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-   -   A superb Car cleaning, polishing & detailing guide (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/102011-superb-car-cleaning-polishing-detailing-guide-62.html)

How do you clean Art leather seats.
The safari has beige ones and they have started blackening.
Should I just rub a sponge dipped in soapy water and try to clean with that.

I clean it with the interior/vinyl cleaner and it works pretty well. just spray liberally, and rub with a cloth.

Vinyl cleaner is good. You can get many brands but I am using Amway leather and vinyl clear. It remove all black stains very easily and gives smooth feeling.

Well, for me that is not really a choice :( Indirapuram, Ghaziabad has EXTREMELY hard water. But that is what the daily car wash guy uses.

I think drinking water hard water should be around less than 180 ppm. We get around 2000 ppm in tap water!

after trying out several $$$ vinyl and plastic trim 'renovators' to make my faded black exterior trim ( ORVMs, rub rails) look better , found out that the answer was right under my nose all along....


..... shoe polish :D

Lets see how it holds up in the long run

You should never use soap/detergent to clean your art leather seats. At least that's what I was told by my seat cover installer. According to him using soap/detergent is the fastest way to get your art leather seat cover to start cracking.

After trying Waxpol Carnauba wax couple of times, I thought of trying Turtle Wax this time. I used Turtle WAX F21 Car Polish. It was extremely easy to apply and my car's color has never felt better. That way it is different from Waxpol Carnauba Wax, which is a pure wax. F21 car polish has mild abrasives and actually helped in giving a renewed shine to the car paint. I will recommend this to anyone who has not polished his car for 6 or more months. As per the FAQ on the Turtle Wax website, you can still apply wax within one month of polishing your car with F21 Car Polish. I am planning to apply Turtle Platinum Wax in a week or two and will post my comments.

For exterior plastic trim, I used Armor All as I couldn't find 3M in the market. In my opinion Armor All is as good as 3M if not better. The application is easy (and non greasy) as well. I used cotton waste to apply it. But I felt that the quantity that get used was more with Armor All when compared to 3M.

I also tried Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound. All the scratches are still intact. The only thing it helped in is smoothening the surface. I can feel noticeable difference when I glide my hand on the bonnet (where I applied the rubbing compound) and other parts of the car. There is no visible difference though. It may be that I haven't used the rubbing compound properly as I was too scared of damaging the paint.

The guy who made my seats, recomended a drop of sewing machine oil per seat for cleaning art leather for renewing the lustre and a damp soft cloth for cleaning using only a mild hand cleaning soap. Haven't tried either as yet, i just use the F1 dashboard cleaner, this helps to give the car a nice fragrance.

I've heard that using warm soapy water with a good sponge works best to remove dirt from leather seats. You can dry them by dabbing with a soft dry cloth.

Akbaree - a few questions - happy if you can help out

1) what was the price of waxpol carnuba Vs turtle platinum. also how much did the F21 cost ?

2) how did you prepare the surface before applying F21 ? did you for any special cleaning solution?

3) were the scratches where you tried the rubbing compound very deep ones ? as in was it reaching the white primer layer ? i think the smoothness is primarily because the compound mite have just about cleaned the surface deposits ( largely invisible ) and you may not have rubbed enough to reach the scratch itself. maybe you can try in a small area in some corner

4) what cloth did you use for the F21 and for the carnuba wax ?

thanks

tried amway silicone glaze - results are good, but not much better than solid wax. and putting it on a white car takes a lot of guesswork - its impossible to make out

I call a professional once in two months for a complete dry clean of the interiors. Includes dash, seats, roof, door trims, parcel tray.
Costs 500 bucks for my Verna and 800 bucks for Innova. Interior looks like new after the job. Worth the money spent.

I need some help on two things.

1. Due to initial neglect from continuous washing with hard water, the surface under the rubber beading has developed salt deposits. Please see the picture below. Is there a way I can get rid of this? Please advice.


2. I have noticed that my car's paint still has swirl marks? Althouhg my car has a great shining paint after F21 treatment and it also has the wet look, from certain angles I can make out swirl marks. What's the best way to get rid of swirl marks?



@narayan, please see my answers below...

The price difference is huge. I don't remember the exact pricing but Waxpol Carnauba wax costed me around 250 rupees and Turtle Platinum wax is around 900 rupees. Turtle wax F21 Car Polish costed me around 500 rupees.

I have pretty much followed what was suggested in the first post of this thread. Shampoo clean (towel like cotton cloth), water clean (3M micro fiber cloth), and the cleaned it dry with a cotton vest.

Some scratches are deep but even minor scratches and swirl marks are visible after applying the rubbing compound. I did tried on a corner of the bonnet first before applying on the whole bonnet. But I was not too sure how to ensure best results and was a little scared about ending up damaging the paint. However in the end it turned out that the rubbing compound also has mild abrasives. What scared me was that it was leaving whitish marks on the paint. Any best practices while using rubbing compound?

White cotton waste for both.

Is Turtle Wax Platinum Series available? Where are you getting it from? I tried hard but could not get it in Mumbai.

Someone did recommend that on the forum, just that i didnt get around to using it. Do keep me informed on how it holds up. Also, i hope it doesnt get onto one's fingers on touching.

Also, did you use a brush for applying, or cloth?

I used a slightly damp cloth, with a little RIN washing soap rubbed on, to clean the art leather seats on my car. It worked well, in getting rid of the dirt. I have done this only once so far, so not sure about the long term effects of the same.