BMW Leather Cleaning and Restoration - VERY Pic Heavy

[racer2086]

One random day it just hit me. My seats are filthy, and I haven't been taking care of them. Filthy, like how-are-you-sitting-on-that filthy. I've tried a number of cleaners and nothing changed. I was afraid that I may need to find someone to restore them. But then I found one cleaner that surpassed all the rest and the project went from cleaning the seats to a full blown restoration.

The first post will be of the cleaning of the seats. The next will be restoring the leather, from holes, to scratches, to worn and creased areas, to just restoring color to worn areas.

It's hard to describe, but with my sand beige seats, even using basic leather cleaner on the least dirty part, the leather still had a dull grayness to it that I didn't like. Add to that, I wear jeans to work every day, so there was a ton of transfer from my jeans to the leather. It was to the point where the front seats looked disgusting.

First, I have zero affiliation with Griot’s Garage, but I have had great luck with many of their products. The cleaner I used is Griot’s Garage Odor Neutralizing Leather Cleaner https://www.griotsgarage.com/product...her+cleaner.do. It specifically states it works on denim transfer, which was the reason I gave it a shot. (This stuff also did exceptionally well cleaning the dirty, matted alcantara steering wheel in my ZHP.)

After the full color restoration, I used the leather rejuvenator https://www.griotsgarage.com/product...or+8+ounces.do to restore the oils to the leather and make them supple again. This product is not needed on a regular basis, however, if you keep up with conditioning. But the headrests in the back window, for example, took multiple applications of this stuff and sucked up the oils and feel so much better now.

I used a horse hair brush to work the cleaner into the surface and then a microfiber towel to wipe off the cleaner with all of the lifted dirt. You will need many clean towels for this. And it requires many hours of elbow grease depending upon how dirty your seats are.


Below is exhibit A, the driver's seat and how filthy it is from the denim transfer. This is embarrassing.









(This is a picture of that "dull grayness" where the seat looked clean, but still looked dirty at the same time)


Here is a picture of one spot on the seat bottom where I started to clean. You can clearly see the difference.


And here is the seat bottom completely cleaned. You can see the worn wrinkles in the leather. The seat looks a lot better and cleaner except for the worn areas and loss of color -- more on that later...


Here is the driver’s outer backrest bolster all dirty and then cleaned up.
Flash on


Flash off







And here is exhibit B, the passenger seat. In this picture, I have already started to clean it. The close up pictures show the “stain” that is on the leather that so many cleaners just couldn’t remove.









You can see that the leather is clean, but the dirtiness of the seats covered the worn areas of the leather, which are now very evident.



Exhibit C, the rear bench seat: you can clearly see the area of the seat that is tucked under the seat back. This is a good example of the “dull gray” that none of the leather cleaners can remove, except this one.








Here is the side bolster of the rear bench partly cleaned. You can see the color difference.



All cleaned up. It brings out the patina and worn creases in the leather. I’m not sure if you loose a little color with the cleaner and a brush, but that is all fixed in the next post



Here is exhibit D, the door panel on the 740 that has an insert of leather where you set your elbow. In this case, it is the driver’s door, but I cleaned all 4. The color on the rears was fine. The passenger needed a little touch up after, the driver’s door needed the most.

Dirty:


A little harder to see the difference, but this is cleaned (need to ignore the color loss):


Next post is the restoration!

- - - Updated - - -


I forgot it auto-merges the posts. So sorry for the huge run-on giant post. But here is the restoration:










It became fairly apparent as I was first cleaning the driver’s seat that my seats were definitely worn and weren’t going to look perfect after the cleaning.

Despite the cleaning bringing out cracks and worn spots, I continued on and started researching how to restore the color to the seats. I mean they sell black and brown stain for shoes, surely there must be some solution for automotive leather. And those guys that restore seats must do something.

So after some web searching for BMW specific leather color and restoration and reading and pricing, I settled on the system from Colourlock. https://www.colourlock.com/?___store=usa

They not only have really great videos demonstrating how to perform each step, they can custom mix colors to perfectly match BMW’s interior colors. They have standard colors, which cost less, but they also have the BMW color palate, so those matches are really really good (I can attest). The product is not “cheap” but it is for the results, ease of use, and money you save vs having someone else do it.

If you are considering doing some leather work on your car, I would suggest browsing through all of their products to learn the differences between them. If they are custom mixing a color for you, there is not an additional custom mix charge for other products at the same time (e.g. regular stain and the filler).

At the minimum, you will need a sanding pad and the leather cleaning spirit. I used my own cleaner (post above), so I didn’t use their cleaning system, but the cleaning spirit is intended to remove any residual grease or oils so the color takes.

They sell regular color dye (“Leather Fresh Dye”), and they sell a thicker substance matched to your interior that can fill holes, rips, scratches, etc (“Leather Filler”). I bought both since the color was being matched anyway, but my rear seat had a hole in it from when we bought it CPO, like the lease holder dropped a cigarette on the seat (pics of repair below).

I won’t get into the step by step in this, since their website and videos are great. Below are my results having NEVER done anything like this before. BMW repaired the hole before we bought the car CPO, but their fill came out recently leaving a hole in the seat again where the stuffing was coming out. The color they used, also started losing its color and began turning gray. Unfortunately, I do not have good before pics of the hole, but it was the size of a cigarette. The filler doesn’t look perfect but did a great job filling it and feels like tough stuff. I also used the filler to fix a gash in the vinyl of my front door panel.

Exhibit A: Rear bench seat with hole and discoloration.

In the first pic I already filled the hole with the filler (the sand beige area in the middle of all that gray). The gray is whatever color they sprayed on the seat at the dealer when they repaired it.


This is the new color applied. The color gets much better as it dries. The main key though is blending. So carry the color further than the area you are working on.



Here is the front of the rear seat where most wear happens. The cracks leave the seat looking “dirty and old”. The leather fresh restores this easily.




And finished and dried up in the light of day.






Exhibit B: worn arm rest from the ZHP
When the leather wears so much that it starts flaking like this, it is hard to get the patina back to perfect. The leather fresh will “fill” a little, but takes multiple coats. I didn’t want to use the filler on this, however, because I was afraid it would end up just too smooth.


(I suck at taking pictures)





Exhibit C: worn driver’s seat with cracking and areas of lost color

This is after cleaning, but before any restoration. There are multiple areas of cracking and color loss, some scratches from my cat, and general areas of worn leather that lost color.










The center section has been restored in these pics, but not the bolsters.




Here is the seat bottom restored:



And this is the driver’s outer bolster recolored:


Driver's inner bolster recolored with a little fill to the obvious crack it had (sorry for the cell pics)


Cat scratches filled a bit


Here is part of the lower seat near the outer bolster that was really worn. I put multiple applications on here. When it’s wet, the color match will scare you, but dry lightly with a hair drier, and the final product is a great match.







And here is the final finished product! WOW, 242,000 miles!



Exhibit D: worn leather on driver’s door

Cleaned, but color is lost on the area where your arm rests


Close up


I only have one after and the lighting isn’t very comparable, sorry. But it does match well and look good.



And here is the passenger seat also done. (It’s hard to do all this work and remember to take pictures!)



This took many many hours and gallons of sweat in the Florida summer heat, but it was worth every bit of it!!

[purplecty]

Great results! Did you use the brush with the cleaner?

[clarkitect]

Wow, big improvement. Time consuming but well worth the effort.

[racer2086]

Great results! Did you use the brush with the cleaner?

yeah cleaner with the brush. need the brush to get in the grooves of the leather otherwise you just get a surface clean.

Wow, big improvement. Time consuming but well worth the effort.

I was so happy with the results I figured I'd have to post it on here for others because, I'm sure they have seats that need cleaning. Honestly, it makes the car look so much newer and cleaner just opening the door.

[DeathKing]

So excited to see this as I have the Colourlock kit sitting here! Plan is to take the seats out to steam clean the carpet and make it easier to work.

Do you recommend using the dye on the entire seat so that there are no blending issues? It could be the lighting, but you can tell what is old and repaired on the arm rest (which I also have to fix) for example.

[sealbeach740]

Great job, racer2086!
The proverbial before & after pics are just amazing. I bet the leather is just so much more softer & flexible now.
Thanks for sharing the pictures & your process. I bet this helps push other enthusiasts to redo their seats.

Now, once you've rested up, clean up (at the driver's side) seat belt!
Jeez, your interior looks soooooo much better now.

[acspecialists]

That's why I have black interior! Really great work. I have dabbled with working on my leather, there are just no short cuts you have to use elbow grease. Up where I live you don't have the heat and it is almost impossible. You have to wait for a hot summer day and let the car cook and then get in there, so much fun.

[Grady in Texas]

Would you come to Texas? Seriously, looks great. What is your ball park guess for a front seat (in hours)?

[racer2086]

Great job, racer2086!
The proverbial before & after pics are just amazing. I bet the leather is just so much more softer & flexible now.
Thanks for sharing the pictures & your process. I bet this helps push other enthusiasts to redo their seats.

Now, once you've rested up, clean up (at the driver's side) seat belt!
Jeez, your interior looks soooooo much better now.

That was the next thing I did! That seat belt was so dirty. They also didn't retract. I got them much cleaner, but it's hard to get them gleaming like the seats. Here's the thread: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ow-Clean-them!

Everyone should clean their seatbelts in ANY car. They snap back now like new. I was so skeptical, but now shocked.

That's why I have black interior! Really great work. I have dabbled with working on my leather, there are just no short cuts you have to use elbow grease. Up where I live you don't have the heat and it is almost impossible. You have to wait for a hot summer day and let the car cook and then get in there, so much fun.

Yeah the black hides everything. My wife's E39 has black seats, but in the high traffic areas, the color wears off just like the tan. So I have stain for those also.

Would you come to Texas? Seriously, looks great. What is your ball park guess for a front seat (in hours)?

Haha. I don't want to do this again for a while. I didn't time myself, but I'd guess 1-2 hours of cleaning the seat: vacuum, clean top, bottom, front, back everything. Mine were so dirty, I basically went over it twice to get it really clean. The color stage also depends on what you need.

If you have the need for the filler for rips, tears, cracks, etc, then that stuff needs to dry for at least an hour before adding another layer, sanding or blending more color. The leather fresh dye dries very fast. Even faster with a hair dryer but don't heat it too hot. Once it dries it's on there. So maybe another hour to spot touch color and blend. You could even do the whole seat...it's pretty easy.

Once done with everything, use a leather conditioner and/or protectant. If you need serious conditioning, that leather rejuvinator needs time and some warm weather to absorb. You may need another application. I would plan on leaving it for hours to absorb and recheck for areas that need reapplication (you will see the shine go away, which means it was absorbed). This part may take you days even, which is really only applicable if this isn't your primary car.

[georgebest]

Wow, congrats!

[agentrnge]

Awesome work! Thanks for sharing.

[Brian1960]

Great job.
Just curious how long the expected lifespan is for this sort of restoration.
I'm sure the answer is out there but it seemed like a good question to pose.
I assume once you get the hang of it, touch ups will be a breeze.

[brynar]

Great work! When doing it right with the cleaning and sealing it will last for many ages to come. Its a permanent solution when you take car of your seats clean them and now and then put some conditioner on the leather.

[racer2086]

The color should last well based on the cleaning and prep. And like mentioned, you want to use the cleaning spirit they sell because it's a grease cutter. With the leather fresh, it goes on thin and once you hit it with the hair dryer, it appears to "absorb" into the leather. So I'm not expecting it to wear off in a week. There were some reviews on Amazon about people saying how it's peeling off after a month, but I would bet good money they didn't clean or prep a thing and just blotted a bunch of color over the dirt, expecting it to stick.

It should hopefully be easier to clean and keep up with the conditioning now that it's back to its baseline. I'm already getting denim transfer from my jeans on the raised portions of the leather like the center stitching. I'm curious to see if it cleans up with standard leather cleaner this time.

[kouks]

I'm not worthy....

As a quick way to clean leather, I used the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser stuff on my Suburban when I put it up for sale, tan seats, cleaned up real nice and with minimal effort. But that stuff is too harsh for regular treatments. Also used it on an e91 I bought for my daughter, also cleaned very well on tan seats, but I quickly used conditioner, and my new "go to", extra virgin olive oil, to soften them up and save them from whatever harsh stuff is in those cleaning pads.

This thing was a complete pit when I bought it, grunge all over the interior door handles, seats etc. Cleaned right up with those pads.

[rslifkin]

Mr Clean pads are a mild abrasive. So they can work very well to clean up and resurface leather, but it definitely shouldn't be done often, as it does wear off a little bit of surface material.

[SilverIris]

This is fantastic info, thoroughly detailed and concise. Gonna have to give the 750IL's Ecru seats the same treatment pretty soon too. I vote for addition to the DIY Section.

[nmlss2006]

racer2086, great work. I'll echo what you said, having gone through this three times in the past: results can be very good, but if you value your time at more than $1/hr it starts to become... questionable.

kouks, I am not sure (...) the olive oil was a great idea, it oxidises and smells interesting. You may want to clean up as much as possible and, if you really want to go the oil route (which I would not) do food-grade mineral oil.

[racer2086]

The Griot's leather rejuvenator is a gel-like oil that sits on the leather and gets absorbed. It's only $16 for the bottle and I don't think I used half of it to do my car... It is so "oil-rich" that Griot's themselves say not to use it as a regular conditioner because it's "too much."

I'm going to clean and touch up the black interior in the 540 next. I will try to take relevant pics and post them here. Also going to use the black leather filler to fix some nicks in the door panels of the ZHP that some PO put in there. Will also try to accurately capture that with some tips and tricks. May need to locate a real camera for those, since the cell phone sometimes struggles with the lighting in the garage.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not worthy....

As a quick way to clean leather, I used the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser stuff on my Suburban when I put it up for sale, tan seats, cleaned up real nice and with minimal effort. But that stuff is too harsh for regular treatments. Also used it on an e91 I bought for my daughter, also cleaned very well on tan seats, but I quickly used conditioner, and my new "go to", extra virgin olive oil, to soften them up and save them from whatever harsh stuff is in those cleaning pads.

This thing was a complete pit when I bought it, grunge all over the interior door handles, seats etc. Cleaned right up with those pads.

Hey that looks really good! Isn't it great watching the dirt melt away??

The magic erasers are mildly abrasive, so you may end up removing the outer protective layer on the leather and lose some color. That would be a great prep item to surface the leather after cleaning, but before cleaning with the leather cleaning spirit and reapplication of color. Kinda steps in for the sanding pad.

[kouks]

Never though of the oxidizing part of using olive oil. Smelled nice though, like a Greek salad. I’ll try the Groits stuff.

[shogun]

I copied this thread from the E38 forum, good info also for us E32 owners.