Removing belt and jean dyes from tan leather seats

[Spector]

New vehicle has light tan leather seats and very black thick dirt/crud has transferred to seat, lower back area. Leather restore shop says it is due to belt and dye in jeans rubbing against the leather. They wanted to clean and resurface.

Anyone find a product that will remove it and once removed, other than seat covers, any way to stop recurrence??

 

[JHZR2]

Im interested because my belt has done this a little bit to the lemon leather on my BMW. I'm going to try leatherique, since it's the best stuff. Will report back over the next few days.

 

[Lillikai]

I really haven't found a good cleaner for leather seats, so I made my own.

1 part water, 1 part mild soap detergent, and 1 part baking soda.

Mix together and use a soft bristled brush to gently scrub the leather with. (After you vacuum the seats).

I used it on the leather seats in the fusion, it had all kinds of grime built up after 2 years of use. Food, oil, soda, etc. The mixture worked wonders.

It does dry out the leather a bit. So I purchased a bottle of Lexol leather moisturizer/cleaner. On the bottle it says it has the right PH level for leather. I just added a liberal amount of Lexol to the seats and rubbed it in with a soft cloth. The seats look brand new, are soft/pliable to the touch, and they smell nice.

This worked great for my application, good luck to you!

 

[Spector]

I tried the above solution, baking soda, detergent, water. Sorry, did not work in removing the build up.

 

[Lillikai]

Sorry it didnt work for you. I wonder if saddle soap is too mild to get stains out. One other random thing you could try is one of those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Ive had good luck with them cleaning the walls of my house, I wonder if it would work on leather seats? Worth looking into.

 

[barlowc]

Originally Posted By: Lillikai
One other random thing you could try is one of those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.

I've used that on the very, very light tan leather seats in our Saturn to remove ball-point pen marks. It worked well. Now that you've reminded me of it, I'm going to try it on another area of the seat that I've noticed is very dirty. Use a good leather conditioner afterwards.

 

[sleddriver]

Lexol leather cleaner (orange bottle), a horse hair or boar hair brush and hot water. Great for cleaning dirt/sweat out of leather, but may not remove a dyed-blue-stain from light tan leather. . . that's asking a lot.

Let us know if you find something that works!

 

[RTexasF]

Woolite and water will do the trick. Really dirty is 6 parts water to one part Woolite, moderate is 8 to 1, light is 10 to 1.

 

[Spector]

When I tried the baking soda and detergent the detergent was Woolite. Have not tried the magic eraser as yet, Stoner's makes a Citrus based cleaner that works to some extent.

 

[FastEddie]

Originally Posted By: Spector
Have not tried the magic eraser as yet,

If you do decide to use a Magic Eraser, just remember to be careful, they are abrasive and you can jack your leather up real quick with one of those. I've seen it happen all to many times.

 

[DAC17]

Get some Prestine clean from Leatherique. Cleans up leather seats as well as anything I've used.