# Leather care for BMW



## Jozi (Aug 11, 2008)

I just recently acquired a new to me 1998 model 318iS with full leather interior, and some other nice options. 

From what I've found on the forums, both ltt and dr leather most likely have what I need to give the leather a good clean and get them looking fresh again. 

What I'm unsure on is which products I need, I've read 'new' leather won't need conditioning, just cleaning and prob dye lock. My car being a 1998 model, does it have new type leather or should I be looking at products for older leather?

My door cards are also leather and vinyl or plastic and a little dull, anything recommended for this? I have done product in my shed but it's old an might be part is shelf life, will check to e what exactly I have later


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## chongo (Jun 7, 2014)

To clean your leather all you need is a light solution of APC and a soft nail brush, lightly spray the part of the seat, and work the APC till it foams up, then with a damp clean MF towel and wipe away the solution, take a dry MF towel and dry wipe.
Then all you need is a dye block from DR leather to protect the leather.


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## chris.t (Jan 18, 2014)

i use the Dr Leather wipes for regular maintanence and for deeper cleaning the spray with a soft brush to aggetate then wipe away with micro fibre cloth and treat with Dr Leather dye block, this seems to keep my ivory white seats looking good.


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## ah234 (Nov 10, 2015)

What colour are the seats? If light dye block is awesome and if black I quite like gtech L1 or leathercote 

For cleaning I love dr leather, it's awesome at cleaning and the finish is nice


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## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)

Dodos cleaner and sealant are fantastic. 

Gonz


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## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)




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## great gonzo (Nov 4, 2010)

They are so easy to use and the sealant is very natural and leaves the leather nice and soft.


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## Rayaan (Jun 1, 2014)

The Dodo Juice leather kit is the bees knees - much much much cheaper than the other options as well!


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## Jozi (Aug 11, 2008)

Black leather seats. 

Nice results with dodo above! 

So it's pretty much between the two I mentioned in my op and dodo.

What about being a sealer? Is it necessary on seats in a 98 3 series?


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## todds (Feb 17, 2015)

dont let any APC near your leather seats i used it on the drivers seat of my 1998 BMW 728I and it totally destroyed the seat cost me 380 euro to repair costly mistake. should only use dedicated products as made for specific finishes. any leather experts like DR LEATHER, LTT ,THE FURNITURE CLINIC, COLOURLOCK should be listened to as they are leather experts. thats my humble opinion anyway. i learned the hard way
best of luck
todds


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## chongo (Jun 7, 2014)

todds said:


> dont let any APC near your leather seats i used it on the drivers seat of my 1998 BMW 728I and it totally destroyed the seat cost me 380 euro to repair costly mistake. should only use dedicated products as made for specific finishes. any leather experts like DR LEATHER, LTT ,THE FURNITURE CLINIC, COLOURLOCK should be listened to as they are leather experts. thats my humble opinion anyway. i learned the hard way
> best of luck
> todds


I take it you diluted it down
Been using this method for years on new and old leather and never once had any problems AT all, even on my mums car which I have been cleaning her leather seats for a long time, and has not altered the colour or texture at all
So I would say it sounds like you didn't apply the right method:wave:


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## todds (Feb 17, 2015)

yes meguiars APC diluted down 10 to 1 sprayed lightly on the leather not drenched followed the famous darrens technique from the usa on youtube videos even though it says do not use on leather he was applying it to cars like rolls royce etc


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## vtaylor78 (Feb 21, 2012)

Sonax do a leather care spray, very easy to use and good results.


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## bigbrizo (Oct 17, 2015)

todds said:


> yes meguiars APC diluted down 10 to 1 sprayed lightly on the leather not drenched followed the famous darrens technique from the usa on youtube videos even though it says do not use on leather he was applying it to cars like rolls royce etc


This is weird

Lots of people on here use APC for cleaning leather

How bad did it totally destroy them ?

Any pics


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## Matt_Nic (Apr 15, 2011)

The leather on a 3 series isn't typically the highest grade leather. Do you know which leather it had? They're usually named things like Napa or Nevada as well as the colour. IE Nevada Black. I had an '01 330CI with black nevada leather and it had gone quite shiney and plasticky in the end. I used Gliptone cleaner and conditioner. It cleaned them up but I never could quite get rid of the shine.


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## judyb (Sep 7, 2007)

Matt_Nic said:


> The leather on a 3 series isn't typically the highest grade leather. Do you know which leather it had? They're usually named things like Napa or Nevada as well as the colour. IE Nevada Black. I had an '01 330CI with black nevada leather and it had gone quite shiney and plasticky in the end. I used Gliptone cleaner and conditioner. It cleaned them up but I never could quite get rid of the shine.


That's because you were constantly adding oils to the surface and never deep cleaning to get rid the of the build up of products on the surface
Cheers
Judyb


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## Jozi (Aug 11, 2008)

I just checked on a vin decoder and this comes up: LEDER STANDARDSCHWARZ (P7SW) which doesn't really sat which type of leather it is.


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## Jozi (Aug 11, 2008)

Jozi said:


> I just checked on a vin decoder and this comes up: LEDER STANDARDSCHWARZ (P7SW) which doesn't really sat which type of leather it is.


Just did a search and find this

P7SW = Leather, Montana/Casual/black

Means nothing to me but if anyone knows if I just need a cleaner or a cleaner and conditioner I would be very grateful


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## c j h (Oct 8, 2012)

I also never have much look with the dirty shine on leather, I have only used gliptone cleaner and dr leather wipes but never seems to make much difference


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## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

Jozi said:


> Just did a search and find this
> 
> P7SW = Leather, Montana/Casual/black
> 
> Means nothing to me but if anyone knows if I just need a cleaner or a cleaner and conditioner I would be very grateful


Have a look at the LTT kits for sale on their site. It comes with a leather cleaner fluid, a leather protector, and a maintenance spray. It's brilliant stuff and should deal with that shine. They also have a leather auto guard for light coloured leather. judyb really knows her stuff about leather interiors, you could do a whole lot worse than getting the LTT kit.

Cooks

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk


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## chongo (Jun 7, 2014)

bigbrizo said:


> This is weird
> 
> Lots of people on here use APC for cleaning leather
> 
> ...


This is cream leather on a rolls Royce, clean with a light solution of APC:thumb:
And protected DR leather dye block
And a 1965 GTO and a Bentley





This on a mustang.










GTO 






Bentley









All cleaned with APC:thumb:


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## chongo (Jun 7, 2014)

Forgot to mention, all were cleaned with a 50p Asda nail brush.


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## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

chongo said:


> All cleaned with APC:thumb:


I for one would have shyed away from using APC on leather, purely because I thought it was too severe. But as usual, you've surprised me with those results chongo. Another useful tip in the detailing arsenal.

Cooks

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk


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## chongo (Jun 7, 2014)

Cookies said:


> I for one would have shyed away from using APC on leather, purely because I thought it was too severe. But as usual, you've surprised me with those results chongo. Another useful tip in the detailing arsenal.
> 
> Cooks
> 
> Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk


Cheers mate:thumb: using a dedicated leather cleaner is usually the norm, but like some products they tend to have multiple cleaning properties like APC, as we all know it is good on fabric, Vinyl, and other materials, it just depends how you approach what you want to remove:thumb: same method to correction, start lease aggressive, then work up, same formula for APC.
I was once shown another tip by a pro detailer, that every pro detailer on here knows and respects, on a leather cleaner he was using in front of me that blew me away on a top end car, it's the protection is the important issue.


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## Matt_Nic (Apr 15, 2011)

judyb said:


> That's because you were constantly adding oils to the surface and never deep cleaning to get rid the of the build up of products on the surface
> Cheers
> Judyb


I tried it with a soft brush and a lot of elbow grease. 
No real difference. I should add it was a convertible so possibly baked somewhat over the years.


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## chongo (Jun 7, 2014)

todds said:


> dont let any APC near your leather seats i used it on the drivers seat of my 1998 BMW 728I and it totally destroyed the seat cost me 380 euro to repair costly mistake. should only use dedicated products as made for specific finishes. any leather experts like DR LEATHER, LTT ,THE FURNITURE CLINIC, COLOURLOCK should be listened to as they are leather experts. thats my humble opinion anyway. i learned the hard way
> best of luck
> todds


Just seen this and you must be the only person I know of, that says APC has destroyed your seats user error :wave:


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## Jozi (Aug 11, 2008)

I went with Dr leather cleaner, dye block and got some wipes also. Haven't used them yet though.


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## Dr Leather (Sep 8, 2010)

Got to be honest here guys and gals, in that I am really concerned about this APC use philosophy. I don't mind if it's not our leather cleaner that people use, but honestly having made and developed the coatings, and intimately knowing the chemistry used and it's performance attributes, repeated APC use is a danger. The technology is not designed to be highly solvent resistant, and ultimately it will start to damage the finish over time. If I thought it was safe to use we'd be cutting our cleaner with solvent in it, but all I see is that solvents reduce the veslic type rub fastness testing very quickly. A bit like if you keep 'cutting' a painted surface, slowly it will destroy the topcoats.

I will look to run a few tests of accelerating the use of APC solutions on the coating (and only the coating cast in to the film) and let you know the results in due course. 

Rgds

Dr Leather


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