiping for hours and a visit to a detailing place that worked my interior for 2 hours. Conventional methods = NOT WORKING

I understand what you said but you dont understand how much money time and effort I have wasted on these other leather products and leather cleaning services at detail places.

You also probably wont understand how extremely filthy my leather seats were when i purchased my 94LS used. I was about to make an order to leatherseats.com but now im holding off no that.

NOTHING, no other leather cleaning product was able to even be close to how clean this method worked. Many other people have actually used this method to clean dirty leather and so far no ones leather has fallen apart since 2002.

All those "recommended" things dont work. Drastic times, drastic measures. $10 well spent here.

BE CAREFULL!!! using softscrub on your 98 GS leather, it is not the same type of leather and dying process as on your 94LS. Softscrub will remove dye and ruin the GS leather. I have researched this and I was about to do it on my 01GS after seeing how good it worked on early LS models with your problem but earlier LS leather will generally be able to withstand the softscrub where the dye on the GS will come right off especially if you put anykind of force into it. I tried it on a small part and noticed black/blue die coming off on the rag, I even noticed a little dye coming off just using water/woolite and leather cleaners on the rag.

I don't know what it is about GS leather but dye comes off very easily and it will not allow any conditioning/softening product absorb into it because of some kind of silicon finish that is added to it which essentially ruins the leather from the factory, the conditioner just sits on top and evaporates which means it is impossible to condition GS leather which is why it gets hard and waxy after a few years and there is nothing you can do about it. I talked to people at Leatherique and Surflex and they seemed to say the same thing. I found that Wolfgang citrus based leather cleaner seemed to work the best for cleaning leather and was stronger then the other brands but it will not do what softscrub or fastorange without pumice will do but is much safer. If you still want to use softscrub if your leather seats are very very soiled and nothing else works then I would dilute the softscrub or fastorange in water and just rub very very gently, much more gently then on your LS then followed by a regular leather cleaner, then followed by a good conditioner/cleaner like leatherique, surflex sofner, zaino, griots, etc, but be careful, I noticed that picture of your rags and I can pretty much guarentee there is some leather dye that came off on those rags but it probrably did not do much harm with the LS.

Softscrub is an old trick. Gets the leather very new looking. HOWEVER, when it gets dirty again, it will be harder to clean. A lot of the stains and such are being removed with the top protective coat of the leather. If the OP had a black interior car, the rags would show how much of the dye was actually coming off. Tan interiors are much more deceptive this way.

My recommendations is for people to use warm water and some mild soap, like ivory, or a leather cleaner, and a very soft brush, like a boar's hair brush, and slowly build up a lather. Then wipe it off. You'll still get some of the coating and dye off, but will be much less detrimental in the long run. And always apply conditioner after cleaning.

The is key. Most people do not realize this.

i already heard about mr clean... gotta give it a try.. ill post result when i do

Great results. Another method with great results, yet cheap, would be a 1:6-1:10 dilution of Woolite and water.

wow, that looks good, too bad my driver seat is ripped...may have to do it on my other seats though

http://www.ewylie.com/images/sc400/inproc4.jpg

whoa. i'll have to try this out.