micel

While cleaning my seats with white eraser pad(sponge like) and water the top grey pigment layer came off.I have used product three other times with great results, so I was not afraid to use a little more pressure on a stain.Big mistake,three or four passes and the grey pigment vanished leaving a slick darker grey layer.What can I do to get the original grey color and texture back?

embolism

the reason it didn't hurt anything the first few times you did it is b/c you were abrading the protective coating on the leather kinda like your car's clearcoat. Now that you've gone through the protective layer, you are into the actual leather colouring which is the same as burning through your car's clearcoat into the dull paint underneath.

If you did this to your clear, the only option is a repaint. For leather, there are temporary coatings (maybe PERL at lower than 1:5 dilution) that can help mask the issue for a little while but there is no permanent fix that I can think of except replacement.

Magic erasers are powerful tools. I would never use them on leather

micel

Whats PERL,DID YOU MEAN REPLACE TOTAL SEAT?

embolism

If you want it to look the way that it did before then you need to replace the leather. If you know someone that can take apart the seat and replace just the portion that is ruined then you don't need to replace the whole seat. I think you need to go look for a seat at the junkyard or something. Either way it's expensive to fix.

Just live with it. PERL is a concentrate made by Carpro but it's more of a protectant that will prevent further stains rather than something that will actually fix what has been done to the leather.

Angelo

" white eraser pad " is a big no-no to use on leather. You might have to re-dye the leather to try to fix what happen. Try getting ahold of the folks at Leatherique for this.

http://www.leatherique.com/

But the sound of it, you might have to replace that area leather. Pictures would be nice to see and maybe we all can help you in this.

micel

I tried grey shoe polish that lightened it up a little,but the surface is still slick.This area is also a high contact area (drivers lower outside bolster)about a 2"x2" area.I was told over phone to clean surface then use vinyl paint and then seal it,waiting 12hrs between each step.He did say Perl's is a excellent sealer, protector.I would upload some pictures but desktop is down and laptop has no card reader.Does this sound like it might work?The surface is super slick! Thanks for the help.

embolism

might work but nothing is 100%.

never heard of vinyl paint. Can they match it based on the lexus leather colour code? If it's something you mix yourself, then I'd test it by putting a dab on a piece of grey paper and letting it dry. Then hold it next to the slick area and compare. Sometimes things look one way when wet and another way when dry.

jfelbab

Vinyl paint may be able to be color matched BUT it will not texture match. You might want to start looking at the salvage yards for a replacement. Re-dye might look ok for a short time but is seldom successful for high wear areas.

Please people, don't use abrasive materials on your leather. You might think everything is fine but in reality you are sanding away the urethane coating that provides the uniform color and texture you see as your leather. In every case this makes the leather more porous and prone to faster soiling and early failure. This can get very expensive very quickly.

Todd@ProperAutoCare

Great post Jim.

Micel- As noted by others, you have rubbed off the top coat of the leather exposing the hide. At this point you can use a dye (that isn't going to look great but will look better than raw hide) or replace. The fact that you mention that it is in a high wear area likely contributed (through constant abrasion) to the problems you have.

Todd@ProperAutoCare

Great post Jim.

Micel- As noted by others, you have rubbed off the top coat of the leather exposing the hide. At this point you can use a dye (that isn't going to look great but will look better than raw hide) or replace. The fact that you mention that it is in a high wear area likely contributed (through constant abrasion) to the problems you have.

micel

The shoe polish is holding up pretty good,although it did not bring texture back.When area gets wet it stands out worse(darker).The magic eraser seemed like a safe cleaner,a costly learning experience.Thanks for the help!