rcltrh

Just spent the last 4 hours doing my '94LS per your suggestion and I cannot believe the difference. The seats look brand new. They had a yellowed and had many dark crease stains and felt a little stiff. I had just used the Lexol Ph cleaner last month and scrubbed it pretty hard, and although it made a big difference from when I bought the car they were still yellowish and had a lot of dark stains in the creases. I had determined that I was just going to have to live with it. Now, the seats now are really ivory with no yellow tint, and not a single crease stain whatsoever. They even feel soft and supple again. After I finished I applied a light Lexol preservative coat and rubbed it in and dried it. You should win the post of the year! Thanks!
Thomas

rhayward

grocery or kragen store.

1994 LS400

hey, Horta I was looking at the pictures of the leather and your floormats look Brand NEW! are they? did you get them from Lexus or another place , if so how much ??
Thanks,
Paul

Horta

Hell All

I am so glad this is working out for all of you.

One quick question for those of you how have tried the Soft Scrub Tip?

What color Leather do you have???

The reason I'm asking is that I have never tried this with Black or any Dark Leather. Remember the Soft Scrub is a white product. I do not if it could leave some kind of residue either in the leather or in the stitching!!! If you have Dark Leather please be very careful and try a small area first, say bottom front edge of the Drivers seat.

If anyone does try this tip on Dark Leather and has success please let us all know.


The reason for my concern was I was thinking about a problem with my Mother Car. She has a 2001 Mercedes CLK320 Convertible with Black Leather. Well as a gift when she bought the car I got her the Mercedes Car Cleaning kit. Well it comes with a One Step Leather care product. When she is done using it she complains that it leaves a white Haze or residue in some areas mainly in perforations or the stitching.

The products are all Maguire's product so I called them. They told me that they are aware of the problem and that its a common one. "The conditioner is white so when it dries it can leave a white residue. We are working on a Black tinted Leather Conditioner for the future."

Has anyone had this problem happen to them? Did you find a way to condition black leather with out a white Haze or residue? This is what concerned me with the Soft Scrub.

Just be careful....
Jerry

Horta

My floor mats are NOT new. They may not be original 1991 but they are definitely many years old.

The car was very well taken car of for the most part. Now the floor mats were pretty dirty. First I vacuumed them with my wife's House vacuumed cleaner while she was out shopping with the baby. (She would kill me if she new) It has a rotating brush that really get the dirt out better than my shop Vac. Then I heavily sprayed them down with a product called Tuff Stuff I get from Discount Auto Parts. It works like magic on all fabrics.

So use Tuff stuff and a nylon brush. When you done scrubbing brush the matt all in one direction and this is how they will look. I have been doing this for years and my mats always look new.

My speaker grills and door bottoms also had some dirty scuff marks. Well I just sprayed it on (not heavy at all on the speaker grills) and scrubbed all the dirt off as you see in the pictures. The good thing with this product is that the more you use it the cleaner the fabric gets. Meaning do it once and see, if it still shows a little dirt spray that area again until the dirt or grease comes up. None on my Tan interior cars have ANY stains or marks on them except the drivers floor mat, but it get ALL the abuse!


Take care
Jerry

GA400

Horta,

Awesome tip! I will take some before pics (I have already used saddle soap and Meguiar's but still have the dark creases and hard leather you talked about) and some after pics and post them.

Thanks,

rhlight

squarehat

I have black leather in my ES, and I use Meguiars combination cleaner/conditioner (which may be what M-B dealers sell), which is a thick white cream with a slight pink tint. It would dry white and make the seams look white and crusty, just like what happened in the CLK with black leather. I now try to keep the Meguiars away from the seams, and I use Lexol (brown bottle), to condition the whole seat. The Lexol washes away most of the Meguiars residue, and what's left I get out with Zymol Leather Cleaner (yellowish-orange liquid in clear pump bottle). The previous owner didn't take care of the top of the back seats well, and there is some pulling on the seams due to the leather drying out and loosing suppleness, stressing the seams. I go out every weekend and work the three products in to that area, and a bolster on the passenger's seat cushion that is similarly dried out. There's no discoloration, since it's so dark, so I'm looking for ways to improve suppleness and relieve stress on those seams. I hear Lexol NF is supposed to be good, can't seem to find it locally, although I have seen it through Bavarian Autosports.
The other thing I've been experiencing is the smell of baked Lexol after getting into a black car with black leather that's been sitting in the 95 degree sun. Guess it's better than having sun damaged seats

Horta

Hey All

Does anyone know how to share this thread with the other car groups inside Clublexus without starting a new thread?

Im sure some guys out there have some old SC, ES and GS that could use this info.

Jerry

kjbro

Jerry, In my excitment, I may have missed reading, but, softscrub has bleach in it, I believe. Has this changed the color of your leather? I'm not sure I would want my leather color to change, unless current color is due dirt and grime. This may be the hesitation to suggest use on dark leather color. Many thanks.

rcltrh

The softscrub with lemon, which Horta suggested and which I used does not contain bleach. There is a softscrub with bleach but not this one. When I went to the store I looked at the various softscrubs on the shelf and there were 2 that did not contain bleach and 2 that did. I was afraid to use anything with bleach too.

kjbro

rcltrh, thanks for your reply.

Jerry, did you use softscrub "without" bleach? Sounding a bit nervous, but better to ask twice than be sorry. Thanks again.

Horta

Hey guys

I used the Soft Scrub with Lemon and Grease cutting. This one does NOT have bleach in it. I did mention the type I used in the begining of the original post.

This is definitly a good point to bring up. Hopefully people will pay attention to that when they go make a purchase.

Take care
Jerry

kjbro

Thanks Jerry, I thought I may have not caught an earlier post that described the specific softscrub, but felt I should ask. I am sure a second posting of the type will be most appreciated by other members. Great find....hope to start cleaning this weekend.

Kyle Harty

iTrader: (17)

Thanks, great tips. Squarehat mentioned it on the ES forum, glad I checked it out. I'll probably try it this weekend, I have black leather so I'll try a little patch out first and let you guys know. I'll use my usual cleaner and conditioner afterward if there's any residue from the Soft Scrub. I'm excited to try this.

GA400

Horta,

Tried the soft scrub today in my 91 ls400 with the tan leather like yours, the difference is very evident, at least three or four shades lighter and all the ground in dirt is gone. I took some before and after pics that I will post when I get home. The dirt that came off on the towel was amazing, completely filthied two towels on the front seats alone. And keep in mind this was after using saddle soap twice on the seats and Meguiar's leather cleaner/conditioner at least three times within the past two months.

Now I just need to find an upholstery shop to stuff my seats like yours and I will be all set!

Thanks again,

rhlight