Leather Cleaning Methods (Video)
by Reece @ DISource: YouTube
Modern-day leather can be comprised of a variety of natural and synthetic materials. Very few vehicles actually use just raw leather and many of them have a coating on them to help protect against wear and tear. All of these materials are prone to drying out and breaking down over time so regular maintenance is essential. In this video, James Melfi highlights how your leather gets dirty and 3 different methods of cleaning your leather!
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Video Transcription
Hey, James with Detailed Image. How does your leather get dirty? Usually, it is a combination of a few things. Food, dirt and grime, body oils and those contaminants they get stuck in the pores of the leather and they sometimes can be very difficult to remove. Today we have three leather cleaning methods depending on the condition of the surface. Our first method is for mildly dirty leather and what it consists of is, spraying leather cleaner directly into an all-purpose microfiber towel, working that towel into the leather, picking up the dirt, and pulling it away. On to method two. Method two is for moderately dirty leather. This time what we are going to do is we’re going to grab a DI Boars Hair Brush, we are going to grab our leather cleaner and we are going to spray the leather cleaner directly into the brush. We are then going to brush the leather, building up a lather. What that is going to do is suspend the dirt and then you are going to grab a microfiber towel and wipe it all away. Method three is for some seriously dirty leather. This method involves opening up the pores of the leather with a steamer. Then we are going to go right into method two. The steamer is going to give method two so much more cleaning power and going to remove all that stuck on grime.
Thank you for posting this.
Thanks for watching Ron!
I have an old Porsche 944 leather seat that probably got wet in the past. The leather is very stiff and I have tried Leatherique rejuvenator, Pristine Clean, and Colourlock Elephant preserver to try soften the leather. The material is slightly improved but it is still quite stiff. I applied rejuvenator three times and let the seat sit in a plastic bag in the sun. I applied Colourlock Elephant preserver a few weeks ago but it doesn’t seem to want to soak into the leather. Is there another product I should try or could I use steam to open the pores of the leather before treating it with a conditioner? Or am I wasting my time? Thank you, Gil.