porsche84

Hi, I have read posts for sometime, but just now got around to posting. I have a few questions about my car's leather interior. My car is a 1984 Porsche 944 and I was wondering what type of leather it is. My second question is that I have also been looking into Leatherique and plan on getting it but I was wondering what leather products I should use for regular up keep after Leatherique. Thanks very much for any advice given.

philcav7

I assume you are talking about the cleaner/oil, rather than their dye products?

I have used the Leatherique a few times on my 1986 and it seems to work great. My leather was in great shape with no staining and minimal wear on the seats, the back seats were somewhat stiff and they seemed to soften up a bit after the second application. I have not used any other products on the leather over the past two years.

I am really not sure what specific information you are looking for regarding the type of leather. To my knowledge it is plain leather, I don't think it's anything exotic.

Anthony Orosco

More likely than not only the front faces of your seats are leather, rarely are the backs and sides leather but are a vinyl material.

Now as for what type of leather?......there is coated leather and aniline leather and again the vast majority of cars are of a coated leather, even aniline having a coating but not the plastic clear coating. Coated leathers are not "feed" like aniline leather but should have a water based dressing used on them.

Take an eye dropper and place a few drops of water on your leather fronts. If the water beads up then you most likely have a coated leather but if the water drop seeps into the leather and leaves a darkened spot then you have an aniline leather which then needs to be "feed". Leatherique works well as does LeatherMaster, which is what I prefer and use.

For coated leather I clean with Woolite (6 parts water to 1 part Woolite handwashable) and I dress using Optimum's Protectant Plus.

Anthony

TOGWT

Leather Care / Cleaning / Maintenance–my first question when asked for recommendations on leather care / maintenance is; what kind of leather finish is it? There are three main types of leather used in automotive upholstery : finished Natural (Uncovered) polyurethane Covered and Unfinished (Nubuck)

Before using a leather care product a detailer needs to know the material they are working on, and wither the product chosen is compatible with the material and will not damage it. Diagnosis is the key, not guess work. Before deciding on what products to use you need to ascertain what type of leather finish you have and wither the pigmented leather has a polyurethane covering, or is (un-coated) finished natural leather, as the cleaning / maintenance varies as to type; although they all require a water-based product to maintain hydration (a suede type leather like Nubuck is the exception).

Automotive leather care is a subject surrounded with misinformation and myth, products such as leather (Saddle) soaps, oil-based Conditioners, Neats-foot oil, and Hide Food still prevail as top sellers, albeit most are made for equestrian tack, in a market that is dominated by pigmented leather that is sometimes protected with an acrylic polythene protective covering; which are very different leathers with completely differing care requirements. The exact reason why this is the case is unclear. It’s possible that there is an association with old world quality (i.e. leather upholstery and burl wood interiors) with these types of products, despite the fact that the automotive industry has been using pigmented leather for many years.

I would like to share the knowledge / experience gained to help dispel the hype and myths surrounding automotive leather care / maintenance; we all need to continually learn, and share what we learn about products and changing processes. As things change; we need to change along with them.

Basic Leather care - http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ther-care.html

Aniline: (is a method of leather dyeing as opposed to a ‘type’ of leather) usually used in the fashion (clothes, hand bags, luggage etc) Leather that is coloured all the way through with a transparent dye. The effect is applied by immersing the leather in a vegetable-based dye bath. Because the finish is transparent and shows the natural markings of the leather, only the best quality hides can be used and it is rarely used for automotive upholstery.

porsche84

OK, thanks I'll try out the eye dropper to figure out what type of leather it is.

ehall

I'll betcha it isn't leather at all, but vinyl.