Guys, after speaking to one of the best folks in the business, I went through a fairly extensive leather care exercise and I wanted to share my experience. To begin with, I want to give credit to Larry Reynolds, owner of Car Care Online (http://www.carcareonline.com/). He's a very knowledgeable and nice guy, and a true car aficionado – he’s about to replace his 996 911 GT2 (which has something like 70K of all track miles!) with a brand new 997 911 GT2 (or 3 perhaps). So I followed his advice on taking care of my leather interior. Keep in mind I have the full/extended leather option (dash, full doors, etc.) so it is a lot more detailed than for folks with the Sport/2-tone option. And considering that the leather has seen some sun over the years, it was in need for a full 'day spa' treatment.
So here is what he recommended I do, and I followed to the t. It is fairly involved, but half of the procedure I am about to outline below is more of a one-time job and the regular maintenance is far less manually intensive, so don’t freak out:
Step 1: You need to thoroughly clean the leather to essentially 'open' up the pores. Imagine a human body - you need to give it some good scrubbing and let the leather 'breath' before you apply the various treatments and conditioners. The pores have been clogged from dust, grime, and of course human contact. So first step is to use the Lexol pH Leather Cleaner: http://www.carcareonline.com/detail.asp?product_id=10701
You simply use a kitchen sponge which you dampen beforehand so it doesn't absorb the cleaner itself. As you vigorously scrub the leather, it will form a soapy-looking foam, but don't worry, it goes away easily. With this and the other products listed below, there is no such thing as applying too much. The leather will absorb everything it can and anything it doesn't soak up anymore, you can simply wipe off. You will notice a totally new shine in your leather, but wait, that is nothing compared to what follows…
Step 2: Next step is to apply this honey-looking substance, which is essentially a leather enricher and softener (think of it as leather food). It is called (not misspelled) Surflex Leather "Soffener" http://www.carcareonline.com/detail.asp?product_id=11951
The application is a bit tricky, I found best to use a cotton glass cleaning cloth and literally swirl it around my index finger and apply it that way. This is the messiest part of the entire exercise, as this thing really looks like honey and will mess up the plastic surrounding trim/windows/paneling, so be patient. This is not the time to worry too much about messing up your plastic trim, it comes off easily (I used an ammonia-free glass cleaner in a spray bottle in the last step outlined below to do all the cleaning up, but arguably you can use the Lexol Leather pH cleaner as per above.). Just careful not to apply any of it to the alcantara, they don't go well together at all, trust me on this one ;-o))
Now here is an important point, maybe a bit anal, but works especially well for all the spots that have been heavily hit by the sun (e.g. dashboard, top of door panels - something that the no-cost option equipped two-tone/sports interior M5s don’t need to worry about). After you apply the 'honey' softener, it is best you cover the freshly applied area with a saran wrap. You essentially want to keep away any evaporation of the softener. So apply it, cover it, and let it soak/suffocate (under sun preferably) for a few days. You may want to do the rear headrests and top of the rear bench seat like that too as they get the most punishment from the sun rays. After you are done with this, your leather will be softer than your living room La-Z-Boy chair This entire step to me is a one time thing (or say one time a year), after you have 'fed' your leather, steps 3 and 4 is all you need as regular maintenance.
Step 3: After you’ve let it stay for a couple or more days, you will notice that some areas have absorbed the 'honey' softener more than others. Don't worry about seeing these spots, perfectly normal, after all, we are talking about natural leather here that has varying absorption characteristics, especially after the dyeing process. Take the same ammonia-free cleaner as mentioned above but use a little of it, all you need is to quickly wipe off the entire surface area, don't scrub it in as you don't want it to eat in the leather softener, a simple one stroke application will do the trick. This will eliminate the 'spots' and ensure the leather is uniform all around. Next comes the Lexol Neatsfoot Formula Restorerhttp://www.carcareonline.com/detail.asp?product_id=10715.
There are various ways to apply it, I continued to use a dampened kitchen sponge (a new one though, not the one you applied the leather cleaner with). This step is much faster than step 2. Once done, I would let it sit for another couple of days.
Step 4: Final step is the leather conditioner, specifically the Lexol Leather Conditioner: http://www.carcareonline.com/detail.asp?product_id=10706. You can use this year round, and perhaps repeat step 3 every so often should you feel the leather is drying up/getting a bit dull.
I should have taken pictures before and after, but got carried away. Trust me, the difference is dramatic! I even took the headrests home and especially under light, it is amazing. To the eye, and to the touch! You won't regret it. Just make sure you take your time, for one to let the leather treatments sink it, and two, perhaps most importantly, not to get the gentler sex completely mad at you for devoting time away from her! If this were to happen, you can easily make reference to the certainly-more-than-4 leather treatments she stores behind the bathroom mirror (and likely her anti-wrinkle cream is more expensive than all of the above combined!)
Thanks for a very informative thread there! It's a pity you did not do the before/after picture session, but judging by your comments it must look good!
I myself firmly believe in taking good care of leather seats. I have been using the BMW leather care range available here and the results are good. It certainly helps in maintaining the "new look" interior!
Best regards,
Rudi
__________________
2001 Imola Red II E39 M5 - Stock
Nice write up. That sounds very similar to the Leatherique ( www.leatherique.com )system I used to bring back my 88 m5 leather. To get good results it takes a lot of time and patience.
Thanks, guys. I figured since I am going through all this effort, might as well document it for future reference.
I will try to make some pics of the conditioned leather over the weekend, although I am a idiot for not doing a before and after comparo...
PS
Actually, come to think of it, I have an untreated leather panel at home, which at some point I will replace with my current one in the car that has a nick, so I can compare those alongside of eachother.
Last edited by cosioboy; 30th March 2006 at 02:08.
I have used the softener product on my 88 m5 and recently on my 20002 m5. I was concerned about the dash due to problems I had on an 87 M6 with leather dash. I have been told to use 303 protectant. I have used this on boats in the past with good success. Does anyone have experience with 303 on a leather dash. Thank you
Great post, very informative. However, I would be interested to see how the leather looks/feels after some time. I have the full leather package in my beast as well. My Benzo didn't like leather treatment too well and in fact it looked worse after a few days. Granted, I didn't use Lexol products but now I'm a paranoid freak as a result.
-D
__________________ Dave
2001 TitaniumSiver
-Air intake system
-Supersprint cat-back exhaust -Pure white LED Angel eyes by Umnitza...that failed. - Dice iPod integration -Stage one Rainbow speaker upgrade
-10" Kicker SolarBaric sub driven by an Elemental Designs NINe.2 amp
Due to popular demand, here are a few before-and-after pics.
Since I didn't take any pictures of the interior before and after (something I regret), I took out one of the treated headrests and compared it to an untreated leather panel I have sitting at home waiting to be installed in the place of my nicked one.
I will make some pics this weekend of the car itself under daylight, these are at night under artificial light, but enough to see the huge difference. I think the flash made it seem much shinier than it is in actuality (trust me, it doesn't look like you applied a cheap can of armorall), and it is not greasy to the touch.
This entire step to me is a one time thing (or say one time a year), after you have 'fed' your leather, steps 3 and 4 is all you need as regular maintenance. 
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