Re: Replacing leather interior- Experience?

Wow, I was a dumba$$ three times in one post! 1. I left the top down in a light rain. 2. got home after midnight, didn't look too bad, so I put the top up and dried it in the morning. 3. Left the top down in the sun to finish the drying. (Wife: "Are you sure you want to do that?" Me: "Oh, yeah, it is the best thing for it!"

I didn't think I could do this much damage in one day! The leather on the door panels shrunk, hardened and pulled off of the plastic. The center section of the seat backrests (both seats) shrunk and hardened. I'm talking about the part with the vent holes.

I am thinking of rewetting them, stretching them and letting them dry in moderate temp, out of the sun, but I am not too confident. Anyone have this experience? Considering how much damage came from one instance, there must have been problems in the past

If this doesn't fix, I am considering replacing leather with Alcantera. Any opinions/advice?

... water vapor (steam) to get the leather to rehydrate and stretch a bit, also massaging it back with your hand.
One of those hand-held steam machines is perfect because of the wand size.

[i.walmartimages.com]


After it has stretched enough and all is back in place, cover with a damp towel and park it IN THE SHADE.
Allow it to dry slowly.
After the surface of the leather is dry to the touch apply a good leather conditioner.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Awesome. I have one, but didn't think to use it. I'll let you know how it goes.

More than once my Boxster's partial leather interior got fairly wet. The leather portions (seat squabs in particular) suffered no ill effects that I could discern. Factors for this are that the occurrences were at night, I towel dried everything as soon as I got to the car and if it was still raining put the top up... of course. With the top up I ran the AC recirculating at full blast with the heat fairly high. The car has heated seats, but I don't recall turning them on. One other factor is the use of Lexol leather conditioner once or twice a year. It keeps the leather supple and rejects water.

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2011 12:00PM by Laz. (view changes)

I found that the key to keeping the leather "healthy" is lots of proper conditioner. It needs the oils to repel the water and sun damage. I use Zymol, which you can find at Pepboys now. You want to massage it in, and the sun to warm it and help it soak in. I use it once a month, but you will have to apply a lot to bring it back. I had 100k miles on my car, and all the leather was in great shape, even with a few "sky rinses".

It's the oils that the leather needs. More water will dry it further. Just my experience.

... didn't evaporate from the leather.
It is quick evaporation that makes leather shrink.
He needs to completely hydrate it so it absorbs water and can stretch.
Then it needs to dry very slowly so it doesn't shrink and finally the leather needs conditioners to stay pliable.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Call these guys and tell them what happened:

[www.leatherique.com]

I have no commercial or other relationship with the company beyond that of satisfied, long term customer.