Recomended leather restorer?

[oldmogman]

Could anyone recommend a good hide food for rejuvenating old leather seats?

Connolly hide food is very expensive compared to something like Gold Label (http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B007YZLPH6(, which seems to be the same sort of bees' wax and lanolin product - for a fraction of the price.

Is there any difference? Are you paying extra for the Connolly name?

I’ve been recommended Gliptone (http://www.liquidleather.com/), which offers a cleaner and conditioner. However, while the cleaner seems to win universal praise, a lot of the reviewers say the conditioner smells awful, variously comparing it to ‘cow dung’ and ‘old people’!

Apparently, it’s supposed to smell like new leather, but I’m a little sceptical of artificial smells which seem to be a bit of a gimmick – I’m looking for something that really nourishes tired, dry leather.

Your suggestions and testimonials please!!!

[TerryG]

I bought my leather restoration kit from Frost. It depends how far gone your leather is as to how far you need to go, I got a colour matched one to get rid of the crease marks and fill in some cracks where it had dried out.
http://www.frost.co.uk/

[Fatbloke]

In Mrs FB's modern, we use the same stuff we use for the setee and chairs in the sitting room. it's a lot cheaper than the stuff sold specifically for cars.

Please now all feel free to point out the error of my ways and how this will destroy leather car seats.

[JPB]

Mike, if there is a difference at all, it probably involves the response to heat of the product's residue. Think about how hot car seats get in the sun. Does your room furniture get as hot? I'd be giving the domestic product a hurl just to find out. Worst that can happen probably involves chemical burns to bare legs in the car on hot days..

[Grumpy Northener]

Just used Autoglym's Leather Balm on the Jupiter bench seat which had been sat untouched in a damp by winter garage and very hot by summer garage for the last six years

Before

WP_20141123_019.jpg (50.75 KiB) Viewed 3237 times

After

WP_20150308_031.jpg (80.73 KiB) Viewed 3237 times

Looks like new and very easy application

[jpsh120]

The gliptone product is very good, I use it on my bmw seats. Not sure what old people smell like in your neck of the woods but I can confirm you get a lovely leather aroma after using the conditioner. In fact, when people get in my car they are intrigued as to how it smells "new" .

I was once advised against using anything labelled as a leather balm as they contain oils that are not good for the leather in the long term, despite producing impressive results after use.

Hope that helps.

[kevin]

I really wish the interior of my Singer was leather instead of 'vinylite'!

kev

[Luxobarge]

I really wish the interior of my Singer was leather instead of 'vinylite'!

kev

Yeah, but you can do wonders with vinyl too - I had an extremely tired interior in our Minor when we got it, some of the panels HAD to be replaced, but then of course the other faded ones didn't match - not by a long way. So I sent a sample of the new vinyl fabric to Furniture Clinic, who made up some colour-matched aerosols of vinyl paint, and put together a kit of cleaner, primer and paint for me and I "painted" (or stained) the rest of the interior panels. The results were fabulous, it came out looking like new - no exaggeration. The stuff wasn't cheap, but the results were brilliant, this was a few years ago and it's stayed that way too, still as good as when I did it. Now all the interior is the same colour, which is the original BMC colour but of course not faded.

I have a load of pictures, I did a thread on it a while back which I'm sure is on this forum somewhere, but blowed if I can find it - I can post them back up again if you want.

On the subject of leather restoration, although I've never used it myself I hear loads of good things about Gliptone (Liquid Leather) - I have spoken tot hem on the phone, they are very helpful and more than happy to discuss the whole requirement with you on the phone and make sure you get exactly what you need - that's what I'd do if I were looking to restore a worn classic leather interior. Never heard about a dodgy smell to their stuff, it's a risk you take I guess but I'd be surprised if this was a show-stopper.

Hope that helps!

Cheers all

[Luxobarge]

[I have a load of pictures, I did a thread on it a while back which I'm sure is on this forum somewhere, but blowed if I can find it

Nope, can't find it on here but I found it on the MMOC forum here:


http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... 2&start=45

Actually a thread of pretty much all the work I did restoring the Moggie interior, might be of interest.

[kevin]

I use the gliptone stuff on my mx5 steering wheel, cleans it's lovely and feeds it so it stays like new
No bad smells either

Kev