Need to soften interior leather that has hardened

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My Infiniti is an 03 and interior leather, vinyl, plastic is visibly almost perfect looking still. I bought a used driver side seat replacement and realized just how hard my leather is. The used one I bought is so much softer like leather should be. Came out of the same exact car so it's the same material, year, make, color, etc. I've been trying a few different products. Usually one and done leather you can buy from the usual companies.

I'm not looking for a product to clean or protect. If it does it's a bonus. I'm wanting a way somehow diy or store bought to soften this leather before it splits on me.

I bought the car with high miles from a previous owner who sucked at life so I have no idea if something wrong was used or it just never saw treatments. I have cleaned it numerous times the past 12 months still not softening up on me
 
There is a very high chance that it has coated leather, so little can be done to soften it. You could try applying Lexol and letting that sit overnight, if that doesn't have any effect I doubt anything will.
 
Originally Posted By: Gebo
Leatherique


This. It's a bit of a project, but their Rejuvenator a remarkable product.
 
I know you have used this product like I have. See all my old cars. You must follow instructuons. Also, I'd buy directly from mfr. There are reports of copy cats. Buy more rejuvinator than cleaner.


Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: Gebo
Leatherique


This. It's a bit of a project, but their Rejuvenator a remarkable product.
 
Just a note concerning Nissan/Infiniti leather.

There's two different grades of leather used in the early aught models. There's the premium "supple" type and the "sport" leather option. They're very different in texture.

The "sport" leather is a cheaper grade though they look identical. It's firmer and what I suspect you had as OEM. It sounds like the replacement may have been the more premium style. It's hard to differentiate unless you have them side by side, which you have.

BMW has the same issue and I'm sure other makers do too. When I worked at the Bimmer dealership we had to use the VIN to determine what type of leather options were available, and then the archived Monroney sticker to further narrow it down. There were approximately 30 different options encompassing four styles/grades of leather.

So if as I suspect they're two different grades of leather, you're not going to make one more like the other. But if I'm wrong and it's just that one is softer than the other, there's only one product I've ever tried in 40+ years of automotive detailing that does what it states:

4...eg


Leather Master's VITAL. If you are in need of intense softening of the leather this is the only way to go.

My recommendation would be to purchase the Leather Master Bundle off Amazon for $35:

Leather Bundle

1.Clean all of the seats twice with the Soft Cleaner.

2.Then use a good bit of the VITAL on the seats that need to be softened. My recommendation is to do one round of application and let that soak in overnight/24 hours. Then buff it out and do another round and let it set overnight once more.

3. Buff out the second coating, then apply the LPC (leather protection cream) to all of the seats. Let it sit about 15-30 minutes and then buff it out. Wait overnight before you drive it.

If you try to drive it a couple of hours after the Creams have been buffed out then you're going to get an issue where the sweat and the oils from your body are intermingling with the still-moist layer of LPC which is going to hinder its ability to cure properly.

I've tried almost everything on the market, and that's not just hyperbole.
 
Woolite and warm water, 1:3 parts. It used to be in the Cadillac owners manual for cleaning leather. Then put on protectant of choice. If you don't have Woolite then some Tide Free seems to work pretty well, same ratio. I use it on the leather wrapped steering wheel, shifter, etc.
 
I've tried a number of products on my Mustang seats. Originals were shredded, eventually got a pretty solid deal on the nice replacements (hard to find, harder to find for a fair price). Anyhow, they were rather stiff feeling, so I wanted to condition them before install.

First I tried Lexol conditioner with no perceivable change.
Then I tried Obenauf's leather OIL. This helped a bit, but not everywhere. Still was better than not using it.
Then I tried Meguiars Gold Class. This didn't seem to do too much, but its quick, easy and well reputed so I use it to clean/maintain now.

Not sure if the seats were re-dyes or what but the driver seat has really broken in quite a bit. Still in good shape, but a lot of dark discoloration after using it as a DD with black scrub pants for a year. Oh well, still holding up well and much better than the original seats.
 
Awesome, thanks for the replies. The sport vs premium is kinda confusing. My car is a G35 premium edition with sport package. The leather in my car is all the stiff type and the replacement used seat is really soft so might be the difference and correct about the two differences. I'm gonna try above suggestions and see if any change is noticed. Ive always had leather but I hate hard leather, not pleasant to touch. Like a Clay barred car before and after is the difference in my opinion
 
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