I have a 300SD with some pretty nasty leather seats. I an going to try to resuscitate them with Leatherique, just to see if the stuff works like they claim it does.
Has anyone used the stuff? Any input will be appreciated. I would like to know how much of the stuff I will need to order to do the whole car.
A few years ago an owner used the product to restore and redye his car's leather seats. The job took him several days - to soften the hard, cracked leather, then to dye it and to add the finish; he was pleased with the result. He showed pictures of the "before" (ugh) and the "after" (like new).
Can't recall the site, may have been on:
It will soften the creases but nothing will fix tears.
To fix tears and holes, you must first glue a leather patch under the rip and hole, and then apply the crack filler in thin layers on the patch until it is a little higher than the surface of the rest of the leather. After the filler is dry, you sand it level with the rest of the leather and dye it.
From the photos, repairs to rips and holes are invisible!
The results look incredible.
marl> Can it work magic though? My leather has tears in the creases (you know,
Leatherique is the best... They do work. However, it is winter for most of us... it is hard to get the car baked for the leatherique to penetrate leathers. I use their stuff.
They will soften all leathers... You gotta watch out on some thinner leather seats like old GM... it will soften to the point that the thin leather will tear at the existing crease...
Mercedes leather is thick so use as much as you want.
Any UK based similar product?
Ta
Nige
I use it on everything leather. Not just car seats but coaches and coats. Everything they say about it is true. As long as the leather isn't dry rotted it'll come back to life. The directions regarding heat MUST be observed. I use a small room in the summer and crank the heat up to 100F.
I give it 3 days of treatmenet for cardboard-hard stuff and it comes out butter soft like they say.
Similar but not the same. I've never heard of the other stuff havning the same results. Leatherique has a European distributor now.
Where can you get leather for $400? If you can re-leather a Mercedes for this price than you should DEFINITELY do it instead of using Leatherique, I think.
marl> Hmm, sounds good, but it also sounds like so much work I might as well just
worlduph.com, according to their website, charges $1080 for the front seat leather kits and $1022 for the rear seat kits... And this is their DISCOUNTED price.... And then you still have to install them!...
Perfomanceproducts.com charges $500 per seat or $1000 total for the front, and and $850 for the back seat leather listed on their site.
It looks to me like it would cost a couple of grand and about eight hours to do an entire car with new leather upholstery, while it costs about $300 and (according to what users say) takes about 30-40 hours of labor (and a week without a car) to use Leatherique, which seems to restore seats to "almost new"...
I guess the question is "Is it worth it to spend 25 or 30 hours and go without a car for 5-6 extra days in order to save $1500?" Since this works out to about $50 a dollars an hour, I bet most people would say that Leatherique pays, while those who make a better salary or want absolutely perfect upholstery would want to recover their seats.
Another factor would be the age of the car. A 300SD like mine, with
280K will never be worth $5000 no matter what, simply because of the market... So it seems to make little sense to toss 2 grand at it instead of a few hundred dollars.What do you think?
It's aftermarket leather. Not the same as the original stuff.
Same with from the dealer? But yeah, I was talking about per seat. Richard
I think the dealers can get the right German leather. Just be careful, they can also sell anything.
I should have been more clear. Considering all the work I'd have to do with my car (take off the leather, put leather patches benith all the tears and cracks (there are a lot of them), put crack filler, sand it, dye it, etc) I'm better off just getting new leather. Richard
Called a guy who does quick touch up on MB leather and he gave me a great hint. They simply use black shoe dye to get the "light" cracks back to black. Then they use regular paste shoe polish. I did this on my 240D seats and it worked great. Been about a year now and it looks like I might have to go back and do some touch up. BTW I simply let the paste shoe polish (Kiwi) sit until it was dry and wiped it off with an old towel. Was concerned I might change the color of trousers and shirts so I put a beach towel on for a couple of days. When I pulled it off there was virtually no polish residue on it. I won't hesitate to do this again when the need arises and it's certainly a lot less expensive than the Leatherique system, But, then again, I'm a miser, that's why I drive a 240D.
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