Is it possible to restore leather car seats? Can leather car seats be damaged or cracked, which will require them to be restored? You must have a lot of questions going through your mind, and soon we will make sure that all those questions are answered, and that you have all the information you need based on restoring leather car seats.
Come and follow us as we go step by step on answering your question of whether can leather car seats be restored and if so how can we restore them, if not, then what can we do instead?
Is it possible to restore your leather car seats?
First of all, let us start by answering the elephant in the room, and that is, can leather car seats be restored? Before you search it on our website, you might ask your family members, your friends, a car mechanic, a car washer, and a few other contacts, and you will notice that everyone’s answer varies from one another. You won’t get a definitive answer, which will keep your confused brain still in a confused position.
Well, the answer to “Can leather car seats be restored” is that, yes it’s possible to restore your leather car seats once they have either cracked or got massive scratch marks on them or has any other kinds of defects on them that might make them hideous to look at. Now, since we know that it’s possible to restore leather car seats, how can we do that since it definitely is not an easy process? Well, this is where my expertise comes in handy as now; I can tell you about the several methods that you can use to restore your leather car seats.
However, we start going through the methods, you need to make sure that your leather car seats are genuine leather and not faux, as faux leather car seats are much more vulnerable to damage and scratches. If you try to apply any of the methods on faux leather, then you will end up damaging it more and making it look worse than before, therefore it’s better to confirm beforehand if your car’s leather seats are the real deal or faux. Once you know that it’s real leather car seats, then you can proceed with the methods.
Things you need to know before leather car seat restoration:
Leather car seats damaged signs:
You need to observe your car leather seats carefully. You have to identify the damaged or faulty area of it. It is often seen that especially entrance and exit areas of car seat discoloration as well as faded.
Can I restore the leather car seats ?
After identifying the damaged signs then ask yourself can i restore it personally. If you are capable then you know the process but be sure whether you are an expert in this matter or not otherwise you can damage your loving car leather seats . If you feel uncomfortable with doing this you must follow the below methods.
Restoration methods of leather car seats
Method 1. Clean up your leather car seats
Before you start to do anything to your leather car seats, you need to make that they are completely clean because if you don’t clean them early on, you might face problems
Why do you need to clean your leather car seats first?
You need to clean up your leather car seats first because when you apply any kind of leather conditioner or any other liquid on it, the dirt that was present on your leather car seats will spread around more making your leather car seats look even dirtier. Apart from that, it might settle in more and might even become permanent if you did not clean them but instead applied the leather conditioner to it.
If your leather car seats have stain marks on them, try to remove them as soon as possible before restoring your leather car seats. It’s because if you try to restore them with stain marks, those might become permanent and will clearly be visible on your leather car seats once it has been restored, which completely defeats the purpose of restoring and making your leather car seats completely new. Therefore, make sure to clean up your leather car seats first so that it can provide the best look when restored.
How can you clean your leather car seats?
Well, you can start by using a vacuum cleaner to clean and suck in all the medium and small-sized debris that is present on your leather car seats. Once you have taken care of those, you can then take a slightly damp cloth and just slowly clean out all the dirt and stain marks that you can clean off from your leather car seats and try to make them as spotless as possible.
Method 2: Apply Leather conditioner
Now that you have cleaned up your leather car seats, it is time to move on to the next stage and that is to apply the leather conditioner that you brought from the store. You need to make sure that the leather conditioner that you are going to use isn’t low quality as using a leather conditioner that isn’t that good but cheap can affect your leather car seats.
You might not know it then but as time goes on, you can see that your car’s leather car seats will slowly start to deteriorate and completely ruin the whole thing. Therefore, make sure you do your research before buying a leather conditioner and while buying, get the one that is recommended by most people or has high ratings and positive reviews.
How do you apply a leather conditioner to your leather car seats?
First of all, take a completely clean and new microfiber that hasn’t been used before and apply some leather conditioner onto that microfiber cloth. Once you have applied an appropriate amount of leather conditioner to that microfiber cloth, now take the cloth and slowly rub it on the leather car seat and make sure that you apply a thin layer of leather conditioner on your leather car seats. Make sure that it’s an even thin layer because if it isn’t an even layer, then some parts will gloss and look better than others, making the whole appearance uneven and weird. Therefore, make sure that it’s a thin and even layer.
Once you have successfully applied the leather conditioner all over your leather car seats, you now must allow it to rest for a minimum of 24 hours, the longer the better. After you have let it rest completely for a certain amount of time, you will see that your leather car is glowing and shining and will burst with its natural colour.
However, if you aren’t getting the restored look on your leather car seat after applying the leather conditioner once, then you can keep on applying over and over again until you get the look that you desire but make sure that you do not re-apply too many times as that might affect your leather car seats.
Advantages of leather conditioner:
- Shields your leather car seat from all kinds of stain
- Gives your leather car seat a new and glossy look
- Makes sure that dirt does not come in contact with your leather car seat
Disadvantages of leather conditioner:
Using too much can clog up the pores, which prevents the rest of the leather conditioner to carry out its task.
Method 3: Repaint your leather car seats
If you go one more step ahead, then you can repaint your leather car seats to give it an even better and a brand new look. It is a time consuming process, but it is worth the wait. We will be going through the whole procedure now.
How do you repaint your leather car seats?
Well, you start off by carrying out methods 1 and method 2 steps by step and once you have completed those steps, then you can start with the repainting procedure. First of all, you need to get a paint of your choice, either the same paint or a new paint that matches the interior of your car. I would suggest getting the same paint since it did already match the interior. Once you have bought the new paint, start by applying the paint to your leather car seats.
A single coating won’t be enough, so you need to apply several, like around 3-4 coats and you need to make sure that each coat has successfully dried up before applying the next coating. While applying the final coating, you need to mix the paint with water based on 4:1 product to water ratio and put on the final coating. Once you have done that, look for any excess paint and get rid of them using a microfiber cloth. Now you need to have patience and let the painted leather car seats dry for at least 24 hours. Once dried up, apply another thin layer of leather conditioner to bring back the shine and gloss on your leather car seat.
Conclusion :
To wrap things up, we have learnt today on can leather car seats be restored as not. Leather car seats are very precious and posh so they need to be maintained from time to time. If you don’t take care of them frequently, you will face problems almost on a daily basis. Therefore, it’s better to be safe than sorry and take proper care of your leather seats beforehand before tragedy hits.
We all face different kinds of problems every day and we at Hacks for Cars try our best to help everyone with their problems and make sure that they leave our site with a smile on their face. I hope that this piece of article was able to solve your problem on can leather car seats be restored. If you have any other questions about other problems, then you can refer to our other articles, which might help you.
FAQ:
What could faux leather be made up or look like?
You will notice that faux leather is made up of vinyl fabric, which looks and feels almost like leather but is not real leather but will make you think that it is real leather due to its indistinguishable appearance.
How to differentiate between real leather car seats and faux leather car seats?
If you are having a hard time identifying if your leather car seat is made up of real leather or now, then you can use this simple trick and differentiate between them. Simply get a leather conditioner, apply it on to your leather car seat, and see what happens. If your car seats absorb the leather conditioner, then you don’t need to worry anymore as real leather can dry out and absorb liquids but if you notice that your car seat did not absorb the leather conditioner, then you can mark it down as faux leather since faux leather cannot absorb any kind of liquids in them.
While repainting my leather car seats, where do I do it?
You can detach your leather car seats from your car and put them outside for repainting. Once the repainting and drying process is over, you can just simply put them back in and adjust them to their previous positions.
