add me to the list of people not happy with Leatherique

[Chuck]

After a recent purchase from an online vendor I had all the supplies I needed to do full, deep cleaning and detailing of our cars. Before I spent the time on the big jobs in the garage, I decided to tackle something thats been aggravating me on our favorite grocery getter - hardened leather seats. Our runabout has over 120k on the clock and still looks new, except the leather seats are about as flexible as alligator hide. They're not super shiny, so this isn't a dirt or oil issue. They've been cleaned semi-regularly with both Lexol cleaner and Lexol protectant, but they still stiffened up, probably from the intense heat here.

Part of the kit I bought was the two step Leatherique kit. I followed the directions to the letter, and took advantage of that same southern sun to heat the seats up before beginning the Rejuvenator treatment. I worked a generous amount of product into the leather with a gloved hand. I then waited a full 24 hours before I finished the project with Prestine Clean, warm water, and a microfiber cloth.

The end result... the seats looked identical to their appearance a day earlier. They were also still hard as a rock.
BTW, I treated only the passenger seat just so I could compare it to the untreated driver's seat. No difference.

After reading all the glowing reviews, I'm incredibly disappointed in this product. I probably shouldn't have trusted a company that can't spell "pristine" correctly. :D
Can anyone recommend a product that will loosen up hard leather and return it to its supple state?

[crazy4trains]

I've read that it may take several treatments to revitalize seriously hardened leather. My first experience with Leatherique was similar to yours. I think I'm going to give it another try and do several applications consecutively to see if that makes a difference.

[Chuck]

Let me know how that works out. I'm going to be doing a big detail session tomorrow, and I'll have a choice between washing one more car or spending that time on the interior in the above mentioned runner.

[ABCarr]

Just curious.....what type of leather do you have?

[Chuck]

Just curious.....what type of leather do you have?

Type? You mean what animal is it from, what manufacturer, ??

[ABCarr]

No....is it Dakota, Merino, Nappa, etc. Just want to determine whether it's a coated leather, which is inherently "harder".

[Chuck]

Its not a BMW leather, so I have no idea what its called. When it was new, it was quite soft.

[Jean-Claude]

Are you certain it is not synthetic leather?

My advice is to use it multiple times on just the outer bolster. I am not a fan of leaving rejuvinator oil on more than an hour or so. Multiple treatments work better than one.

[Chuck]

Are you certain it is not synthetic leather?

My advice is to use it multiple times on just the outer bolster. I am not a fan of leaving rejuvinator oil on more than an hour or so. Multiple treatments work better than one.

Thanks for the advice. This is definitely leather, we checked with the manufacturer.

What is synthetic leather? Wouldn't that just be "leatherette", aka naugahyde?

[aaron07]

I like using Lexol. It makes my leather seats soft.

[Chuck]

I like using Lexol. It makes my leather seats soft.

I tried Lexol, and it did not help much at all. I doubt their products are what they used to be.

[crazy4trains]

I tried Lexol, and it did not help much at all. I doubt their products are what they used to be.

What makes you say that. I use Lexol in a similar fashion to what is recommended with Leatherique and I like the results. I first clean the leather with Lexol leather cleaner then slather the leather with a thick coating of Lexol's leather deep conditioner. I let that dwell for a few hours (maybe overnight) to allow it to soak in. It will get a little gummy so I just refresh it with some new deep conditioner then I buff it. After that I will use the leather cleaner again to get back to a more matte finish.

[Chuck]

What makes you say that.

I used both Lexol products regularly on all my M3s, and I was satisfied with the results. This was at the time of the Lexol/Hide Food/NeatsFoot/yada yada yada arguments here. I was happy to get a product right off the shelf at the local VatoZone that made the grade. I tried it now, its not working. Maybe this leather is too far gone, maybe its the product. The leather has no cracking and its not pulling away at the seams, indicating no shrinkage, so I'm leaning towards the product(s) being the issue.

There were some discussions in another forum a few years back about how to get leather hydrated so that chems would have something to work with. Tactics ranged from putting damp washcloths over the leather while the vehicle sat in the sun, up to removing the seat covers and laying them out in the sun with repeated applications of damp cloths. I may revisit that topic if I can't get anywhere with the chemicals alone.

[rjbaren]

I tried Mother's leather conditioner. One of my cars it softened the seats pretty well. My other car, it didn't make a dent in the softness of the leather. The Mother's had lanolin which I thought would be good.

I may even try Neatsfoot compound next. Neatsfoot would be better if it was just the oil and not the compound, which has a few other ingredients. I remember using Neatsfoot oil to soften my baseball gloves when I was a kid.

[tonio]

I too, tried leatherique. It indeed made the leather softer but it did not lift out the dirt 100%.

[Chuck]

I wish thats what it did in my case. My leather is clean, its just hard like waxed burlap.

[ericwudi0830]

is the list still going around? cause i need to add my name too -.-