Leather vehicle interior

gdb

steveinaz wrote: »

The only way I'd enter Naco, Nogales, or Aqua Prieta is with a Kevlar frag vest and helmet--yeah that ain't happening.

The expense isn't an issue, it's the durability in this desert sun.

I meant a non-black interior for less$$, and yeah, I guess it's not the same Mexico that it was 15 years ago when my nephew had his upholstery done in C.Juarez.:frown:

steveinaz

Yes, they do offer a tan color leather for the Laredo X.

gdpeck

steveinaz wrote: »

SRT-8 is far more than I'm willing to spend. I like the power/gas savings of the pentastar V6. At 290hp it's fairly respectable, and certainly more power than I'm used to.

Maybe the Durango and the Grand Cherokee have more in common than I thought. The Durango I rented has that same V6. It was pretty peppy, and I averaged 21 mpg, driving a couple of hundred miles on Bay Area freeways (mostly weekend driving, so not much traffic). I wasn't trying to optimize gas mileage, so I bet you can easily hit the rated 23 highway mpg.

schwarcw

steveinaz wrote: »

Carl-- is the "hot seat" situation about like vinyl used to be?

Very similiar, swamp **** conditions.

Sherardp

Poee7R wrote: »

Zaino. The cleaner and the conditioner.

Looks and feels great, but the best part is the smell. Its like sitting in a new baseball glove. :biggrin:


Dave

I use this stuff in every vehicle I have owned and it works very well. Smell is that new leather type of smell. Worth every penny. Zaino wax is awesome too so may as well buy both.

BIZILL

since you mention tinted windows, get the leather. tint will block the harmful rays of the sun, that is, except for the windshield. you can tint the windshield too if you don't mind going illegal and getting a ticket eventually.

my truck went tintless for years and the side bolsters and seatbacks are deteriorated badly. not just worn, but chunks are missing. the sun beat up the leather and sliding in and out did mechanical damage. i tinted my sides with limo, but got pulled over by a cop and since they changed laws, i decided to pull it off and sign off the ticket. now i'm too lazy to tint it again and now my seats have worsened.

leather being hot/cold, yes. but only for the first few seconds. a fair tradeoff for me is the benefit of "sliding" into my seat without my loose shorts or pants getting all twisted and making me uncomfortable. unless you get the super-supple leather, friction isn't a bad factor. slide in, slide out. just like sex, baby.

toucanet

bobman1235 wrote: »

Eh, my dad does vinyl and leather repair for a living (he likes to say he's a "vyn-a-cologist"), and he swears that stuff (Armor-All) sacrifices durability for a little short-term sheen. I've heard the same criticism of those "tire shine" sprays - they make your tires look all wet and shiny but also dry them out. Same principle.

Based on the aforementioned information, what does your father use/recommend for cleaning leather?

bobman1235

I'll have to ask. Not surprisingly I only remember him ranting about Armor-All.

inspiredsports

We've had leather in 14 out of 18 vehicles since 1988.

The longest duration was a 1993 Grand Caravan ES ordered and picked up with 6 miles on it and driven to a recycler and sold for $650 this March with just over 150K and all 7 seats were PERFECT.

We toted our 4 kids all across the country in that thing with spills and accidents galore that cleaned up with sponge, and blood, guts and barf from sporting injuries or pets in distress never phased it.

The "cold in winter, hot in summer" lasts about 1 second.

I personally use Lexol versus Armor-All once a year for the first 3 years, and then just warm water (maybe a touch of soap as needed) with a sponge.

The current oldest leather is in my daughter's 1994 Volvo 850, and in each of 2 2002 Avalons for my other 2 daughters, all also in perfect condition.

steveinaz

Thanks for that info!

Jstas

I have an all leather interior in my Lincoln. The Lightning has black leather inserts and they suck. End up branding the back of my legs from the texture.

The leather gets hot but not like vinyl gets hot. Vinyl doesn't cool down quickly at all and is more uncomfortable because it doesn't breathe. So you sweat like a pig and get swamp **** on vinyl. After years of own ing or operating pickup trucks with bench seats, I know full well what vinyl can be like.

Leather gets hot. But since it's a natural material and porous, it breathes. So while it may be hot when you sit on it, you don't sweat as much. It also doesn't hold temperature nearly as long as vinyl does. It adapts to your keister quite quickly. So it doesn't stay uncomfortable and since it breathes, you don't sweat as much.

Now, ventilated seats, boy howdy! The Lincoln has them, the Lightning doesn't. Although the Lightning has auxiliary heating in the winter and summer from the 3 inch exhaust pipes running right under the floor boards. The surface temps of the floor mats have read 130 degrees after a long run in the summer time. The Lincoln though, heated and cooled seats. Makes a huge difference.

In the Linc has been sitting in the train station parking lot all day, the asphalt gets interior temps up around 110 degrees. But, when I get to the car, I use the keyfob to open the panoramic sunroof. Then I open the door, start the car, hit the "Auto" button on the HVAC and turn on the seat cooler. Wait 5 minutes (usually check email on the cell) and then plop my butt in the seat, no temp problems at all.

So if you can get that heated/cooled seat option, go for it.

As far as color, year, they all get hot. Darker colors more so. But leather, vinyl or cloth, black seats are always hot. A friend has a gunmetal gray Volkswagen Golf with an all black interior with red accents and cloth seats. If you get in that thing after it's sat in the sun all day, those black cloth seats are unbearable. Granted, they aren't as uncomfortable as deal cows or vinyl would be but they are still very hot. So no matter what material you go with, black is gonna suck.

As far as durability of leather, no worries. Only concern is sharp things like animal claws or tool bags. Otherwise, they will be as durable as any other material and will wear better. If you keep it clean, it'll still wear but it'll get a weathered look. If you don't keep it clean, all the cracks and creases that will come with time will be filled with gunk and look like crap. But, if you were to look at a concourse quality Ferrari interior or Jaguar interior or Rolls Royce interior, you'll see the leather is worn but it's not dirty. Looks good. So if you get leather, take care of it and worry none about it.

Airplay355

In the summer it's too hot and in the winter it's too cold.

Leather definitely doesn't breathe. It's cow hide, which nature designed to be durable and waterproof, not porous. That's the same reason why leather is easy to clean, things don't soak into it. If you spill something on leather, all you need to is wipe it up. My moms Mercedes had perforations in the leather to keep your sweaty leg from sticking to it and to allow it to breathe a little better. Leather makes me sweat insane amounts.

You can also get heater/cooled seats that aren't leather in a few models of car.

The biggest advantage of leather is how easy it is to clean though. Hair doesn't stick to it, spills don't soak in, dust won't settle into it. This works really well for some people but I can't get over how much it makes me sweat so I went with cloth.

Jstas

Airplay355 wrote: »

In the summer it's too hot and in the winter it's too cold.

Leather definitely doesn't breathe. It's cow hide, which nature designed to be durable and waterproof, not porous. That's the same reason why leather is easy to clean, things don't soak into it. If you spill something on leather, all you need to is wipe it up. My moms Mercedes had perforations in the leather to keep your sweaty leg from sticking to it and to allow it to breathe a little better. Leather makes me sweat insane amounts.

You can also get heater/cooled seats that aren't leather in a few models of car.

The biggest advantage of leather is how easy it is to clean though. Hair doesn't stick to it, spills don't soak in, dust won't settle into it. This works really well for some people but I can't get over how much it makes me sweat so I went with cloth.

Ummm...cows sweat. If they don't have pores in their skin, how do they get the sweat from inside their skin to the outside? Also, how does the hair that covers their bodies grow?

If you spill stuff on your leather and it doesn't soak in, it's treated with something. I have many leather things that are untreated with numerous stains on them. Leather coasters, baseball gloves and welding aprons are just three that I can think of right now that have lots of stains on them from all kinds of stuff from oils to just plain old sweat.

If leather didn't soak up anything, why do chamois work so well at drying off a car?

And yes, dust, dirt and grime does settle on leather.

Your mom's Mercedes has perforations in the leather to allow air circulation. Most often it's because the seats have a heating/cooling option that uses forced air. Those holes are there so air moves through the seats to cool or heat your tukis. Mercedes probably uses the same seats whether you check the HVAC seats checkbox or not. they just don't mount the seat HVAC systems to floor or frame before they mount the seat. It's cheap to leave equipment out but to have two different kinds of seats depending on whether you check the option or not is a good way to let costs get out of control.

My Lightning had leather inserts and no perforations because there is no heating or cooling options for the seats. My mom's Taurus has leather seats with no perforations as well.

greyford1979

The company I work for does leather cleaning and yes things will stain leather as well just like fabrics if it sits long enough and the leather has no form of added protection. Make sure it is cleaned and conditioned about once a year depending on use but don't over condition as it will leave it greasy and attract dirt and dust. However chemically cleaning and conditioning too often will strip protection(if it has any). And if it does have protection, it's not gonna last forever so it's a good idea to have it protected throughout the years as well. In between this cleaning just use a slightly damp cloth to clean. Also be careful when cleaning because if you scrub too much, there is a chance you can remove some of the dye. Yes I have seen this happen to a $20,000 leather sofa before...let's just say the guy that did it doesn't work for us any more

gdb

Meguiar's is A-OK for our leather car seats, used to use Lexol for tack back when we had horses, there is no better than Lexol IMO.

steveinaz

Thanks fellas!

Airplay355

Sweat comes from glands inside the dermal layer and hair grows from inside the dermal layer as well. There aren't tubes or pores that go completely through the layer.

The leather in my old subaru definitely didn't soak up anything or that car seat would have gained 10lbs in sweat alone.

Maybe you're right and some manufacturers use leather that breathes but the leather I encountered in Mercedes, Subaru and Toyotas didn't breathe at all. I'd sweat, stick to the seat and was just overall unhappy with it.

Chamois are a specific type of leather. Chamois leather as a car seat wouldn't last very long.

shawn474

My buddy just got a new loaded toyota avalon. It has air conditioned seats - littles holes that actually blow cold air on your......well, you know! Its great after a long day on the golf course!!!!!

dorokusai

Never had a problem w/ leather and wouldn't go back to cloth, even with the sweating from time to time. I use Meguire's.

steveinaz

Appreciate the input...

Airplay355

My WRX has cloth seats but they aren't the typical cloth interior. It feels like some kind of synthetic gym short type material. I like that a lot. Given the choice between felt feeling cloth and leather, I guess I'd suck it up and go for leather and sweat on myself though.

dorourke07

Leather all the way. It has a rich and soft feel in my Saab and the wife's H3 has been durable with the kid and the dog.

dorourke07

Leather all the way. It has a rich and soft feel in my Saab and the wife's H3 has been durable with the kid and the dog.

jflail2

I've got black leather in my silver Audi, and while it does get a bit hot in the summertime, I don't think it's enough to sway me from going that direction again. Looks awesome, and is surprisingly easy to keep clean.

steveinaz

Thanks guys..

miner

All my Acuras have leather - live in Houston and no problems with hot seats, but my cars are garaged.

gdb

Leather is what the finest assless chaps are made of !:cool: