Cleaning, treating and detailing leather in your car is a simple process, if you have the right tools and products. Using the wrong products will damage the leather, if not immediately, it will over time and excessive use.
Leather used in Automobiles
Automotive leather is the more delicate and difficult surface to maintain of any vehicle. It ages and wears faster and if not properly cared for it will depreciate the vehicle's value and appearance. Automobile manufacturers define leather as “premium” when it may not be. Top of the line leather is made from the top split of the hide and often, automobile manufacturers will sell bottom split leather ( the more fibrous part of the hide ) as premium. They also treat the leather surfaces with a vinyl or urethane coating. It is sometimes difficult to actually know what you’re actually sitting on.
Automotive Leather Protection and Damage Protection
Once you have badly damaged leather, there is little more you can do other then replacing it, so preventing the damage in the first place is the easiest, cheapest and best way to avoid replacing and recovering your leather seats. You will need to fully clean, hydrate and protect automotive leather upholstery surfaces 3-4 times a year. It is much easier to prevent than it is to correct major problems after the fact.
Leather treatment and preparation ( tanning ) strips the leather of it’s natural oils, part of the process of the manufacturers is to re-oil the leather. This process is a trade secret, but generally speaking, they seal the hides and lock in the necessary fats and oils. Leather is also naturally water absorbing, which means it is also susceptible to loosing that moisture, which is why you need to treat and re-hydrate it. Automotive leather needs to be treated as automotive leather and not equestrian, auto leathers are usually coated with a polyurethane protective layer and pigment. The best protection is a conditioning and re-hydrating product.
Automotive Leather Product Selection
Before using a leather care product, a detailer needs to know the surface they are working on, and whether the product is compatible with the leather. Before deciding on what products to use, you need to ascertain what type of leather finish you have and whether the pigmented leather has a polyurethane covering, uncoated, or finished natural leather. This is critical, as the cleaning / maintenance varies for each type. Testing leather is simple. Scratch it with your nail, if it changes color, it’s unprotected, if it has little effect, then it is protected leather. If water beads on the surface, then it has a protective coating, if it soaks in, then it is probably finished leather. Natural leather has a an inconsistent color and grain pattern, if scratched with your nail it should reveal a lighter color and water drops will soak in and darken the color. Once you determine the type of leather, you can select an appropriate product. Out of all the products, a simple solution is woolite ( 3% ) isopropyl alcohol ( 10% ) and distilled water for the rest. Woolite and alcohol have their draw backs too. I would go with something like leatherique or leather masters products.
Protecting Leather
Protection is an important element in leather care, preventing dirt and grit brought in from the outside to damage and dry out the leather. Its primary purpose is to act as a layer between the leather surface and any contaminants that may settle on it, making maintenance cleaning easier, and also providing protection from ultra violet radiation. My best advise is to research other options and products, test them and then make an objective decision based upon factual information. I would only go with automotive leather care products designed for the polyurethane coated leathers. Leather care is only a small part of the full automotive detailing process, I also do not cover every single aspect of this topic. I will have to post some more specific posts and there is plenty of information to convey.
Showing posts with label leather care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leather care. Show all posts
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Automotive Interior Detailing Process
Cleaning and detailing the interior of a vehicle is something that is often neglected by most people. Most of the time people only clean out the garbage, vacuum it quickly and go. The odd time they will shake out the floor mats, but that is the extent of most people’s idea of cleaning the interior of a car. Interior Detailing is a lot more involved and specific.
The interior of your car is a confined space that gets just as much traffic as your entire house might, but accumulates more dirt usually. You are in and out of your car all the time, tracking in dirt, dust, animal hair, odors, etc. You might even have kids who track in 10 times more dirt it seems at times. Eating in your car usually always results in crumbs or spilled drinks and fries. Lets look at the detailing process to fully detail the interior of your car.
First Steps to Interior Detailing
The first task will be to remove all the garbage, papers, etc in the car. Removing all personal items such as shoes, purses, glove box contents, stuff in the trunk, everything. By removing all loose items, from all compartments, floors and seats, you give yourself the room you need to get to all the surfaces to clean and treat them. In some cases, you might also want to remove the front seats, or back seats too. If you have liquid spills that got into the floor, or under the seats, then removing them will make it easier to get to the stains and clean them up. The next step in your preparation is a thorough vacuuming. Make sure to get all loose dirt and particles with the vacuum as you can. The more you can suck up with the vacuum, the less you have to wipe up with a cloth.
Carpet, Fabric and Upholstery Detailing
Detailing your carpet and fabric can be done both by hand or with a machine. Most Detailers use an “extractor” , which is just a fancy word for steam cleaner. The difference in this case is that an extractor is usually smaller, has smaller attachments and is designed specifically for automotive purposes. What this machine does is super heat water and a cleaning solution, then with high or medium pressure is sprayed from a nozzle into the carpet and fabric. Similar to a home steam cleaner, the unit also sucks the solution out of the carpet, along with the dirt and grim. These extractors also have a higher sucker power then a traditional steam cleaner and can remove nearly 100% of the cleaning solution from the fabrics. The machines make fabric cleaning fast, easy and very efficient. The other alternative is to use a carpet cleaner, a cloth and do it all by hand, but you can expect less impressive results. Deep cleaning the fabric by hand is quite a bit harder, but still effective.
Leather, Vinyl and Plastic Detailing
The other surfaces in your car are usually one of the 3, or a combination of each. Cleaning and detailing these surfaces can be done at the same time or individually, depending on the product you choose. Several all-in-one cleaning products on the market today are safe for all interior surfaces. A professional detailer will usually choose a product like this so that they can save time and still effectively clean and detail all interior surfaces at the same time. Some special care might be needed for stains, leather and clear plastic surfaces, but generally, an all purpose detailing cleaner does very well. I will cover how to care for leather in a more detailed post later. Once these surfaces are clean from dirt and stains, you will want to treat them with a protectant and detailing spray. Most detailers refer to this final step of the interior as the detailing stage, where you will use a product that brings out the finish in the surfaces. Usually most people look for the shine or gloss from these products, but most of the time you can dilute the product with water and apply it different ways to attain the shine that you want.
Glass Surface Detailing
One of the last steps in detailing the interior of your vehicle is to clean the glass. I would recommend you leave this step for last, most of the other products you use on the interior might leave a residue or overspray on the glass. Use a good glass cleaner formulated for automotive care. Do not use ammonia based cleaners, like windex, these usually leave a film behind that you cannot see and eventually makes the glass look hazy. Clean both the interior and exterior surfaces of the glass, use a micro fiber towel and you should be left with a crystal clear window. I would also use the same product on the dash gauges and any clear or polished plastic in the interior, it should remove all residue and finger prints left behind.
The interior of your car is a confined space that gets just as much traffic as your entire house might, but accumulates more dirt usually. You are in and out of your car all the time, tracking in dirt, dust, animal hair, odors, etc. You might even have kids who track in 10 times more dirt it seems at times. Eating in your car usually always results in crumbs or spilled drinks and fries. Lets look at the detailing process to fully detail the interior of your car.
First Steps to Interior Detailing
The first task will be to remove all the garbage, papers, etc in the car. Removing all personal items such as shoes, purses, glove box contents, stuff in the trunk, everything. By removing all loose items, from all compartments, floors and seats, you give yourself the room you need to get to all the surfaces to clean and treat them. In some cases, you might also want to remove the front seats, or back seats too. If you have liquid spills that got into the floor, or under the seats, then removing them will make it easier to get to the stains and clean them up. The next step in your preparation is a thorough vacuuming. Make sure to get all loose dirt and particles with the vacuum as you can. The more you can suck up with the vacuum, the less you have to wipe up with a cloth.
Carpet, Fabric and Upholstery Detailing
Detailing your carpet and fabric can be done both by hand or with a machine. Most Detailers use an “extractor” , which is just a fancy word for steam cleaner. The difference in this case is that an extractor is usually smaller, has smaller attachments and is designed specifically for automotive purposes. What this machine does is super heat water and a cleaning solution, then with high or medium pressure is sprayed from a nozzle into the carpet and fabric. Similar to a home steam cleaner, the unit also sucks the solution out of the carpet, along with the dirt and grim. These extractors also have a higher sucker power then a traditional steam cleaner and can remove nearly 100% of the cleaning solution from the fabrics. The machines make fabric cleaning fast, easy and very efficient. The other alternative is to use a carpet cleaner, a cloth and do it all by hand, but you can expect less impressive results. Deep cleaning the fabric by hand is quite a bit harder, but still effective.
Leather, Vinyl and Plastic Detailing
The other surfaces in your car are usually one of the 3, or a combination of each. Cleaning and detailing these surfaces can be done at the same time or individually, depending on the product you choose. Several all-in-one cleaning products on the market today are safe for all interior surfaces. A professional detailer will usually choose a product like this so that they can save time and still effectively clean and detail all interior surfaces at the same time. Some special care might be needed for stains, leather and clear plastic surfaces, but generally, an all purpose detailing cleaner does very well. I will cover how to care for leather in a more detailed post later. Once these surfaces are clean from dirt and stains, you will want to treat them with a protectant and detailing spray. Most detailers refer to this final step of the interior as the detailing stage, where you will use a product that brings out the finish in the surfaces. Usually most people look for the shine or gloss from these products, but most of the time you can dilute the product with water and apply it different ways to attain the shine that you want.
Glass Surface Detailing
One of the last steps in detailing the interior of your vehicle is to clean the glass. I would recommend you leave this step for last, most of the other products you use on the interior might leave a residue or overspray on the glass. Use a good glass cleaner formulated for automotive care. Do not use ammonia based cleaners, like windex, these usually leave a film behind that you cannot see and eventually makes the glass look hazy. Clean both the interior and exterior surfaces of the glass, use a micro fiber towel and you should be left with a crystal clear window. I would also use the same product on the dash gauges and any clear or polished plastic in the interior, it should remove all residue and finger prints left behind.
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