Make really old leather look like new!

WOW!

I just went to my closet, and took out a pair of my old leather riding pants.. yup.. I used to ride motorcycles!

Anyway, these were really expensive pants that I bought years ago from North Beach Leather.

I haven't looked at them for years... and they were quite dry. I cleaned them first with a soft facecloth and Lexol Leather Cleaner. Then, I applied Lexol Leather Conditioner and let it soak in for about an hour. I wiped them down, and applied another thin coat of Lexol Leather Conditioner.

They look like new!! Amazing!!

BMW M5 - A SATISFIED LEXOL USER!

Lexol will keep your leather looking great... simply, easily, and inexpensively. No more cracking or peeling!

This gentleman has a 1993 Silver BMW M5, with black leather interior. Here is what he has to say about Lexol:

"Tried this out on my leather last night and WOW! Completely rejuvinated my seats! The usual areas on the driver's seat with wear, fading and even some slight cracking looks nearly new again!. The stuff comes in 2 parts, a cleaner and a conditioner. Just had time to do the one seat last night but I will be doing to whole car this weekend. Nothing better than a BMW with a well maintained leather interior.....when I haven't been in my car for a while and get back in the smell that greets me is in itself an experience worth waiting for! "

For more information on Lexol, please go to: www.lexolasia.com

LEXOL LEATHER CLEANER and LEXOL LEATHER CONDITIONER

Leather seats require a little bit of care... note that I say a little bit..after all, the title of my blog is "no sweat" car care, and I mean that! I don't like to work up a sweat!

If you've been following my blog, you know that I really like the LEXOL brand of Leather Cleaner, and their Leather Conditioner. I have used them for years (almost 35 I believe), and have also compared them to many other products on the market, sometimes even doing a side by side comparison.

Most of the other products coat the leather. Very few will first, foam out the dirt from the pores, which is important. leather is like your skin, and you cannot rub the dirt into the leather. You need to gently remove it, and Lexol Leather Cleaner does just that with its gentle but effective foaming action. It's also pH balanced to the pH of leather so it does not dry or otherwise injure the leather.

Then, I follow the cleaning with a thin coat of Lexol Leather Conditioner, while the leather is still moist from the cleaner. It is absorbed right into the leather, and it's formulation actually bonds with the leather fibers to strengthen, condition and soften them. It replaces the oils that were originally added to the leather in the tanning process, but DOES NOT make your leather feel greasy or oily or slippery.

And, this is where LEXOL beats the competition hands down! Lexol penetrates into the leather... most of the other products "dress up" the leather. They surface coat it, which does nothing to prevent cracking, drying, creasing or eliminate that stiff feeling. Most other products make the leather shiny, slippery or oily feeling. I HATE THAT! I hate stopping at a traffic light and sliding in my seat!

LEXOL simply restores the leather to its like new, original condition. When I do a side by side comparison, the difference is really startling!

Here is what another, fellow blogger has to say: from the "Learning Curve" Blog http://dnolearningcurveyt.blogspot.com/

"Could you suggest a good leather seat treatment for cleaning and keeping it soft and supple? Thanks. Ron? - Lincoln town car leather seat oem "

Could you recommend a benign leather seat treatment for cleaning and keeping it soft and supple? Thanks. Ron? The leather seats are not worn much, but are getting hard and may collapse if I don't treat them soon. Age is part of the problem as this is a 1971 Lincoln Town Car. Perhaps one of you could recommend a brand of leather treatment and cleaner.

ANS: LEXOL first use the leather cleaner then follow up with the conditioner both made by LEXOL.They have to be bought separately,unexcelled stuff on the market no doubt. cleaner- comes in a orange spay bottle. conditioner- comes in a mousy spray bottle. Can be bought at most auto parts stores. "

I used LEXOL on my 1971 Roll Royce Silver Shadow. My seats were just like his, dry, brittle, cracking. I had to apply a thin coat of Lexol Leather Conditioner each day for about a week. BUT... after a week the seats were supple again! Lexol will not repair the cracks that have already occurred, but it will re-condition and soften the leather and prevent further deterioration.

Try it! For more information check out their website: WWW.LEXOLASIA.COM

I just spent a wonderful few hours recently with a very good friend of mine, Winston gan. Winston owns D'Best Respray Company at Malayan Motors in Singapore and he's been in the restoration business for almost 22 years. If it's broken on the island here, and you want it fixed right, you go to Winston... hands down!

Malayan Motors sells Bentley's, Jaguars, Lexus... nice cars! Winston and I were laughing over another mutual friend of ours who has a very lovely black Bentley coupe with a dark/light Red leather interior.

Seems like this chap's son did a bit of a number on the rear leather seats and he brought the car into Winston's shop for repair.

Now, Winston like me, uses Lexol Leather Cleaner, Lexol Leather Conditioner and the KozaK Auto DryWash cloth on many of the cars he works on. From a Bentley to a humble Volkswagon, he Lexol's and KozaK's them all. And, they look great afterwards!

This gentleman expected a huge bill for cleaning the p$%**k from the rear seat.. instead we whipped out a spray bottle of Lexol Cleaner and went to work. Within an hour, the seat was clean, fresh, and conditioned with Lexol Conditioner. The smell was gone, the car was like new again, and we had a very happy amigo, smiling from ear to ear!

His driver was polishig his Bentley with a terry cloth towel... I took the opportunity to straighten him out and gave him a demo of the KozaK cloth. In less than 5 minutes, his coupe was spotless and glowing... and his eyes were as big as saucers! The road dirt was gone in a flash.. no water, no scratches! I love that cloth!

I then showed him the video from ProMedUSA's website at http://www.kozakasia.com/. He was laughing so hard I thought he was going to wet his pants (well.. actually he may have, but I wasn't about to check!!)

Here's the video for you to enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXsnYkTwjKg

That brings me to a story about my first Rolls Royce. It was a 1971 Silver Shadow, much like the one in the photo, except it was Silver with Black sides, and black leather interior.

The leather seats were getting very stiff... I bought the car in 1982 for $15,000 from a dealer in St. Louis, MO (Charles Schmidt I think was his name) and the seats had never been conditioned. They were beginning to crack badly. RR suggested Connelly's Hide Food at about $50 a pop... it didn't do S%#T to fix the seats. I tried Lexol Conditioner... used about 4 or 5 light coats over a week's time, and the seats were restored to an almost new suppleness. Now, the cracks were still there... but the leather was fresh and soft. It worked great!

Winston loves the product as much as I do... no sweat car care.. quick, easy, clean and... IT WORKS!

HOW TO PREVENT OR FIX A CRACKED DASHBOARD

Keeping your car looking great without sweating... that's my motto!

Your dashboard gets a tremendous amount of sun, solar heat and solar radiation. The natural tendency of the vinyl is to break down or deteriorate resulting in cracks and peeling. If you think about it, most of us park our cars in the sun... here in the tropics it's almost impossible not to. But, did you know that the interior of your car is literally baking in that heat? It can get to over 60 degrees Celsius inside. THAT's HOT!

But... don't worry.. IT CAN BE PREVENTED... and that prevention doesnt cost you more than $30!

Here's how... excerpted from a blog called: datingsite.blog...

Weather change is here and the cracked padded dashes are rolling in. With every weather change I get the phone calls. “My dash is cracked and what can be done to fix it.”

Due to the exposer to old mother nature, these materials become dried out and crack over time leaving you with a crack in your dash. Left unattended this small crack can and will get larger.

There are measures that can be taken to prevent the dash from getting cracked in the first place. Now I know your dash is already cracked and your wanting to know how to fix it, but this will prevent further cracks and keep your car cooler and looking nicer, and well…. for further reference.

One way to prevent this is to use a sunshade. This will not only protect your automotive dash from the sun but also keep your vehicle cooler keeping the plastic pieces cooler and less likely to warp and then crack.

Another way to prevent the materials from drying on your dash is to condition them with a good vinyl conditioner-protectant. Now I know I’ve always said to not put the slimy stuff on your interior pieces and parts … But if your vehicle is exposed to the sun on a constant basis, then I would recommend you use a vinyl conditioner. Now I’m not going to say that any old vinyl conditioner will work, because it won’t. Tire shine is not vinyl conditioner! This is probably one of the biggest mistakes made, and I do a lot of repair because of it. Tire shine contains solvents, which as you know from previous articles, it doesn’t mix well with the water based dyes being used on todays cars. What it does is lifts the dye from the surface, causing it to peel.

So no tire shine…What I recommend to my customers is a product made from a leather conditioning producer that I feel from some of the research I’ve done is safe and should work very well, it’s made by Lexol and it’s called Vinylex. Designed by the guys that really know their stuff when it comes to interior conditioning and protecting.

The last and final tip to keeping your automotive interior, including your dash, looking it’s best and lasting longer is window tint. Now in some states you need to be careful with the tinting laws to make sure you don’t get it too dark, plus you need to think of your safety too. I have tint on our family Tahoe and I kinda wish I would have gone a little lighter, at night it’s really hard to see, my Tahoe stays nice and cool, but it’s a pain in the butt at night. I have to roll the window down sometimes just to see. So keep it light and you will be impressed with the results, plus it looks cool.

Now on with the fix for that crack in your dash.

Depending on where the crack is and how big it is will depend on how to fix it and how expensive the repair will be. If the crack is bigger then 2″-3″ and curled up on the edges, the repair will probably not look that great. There is a limit to the size of crack that can be repaired, too big and it probably won’t hold and will look like crap. If the crack is too big, replace the dash pad, don’t try to fix it. Another thing is location, if the crack is up close to the windshield then it’s almost impossible to do a repair without removing the windshield, which can be costly. So with that said you be the judge.

The first thing I do before I start any repair is to mix my color, this insures that at least the color will be right.

Next I inspect the crack in the dash, if the edges are curled up then you will need to trim that off with a razor blade or Xacto knife. The goal here is to get the area as level as you can. Now when doing so cut at a 45 degree angle and don’t bring the ends to a point, what I mean by this is trim all the way around the crack rounding off the ends of the crack, this will insure that the crack will stop and not crack further after your repair.

Of course your next step is prepping the repair area, use your prep solution with a scotch brite pad and clean the area thoroughly. You might need to clean the entire dash depending on where and how large the crack is.
Now it’s time to determine what fix you going to use.

If the crack is smaller then an 1/2″ I usually grab the super glue and do a super glue repair. I do this by spreading the glue in the crack then sanding it smooth with a 240 grit sandpaper, texture with your water based spray grain, then dye.
But there are times when your vinyl repair compound will need to be used, after all this is vinyl. The low cure usually works best because high heat tends to warp the repair area. This is where your patience comes in when doing your repairs. Thin layers of compound work best, curing and dying between coats until the area is level and smooth. You can texture while layering your compound with your grain pads. One little trick I use to help level the repair when using a grain pad is a little rubber squeegee about 3″x5″, it’s what body shops use to squeegee the water off the painted surface when they wet sand. This little thing works great, when you use your hand to imprint your grain into your repair, your hand kinda molds around the area and doesn’t leave a level area but with the rubber squeegee it gives you a little more backing when you go to imprint. Now graining your repair can be tricky, the low cure compound doesn’t grain that well, but if all else fails make sure the repair is level, this is your best hide. If that is achieved then texture with your spray grain.

One last trick up my sleeve is the use of a great product from Urethane Supply Co. This is a two part epoxy like substance that is specifically designed for padded dashes and the name says it all, Padded Dash Filler.This stuff is the bomb, when it comes to dash repair. Mixes like Bondo and is even applied like bondo, but its flexible. It’s just what the doctor ordered when it comes to dash repair. If the crack is larger then 1″ this is the stuff to use.

Now this product will require you to trim the area and then sand around the area about 1″ to 2″ out with a heavier grit sandpaper like a 180 grit, this gives it something to bite too. Trim down into the foam a little to, so that you make like a little groove for the compound to lay in.

Mix your compound on a small piece of tile, I like using small tile pieces, they clean up easily and are easier to hold when mixing and applying. Now when you get the product they send you the red catalyst, try the blue, it seems to set up a little quicker. The blue you can get at any automotive parts shop. But the red works just as good just takes it a little longer, time is money in my business.
Apply your compound liberally over the repair area, don’t worry about getting your first coat really smooth, all you need is to get it covered, you’ll be sanding it smooth later. Let it set up for a while, depending on the weather will depend on how long this stuff takes. You can speed it up a little with a heat gun but don’t melt it just give it a little boost.

Once hardened start sanding, I usually start with a 180 grit to knock off the big chunks then progressively move my way up to a finer grit like 240 and then to 400.

One coat won’t be sufficient, I promise, this is another layer thing. Sanding between coats. Each coat you apply you will need to make smoother. Again what your trying to achieve is a smooth level repair.

After all is smooth and level, grain with a spray grain then dye.

As far as texture goes, I use two types of spray grain. One is a water based spray grain and the other is Sems Texture Coat. In fact the Sems Texture Coat almost matches the some of the Pontiac dashes to a tee. Now the Sems Texture coat is a solvent based, but I haven’t had a problem with it peeling up against the water based dyes on the dash, so kudos to Sems.

One other trick I have found with the the Sems Texture Coat is after sprayed if you let it flash out a little but not dry completely, you can take your grain pad and imprint your grain into the texture coat, pretty cool huh.

Dash repair is an art and a craft, just like all automotive interior repairs. If the steps are followed right and patience is used in your repairs you success will be good.

Hope this helps in your dash repair adventure. One thing to always keep in mind is to keep your repair as level as possible, this is your best hide.

About the author: Mike Warrenhttp://theinteriorguyllc.comThe Interior Guy, LLC., Automotive Interior RepairI’ve been in the business for a long time and know a lot of the ends and outs of repairing interiors, from leather and vinyl repair to plastic repair and dyeing of all interior trim parts including carpet and cloth. Need some advice or a tip to fix your automotive interior, I’ve put together some really helpful material with some great products I recommend and use in my repairs. Visit theinteriorguyllc.com for more articles just like this one.

INTERIOR LEATHER MAINTENANCE WITH LEXOL and VINYLEX

Our cars are HUGE investments these days, and many of us are planning to keep them for a few years. Proper care of the leather and vinyl interior is critical to prevent your seats and dashboard from cracking, fading and deteriorating.

I have used Lexol and Vinylex for many years, and have found them to be outstanding products. They are highly concentrated, so using just a little bit goes a long way! DON'T OVER DO IT!!! A few light coats are better than one heavy coat!

What I always liked about them is that they NEVER made my seats feel or look slippery, greasy or sticky. They just left the laethaer and vinyl feeling clean and natural and beautifully conditioned.

Go to: www.lexolasia.com for more detailed information about Lexol and Vinylex.

I found this website that evidently is for professional Auto Rental companies and offers a lot of advice on how to keep the rental cars in good shape. I guess they use Lexol... here is an excerpt from a recent post:

"Avtorentacar.com presents you “Secrets in Auto Detailing Products for Mobile Car Washing”, an article written by Lance Winslow. We hope you’ll find a lot useful information in here.

Avtorentacar.com will present you every article we find interesting and educating, and which has no copyright protection. If available we’ll link the source.

All the professional auto detailers and mobile car wash operators realize that every dollar they save on auto detailing products is a dollar earned. Most professional auto detailing products are not over costly, but the costs do add up. Efficiency in the use of these products will definitely help your bottom line.

Wash & wax soap is the most commonly abused product by your auto detailing crews as they end up wasting it. The secret is to use only one cap full per five gallon bucket, it depends on how dirty the cars are however if you are soaping the whole car figure two or three cars per cap full, so it can last a month in a mobile detail operation.

Degreaser and cleaner; well you will want to use it fairly strong for whitewall figure a pint will last about 10 cars. You can cut it for rims and other uses but not more than 3/4. Heavy-duty degreaser; This works better for rims etc, I would use this instead and the other for more mild issues. Otherwise you will use too much and not get the desired results

Glass cleaner; You can buy distilled water and mix it with RTU or ready to use glass cleaner 50% / 50%. If you use window cleaner concentrate then mix it 75% distilled and 25% product.

Leather cleaner & conditioner; I recommend using Lexol and I would say you will spend about $15.00 per month cost on products. It will last a long time with a gallon, so unless you waste it and use too much further you should have a gallon for a couple of months anyway.

Clay bars; they last a long time, but you have to keep them moist and not allow them to dry out. If you are doing a lot of fall-out type removal then you need two Clay Bars, use AutoMagic products if they are available. Always keep them in a small container with moisture inside.

New car scent; A gallon of new car scent will last a few months, never spray on dashboard plastic always two squirts under each seat to conserve product, as any more is a waste." FROM Secrets in Auto Detailing Products for Mobile Car Washing at http://avtorentacar.com/en/2008-10-04/secrets-in-auto-detailing-products-for-mobile-car-washing/

I would not recommend saddle soap... it's alkaline and will damage your leather. Lexol is pH balanced to the exact pH of leather and will never damage your leather.

Lexol will leave your leather feeling soft and supple, but never leave it feeling greasy or sticky like some other products out there. Believe me, I have tried a lot of them, and I prefer Lexol! (You can also use it on all other leather products from shoes to briefcases to furniture... it works very well! Just don't use it on suede.)