Restoring your leather
 

I'd like to pass along my following experiences with restoring the leather in my car.

First of all I have a '97 LS400 with 66K miles. I have always kept the leather clean by scrubbing it once every 2 months with Lexol cleaner and hand massaging Lexol oil into it afterwards, leaving the excess to soak in and then lightly washing a couple of days later with Lexol clearner again to remove the oil still remaining.

Well, I think that this has kept the leather in pretty good shape considering that it spends days in the Florida Sun.

But with time, here and there, small tears and scratches in the leather have appeared as dark specs and the driver's has some wrinkles and mild cracking.

I asked the dealer if I could buy a dye touch up kit, but they laughed and said that only the entire leather seating surfaces would have to be dyed, impossible to just do touch up.

Well, at the $85.00 per surface ($170.00 per front seat), I was determined to find a solution. None of the local auto supply shops sold leather dye. I was disappointed until it occured to me to try a local shoe repair shop.

Sure enough, they had a large variety of colors of Kiwi brand spray dyes for recoloring shoes.

I purchased 1 can of Dark bone, and 1 of Sand since I have tan interior (this is the most difficult color to match). After a bit of trial and error, I arrived at the following application procedure:

Remember, this dye dries almost instantly! Clean all surfaces to be dyed with isopropyl alcohol (this actualy cleaned better than the Lexol!). Soak a soft cotton cloth with alcohol as well. For scratches, apply a mixture of 1 part each of the dyes (spray directly onto artist's fine paint brush) and paint the scratch, carefull not to put it on too thickly. Immediately wipe excess with alcohol cloth so only the scratch remains filled with the dye.

For cracked or large areas, spray equal amounts of dye directly onto alcohol soaked cloth and rub firmly in a circular motion onto the area to be dyed.

You may have to experiment based on the color of your leather.

After a day or so to thoroughly cure, apply a coat of Lexol over repaired areas since the alcohol will dry out and damage the leather over time.

In my case, the results have been stunning, the tears, scratches, cracks and wrinkles are gone as if they were never there. The leather feels soft and supple and smooth like it was new.

Good luck.

jahummer, good post!! My wife's RX driver's seat (at 41k) is beginning to show some wear and dye loss. And wouldn't you know it? Her interior is also tan! Thanks!:D :D

I have also noticed that darker areas that I thought were dirt, turned out to be dye that has worn off down to the raw leather. This proceedure also works on that.

The only thing that I don't know is how long it will last. I will post should anything change in the condition of the re-dyed areas.

jahummer:

Do you have any before/after pics? If so, please post!

Good idea. Will post them soon.

I'd like to add that this is not an easy job, will require some trial and error to get the color right.

Make sure you work in a well ventilated, illuminated, clean and dry environment.

If you mess up, make sure to work quickly. I hae been using alcohol as a solvent, but the dye contains acetone and tolulene which may work as well to thin or clean up over-dye.

I have black leather and I just put a few scratches in the seats ane your saying your system will fill in the scratches?

I haven't seen your scratches, but one of my other cars is black leather and I did the same thing with black dye and it worked quite well!

Here are some after pics![IMG]http://[/IMG]

hey jahummer, you forgot to include the completed link in ur pic post. thanx.

Shiny Leather seats
 

My wifes RX grey leather seats are all shiny and my new GS looks to be heading the same way, what can i do to remove/stop the shine

well to get rid of the shine right now, Use the Lexol cleaner and Conditioner, after the cleaner u will notice the shine is completely gone, and it has a nice Soft look to it... as for avoiding it completely you should just buy some seat covers, thats what I plan on doing, I also wanna see if this happens to anyone else as well, But my drivers seat... the leather where ur butt is suppose to rest is starting to stretch out, But when I use the Lexol cleaner and conditioner it goes away, then after I sit in it a couple times it goes right back to that way, Is it like that for everyone elses leather? I think they should have made the front seats how they made the back, would look better and last longer IMO

ShOwGS

let's try this again...left side of seat was all cracked...see it now!

the armrest was also cracking and had smal tears...see it now:)

jahummer,

Thanks for the great repair advice. My RX300 seats are tan color too so hopefully I can do what you did.

Since I never saw the 'before' pictures to know how bad it was, I've posted the current sad state of my drivers seat to seek guidance. I bought it certified-used from the dealership and the previous lease owner didn't take care of it. Based on the damage, do you think your method can save it? I've been Lexol-ing to death which has made a difference, but it still looks bad.

Thanks!