How to keep your leather car seat cover in good shape

A leather car seat cover is a wonderful seating material that conforms to the shape of your body. It also imparts a sense of luxuriousness, can add value to your vehicle, and smells great!

The problem with leather surfaces in cars is that they are subject to an extreme range of temperatures, and they are frequently abused and neglected. Few things look worse than worn, tattered leather seats. And, they can be expensive to have recovered. Think of your own hands, and what shape they would be in if they had to endure freezing to almost boiling temperatures without the benefit of any type of protection or moisturizers. This is basically what happens to leather in an automobile interior.

The best way to help maintain the beauty and value of you leather car seat cover is to perform regular maintenance on it. Here is the step-by-step process :

• Thoroughly vacuum any loose material from the leather car seat cover, making sure you get into the crevices and seams. Lay the front seats down and pull out the rear seats to really get all that old crud cleaned out.
• If any crud remains trapped in the seams or crevices, use a stiff nylon brush (or even a toothbrush) to work it loose. Be sure not to rub so hard that you scratch the leather
• Re-vacuum the seats to clean up the loose 'crevice crud'.
• It's much easier if you work on a small section at a time. For seats, start off with the backrest portion first, and then take care of the bottom cushion.
• Moisten a washcloth in the bucket of warm water. Wring it out to leave the cloth damp. Apply a leather cleaner on a 3" x 3" area of the cloth
• Wash the seatback with the cleaner, getting in the crevices and seams. Don't try to saturate the leather car seat cover, it will only take longer to rinse and dry them out.
• Rinse the same washcloth in the warm water. Wring it out until it's damp, and then clean the soap off the seatback.
• Dry the seat back with a medium-sized towel.
• Repeat this process for each of the seats, washing the top first, rinsing the suds off, and drying the surface. Then do the bottom cushions the same way.
• After cleaning, rinsing and drying, you can start applying a leather conditioner to the first seating surface on which you worked.
• Now you're ready to make the leather car seat cover come back to life ! Dampen a washcloth, and spray a 3"x 3" area of the cloth with the leather conditioner.
• Rub the conditioner into the seat surface, making sure you get good coverage. In general, a circular rubbing motion is more effective than just rubbing in a linear fashion. Don't load up the conditioner in one area, so that the leather is darker in one place than in another. Remember that several light applications are better than a thick initial loading up of the product.
• Allow the seats about 30 minutes to absorb the conditioner. Then, use a second terry cloth towel to buff out the leather surfaces and any conditioner that has pooled up.
• When you have finished buffing out the leather car seat cover, let the leather breathe for several hours before sitting on them.

In order to maintain the value of your car and the condition of its leather interior, this maintenance should be repeated every two months or so. You'll be surprised to learn just how easy it is, and how much nicer your car looks, feels, and smells with just this small investment of time and energy !