Leather Seat Conditioner

[blake918]

My Leatherique treatments should be here tomorrow. I've used just about everything: Lexol, Coco Butter, Griots Garage Leather Rejuvinator. They all soften the leather a very little bit. Since the Leatherique was $70-Rejuvinator Oil and Pristene Clean...I bought the big bottles since I'd consider my leather almost to the cardboard stage, I hope it will work the wonders they claim on their website! I'll let yall know how the Leatherique stacks up to the competition. I'm confident that it will work great! :D

[lxs300]

Does anyone know where I can find (Retail Stores/Auto shops) Lexol Leather conditioner around DC Metro. Just for that I don't need to order from web if I can find in local stores.

[silvermate]

hey blake,

don't forget to post some pics of the leatherique treatment if you can :)

i'm sure all of us would like to see the before and after.

lxs300,

you can purchase lexol procuct at Pepboys. i'm sure you have one of those in or around DC,

they run, if i can remember correctly, about 9 dollars each, for the cleaner and conditioner.

if you wanted to save a little money on the cleaner, u could use the woolite/water combo that SWo3es reccomends, and then just follow up with a couple healthy applications of the conditioner

[HRP]

Zaino's leather care products are good, but again expensive. I see no use when Woolite+ water does such a good job.

silvermate- Zaino users tend to have very one track minds ;)

Yeah, we Zaino users do have one track minds, we want our cars to look their best!!

[blake918]

hey blake,

don't forget to post some pics of the leatherique treatment if you can :)

i'm sure all of us would like to see the before and after.

Absolutely! I love before and after pics. Well it looks like the Leatherique won't be here until tomorrow. :( I guess it's for the better because I want it to warm up some more(only 70 deg down here) so that the leather pores open right up to gulp down the Leatherique!

Lexol is everywhere(Pepboys, AutoZone, etc.)...I think WalMart even carries it! For a cleaner, nothing-for $5 atleast- is better than Mr. Clean's magic erasers. I took some before and afters of what it did to the interior my car...all I can say is it was Amazing! The pics are in a post a few topics below in "great New Cleaning Tool" if anyone is interested.

[SW03ES]

You know as well as I do, what really makes a car look great is proper prepwork. If you prep the paint properly than anything you use as a last step product will look great.

Just because someone uses a product other than Zaino doesn't mean they don't want their car to look its best. Detailing is 90% technique and 10% product. Being a member of Autopia should have taught you that ;)

lxs- They also have Lexol at Target.

[silvermate]

i've never seen lexol at target, autozone, or walmart, just at pepboys

huh, maybe ya'll just have better stores then the ones in AR

wish we did have it here in those stores, i'm sure it would be a lot cheaper <_<

who cares anyway, as long as you can get it somewhere

[douglasmiami]

Wondering what happened to Blake's Leatherique treatment? I have puchased the Lexol products at the suggestion of some in this forum. I haven't used all over seats, but I tested on portion of my driver's seat. Although no one in this particular forum commented on sticky seats, someone else in another forum on this site did. I found the same problem. I applied cleaner and immediately the conditioner, which I left on for a few minutes and then wiped off. The seats softened a little, but were sticky and tacky for several days. Anyone else have this problem? Is it possible that I didn't leave on long enough? I don't believe the Lexol instructions recommended leaving it on for hours or days.

Also, mentioned by same forum as above was the lack of elasticity in the leather after conditioning with the Lexol. He likened it to wrapping a baseball with a piece of paper and then removing the baseball - paper stays crumpled in that shape.

Any thoughts on any of this? I was hoping to clean and condition the seat this weekend, because, as the original author of this forum noted, my front seats are close to the cardboard stage, although not in bad shape, considering.

[BRAKATK]

It sounds like the leather did not absorb it much. My best experience with Lexol is to leave the conditioner on for longer than they say (>1hr) on a warm day (when the seats have warmed up). This allows the leather more time to absorb it, thus the "takiness" is reduced. Just be sure and wipe them down to get as much unabsorbed product off as possible. Any remaining takiness should go away very quickly.

[blake918]

Wondering what happened to Blake's Leatherique treatment?

The Leatherique treatment is comming nicely. However, I have suspended it until we get into the full summer down here. It's still kinda cool down here(in the 80's); I really want to wait until it gets into the triple digits or atleast the mid-upper nineties. I'm actually having an intersting experience with the Leatherique. While the leather doesn't feel like it's getting any softer(maybe it's my imagination!), I can see that it is. The gatherings(the folded sections on the seat backs and doors) in the leather that were pulled so tight they were nonexistant. The Leatherique must be doing somehting because the gathered look is comming back on the seats and doors(the doors are looking awesome!). I'm just waiting because this stuff is priced like gold, and I want to get the most for my money. I also find that the leather isn't absorbing that much of the Leatherique, and after I wipe it dry, the seats are sticky. Am I doing anything wrong here?

The first time, I left the Leatherique on for about 5 hours(a warm day approx 80+ deg.), and the second time, I left it on for about 6 days while I was at Disney World(not sure about the temps, but I think it stayed in the low 70's.).

[SW03ES]

80s is still cool? ;)

[blake918]

Yeah! In the summer it'll get to 95+ degrees on a typical day, and then for an added bonus, factor in the insane humidity. This winter, I don't think we got any lower than 35 degrees! ;) I can't wait to move out of this state to somewhere with a nicer climate!!!

[GSspeed]

okay dont listen to the instructions on the bottle. they are worthless, do these instructions,

i did mine and left it for about 5hrs before i used it , if you need to use your car in a shorter time frame, i left the car on for 30 min with the heater on 80 and the top and foot vents were open to get the hot air flowing, i also cracked the sun roof open to circulate the are, as well as the rear windows, it helped alot, so take my advice its a great product, jsut follow these insructions.

http://www.lexol.com/docs.html

[BRAKATK]

You might want to try it while it is relatively warm but not yet too humid. I am not sure if the increased humidity of N'orlins will help or hinder the process. Seems like it would hinder to me. Good luck.

[DobieG]

Love all the advice in this thread. I'm letting my Lexol conditioner "bake" as I'm typing this. I'm probably gonna go apply one more coat then let it sit for the rest of the day.

Just wanted to let you know that I bought my Lexol products at PepBoys and they were on sale for $5 a bottle (spray bottle). I'm not sure if the sale is nationwide, but it might be. Normal price was $8.97. :)

DG

[DobieG]

Wow! I'm truly amazed at how great my seats look and feel after treating them with Lexol. There were a few set-in stains (mainly pen marks & an oily thumbprint) that didn't come out, but the difference in feel after the treatments is awesome.

Thanks for the great advice everyone!

DG

[brianj22]

I posted this in another thread.. but i figure it wont hurt to post in this one also.

Does anyone know what to use to clean the Escaine Leather?

[douglasmiami]

DobieG - glad to hear that your Lexol treatment came out well. I tried the treatment once, but my seat came out sticky and tacky to touch - did you have any problems like this?

Thanks.

[DobieG]

Hey, Douglas....

My seats came out perfectly. Not tacky or sticky at all.

This is the method I used:

damp towel to apply cleaner

damp towel to remove cleaner

dry towel

----------------

damp towel to apply conditioner

i applied 3 times (waited about 1/2 hour between applications)

parked in sun for approx 4 hours

used dry towel to remove any excess conditioner

This is pretty similar to the instructions I found here. Hopefully, this will work for you, too!

The day after I cleaned/conditioned them I had two compliments from passengers on the look & feel of the leather. :)

DG

ps - is it possible that you may have reversed the order and done the conditioner first, followed by the cleaner? Just a thought. I did find myself grabbing for the wrong bottle every once-in-a-while.

[rwallican]

LEXOL IS THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD. I'VE USED IT FOR YEARS AFTER SAMPLING WITH LOTS OF OTHER BRANDS. I USE IT PRETTY OFTEN ON THE DRIVERS SEAT TO PREVENT THE CRACKING THAT OCCURS ON THE LEFT SIDE. IT WORKS!

[SW03ES]

Do us a favor and switch off the caps lock, thanks :D

[mbpgawest]

We never heard back from Blake on how his leather came out. :(

Steve, is the Woolight and water a 5-1 ratio? What technique or process do you use?

Thanks.

[SW03ES]

Yep. 5:1. I spray it on, rub it in, wipe it down with a wet cloth and buff it dry. Just did my whole interior yesterday and it looks brand new.

[acf]

Just did the leather on my new Land Cruiser, applied the conditioner with my hands, works better than applying with a towel and is much more sensual. :o

[93LSOwner]

Hey, you got your Land Cruiser!! Post some pics of it.

I do it by hand too, it just like putting on lotion on your hands; the cloth just absorbs the product so whats the use of it.