Joined: Wed Nov 10 2010, 04:57PM
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
Posts: 324
any suggestions or advice welcome. mink oil, vaseline have been suggested already but i wanted to hear from anyone who actually has had success..... i have been offered a pair of leather bucket seats from a 64 Imperial, they are not ripped or cracked but are very very dry and hard to the point where i dont want to use them without trying to soften them up first.
Joined: Mon Oct 10 2005, 09:48PM
Location: Calgary Alberta Canada
Posts: 305
I have used a product called "Dr Jacksons Hide rejuvenator" It is like butter It helps... But nothing can bring it back from the totally dried out death.
Joined: Wed Nov 10 2010, 04:57PM
Location: Victoria, BC Canada
Posts: 324
thanks guys, 1 seat is actually at an upholstery shop getting an estimate to redo it and they are also looking into what might help for the time being. but the leather is really hard.... im not expecting the seats to be great after treatment, just trying to hopefully get a summer's use out of them before they disintegrate
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
I came across this page which looks promising. The step where they coat the leather with the oil product and then seal it in to soak using plastic wrap caught my attention.
A few years ago I was doing a reno in a building I bought and I had a reaction to something in the ceiling tiles. All the skin on my hands started to peel just like a bad sun burn. I tried a couple of skin doctors and bunch of medication with zero results. By chance I visited my family doc to discover he was on vacation and the doc covering his practice looked to be ancient. He looked at my hands and told me to get a jar of glaxal base, some plastic wrap and a roll of tape. The idea was to coat the hand completely with the moisturizer, loosely wrap the whole hand with plastic wrap and tape the any openings to make it air tight. He said to do this before bed and sleep on it. In the morning I unwrapped two "brand new" hands and the problem was cured. Looking back, my hands were warm and began to sweat and being sealed, the combination of heat and glaxal base literally cooked into the skin. Glaxal Base, by the way, is the white cream used by your pharmacist to mix drugs into creams, it is PH neutral and will not trigger allergies.
Anyway, I would try this. Pick one of the worst areas, wash it well with the leather cleaner of your choice. Dawn dish soap does a great job removing dirt, oils and grease. While it's still damp, slather on a leather rejuvenator, cover with plastic wrap and tape the edges with something like painter's "Frog Tape". Then I'd park it in the sun and let it cook for a day or so. Keep an eye on it because unlike my hands the seat cover is open on the back side. If it dries too fast, unwrap it and repeat with a bit less direct sun. Maybe rolling all the windows up and let the whole interior get hot would work better.
Edit - on second thought maybe a hot car would be better than direct sun, you don't want the Frog Tape to become hard to remove or for it to leave any glue residue.
Joined: Fri May 08 2009, 10:41PM
Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Posts: 315
Upholstery leather cream. Mink oil or Neastfoot oil will get on your clothes. Saddle Soap just cleans. I own a boot store and we deal with leathers all the time.