Best off the shelf leather cleaner....?

[2001blackdev]

Originally Posted by Sandy

Holy crap! That interior looks AMAZING. Just beautiful...Nice work Sandy!

[Sandy]

It's a 1993 Sixty Special. Dove Soap & Pledge since week #1.
Granted, it's only got 9,841 miles on her ~ buy my daily driver
looks just as good.

[Ralph]

Best "off the shelf" I don't know, but I have excellent results with "Meguiar's Gold Class" No crease marks, discoloration or anything.....and I've used it every few months or so for almost 3 years. It's a cleaner and conditioner, and it is very mild.

[Cadillac_Rancher]

Can i just put the soap in my blender with 16oz. of water? im not sure i can wait 2 days for my eggshell leatehr to be platinum like your again

[Sandy]

I have a good fix for busted blenders, too!

[CandyLac]

24 more hrs til my dove soap bar melts! and i didnt buy the brown pledge cuz it still has a scent of lemon, i got the 'outdoor fresh'

[youbetcha77]

I clean mine with Mr. Clean. I scrub them pretty good with a rag wrung out pretty good. After I get them done I go ahead and go back over it with a new rag wrung out in water. It will look dull after that, so then I go over it with Mequires Leather Conditioner thats in a bottle. I put that crap on like butter and let it sit overnight. The leather will actually soak up the stuff and then I wipe the excess off with a towel and keep buffing till its gone and the seats look all pretty. I have some before and after pics of my sixty special that I cleaned this way and the leather is still perfect. The dyes that they put on leather are very durable, Mr. Clean wont hurt the leather unless you dont rinse it off. Dont allow it to dry and stay on there because it will dry it out.

Oh, Sandy, it doesnt take much to get dust off of leather in your case. LOL Just kidding

Blaze

[Sandy]

How we all doing with our melting Dove bars? Don't overdo the amount of water. We don't want a watery consistency. More like a melted dish of ice cream consistancy. Outdoor Fresh is Fine, too. I say NO LEMON Pledge, simply because I never used it & I do not know the results with it, and some may think it stinks!

[Eldyfig]

I am going to try this later this month before I go to the Florida Cadillac Meet in Orlando. Try to get my 94 looking spiffy.

Sandy, how did you come across this cleaning technique? And how did you get the ingredients of Pledge? I am at work right now and I looked at a can of spray polish that the cleaning company uses when they clean our control rooms(chemical plant). The cheap polish they use actually contains a liquified petroleum gas.

[Sandy]

When I worked at selling cars, the dealership that I was at the longest had one of those guys that you just never ever forget. His name was Charlie, and he was an old Southern African American Gentleman. 'Ya know, tipped his hat to all the ladies and all that. Charlie was never married and only had "hizzelf" to 'Port. (Support). He had been working in car dealerships since 1958, or at that time, some 35 years, cleaning cars. He did a spectacular job on trade ins. He worked miracles in the back of the shop, I tell 'ya. He & I got along well. Frequently, I'd buy him lunch. He liked my Corned Beef & Pastrami sloppies on rye and french fries, so I'd buy him lunch a couple timas a month. It guaranteed that my NEW car deliveries were never flawed. But Charlie would not share his secrets of doing what seemed to be unbelieveable. Finally after years of woorking together & BS-ing and many sloppies, we were one day talking about MY Mom's Imperial LeBaron. It had white leather and it was getting a little bit dirty. So, Charlie winks at me and motions me outside, (Like it's the U.N. or something, & he's about to tell me European missle secrets!) He then told be the Dove Soap Story & the Pledge protection plan! I asked if that was what he did. He said yes, and I said but Inever see any melting soap here. Then he opened up his LOCKED cabinet and showed me a Gallon bottle of this white creamy/soapy stuff and here she is. On Saturday I brought in the Imp, and he did it.

Now, change gears. I borrowed Mom's Imp for a date. (was single back then) and while driving down the Garden State Parkway at like 65MPH some punk tossed a stone at the car. It scimmed across the trunk lid and put a scratch in it, 8" long ('Ya, I measured it)!! It did NOT break the paint, but there was no getting it off.
I came in nearly in tears on Monday AM despirate for Charlie. He told me to call Mom and ask her to bring the Imp there at 5PM (shop closed then) and that Mom & I should go out to eat in my Demo, cause he wasn't doin' nuttin' with anybody watchin' !! He told me to tell Mom to bring 2 items with her. One was a few sticks of blackboard chalk - White Only and a bottle of Vanilla Extract ! Mom did, and we left in my demo for Burger King. When we return like 45-50 minutes later the entire scratch was completely removed, and never reappeared! Charlie would neve rtell me what he did with that stuff, and nobody else went back there to see. If they did, he'd stop what he was doing. He took THAT secret to his grave. He died at 84 and worked the day prior.
Sorry, it's not my invention...It IS Charlies!

[Eldyfig]

Whenever I listen to my elder's memories and stories, I always feel like I am there in that memory. I hope I can have memories with such value to share as I grow older.

[youbetcha77]

Originally Posted by Sandy

When I worked at selling cars, the dealership that I was at the longest had one of those guys that you just never ever forget. His name was Charlie, and he was an old Southern African American Gentleman. 'Ya know, tipped his hat to all the ladies and all that. Charlie was never married and only had "hizzelf" to 'Port. (Support). He had been working in car dealerships since 1958, or at that time, some 35 years, cleaning cars. He did a spectacular job on trade ins. He worked miracles in the back of the shop, I tell 'ya. He & I got along well. Frequently, I'd buy him lunch. He liked my Corned Beef & Pastrami sloppies on rye and french fries, so I'd buy him lunch a couple timas a month. It guaranteed that my NEW car deliveries were never flawed. But Charlie would not share his secrets of doing what seemed to be unbelieveable. Finally after years of woorking together & BS-ing and many sloppies, we were one day talking about MY Mom's Imperial LeBaron. It had white leather and it was getting a little bit dirty. So, Charlie winks at me and motions me outside, (Like it's the U.N. or something, & he's about to tell me European missle secrets!) He then told be the Dove Soap Story & the Pledge protection plan! I asked if that was what he did. He said yes, and I said but Inever see any melting soap here. Then he opened up his LOCKED cabinet and showed me a Gallon bottle of this white creamy/soapy stuff and here she is. On Saturday I brought in the Imp, and he did it.

Now, change gears. I borrowed Mom's Imp for a date. (was single back then) and while driving down the Garden State Parkway at like 65MPH some punk tossed a stone at the car. It scimmed across the trunk lid and put a scratch in it, 8" long ('Ya, I measured it)!! It did NOT break the paint, but there was no getting it off.
I came in nearly in tears on Monday AM despirate for Charlie. He told me to call Mom and ask her to bring the Imp there at 5PM (shop closed then) and that Mom & I should go out to eat in my Demo, cause he wasn't doin' nuttin' with anybody watchin' !! He told me to tell Mom to bring 2 items with her. One was a few sticks of blackboard chalk - White Only and a bottle of Vanilla Extract ! Mom did, and we left in my demo for Burger King. When we return like 45-50 minutes later the entire scratch was completely removed, and never reappeared! Charlie would neve rtell me what he did with that stuff, and nobody else went back there to see. If they did, he'd stop what he was doing. He took THAT secret to his grave. He died at 84 and worked the day prior.
Sorry, it's not my invention...It IS Charlies!

Sandy, that is the coolest story I have heard in a while. It seems older people know little things like that. My great-grandpa was a flower person always having oodles of flowers growing. When I was little, like 6 or 7, he told me that crunching a birth control pill once a month and dissolving it in water for each plant you are watering will make them grow amazingly fast. I was little and didnt know what the heck that was but remembered it. He passed away in 97 and I lived in his house for the next two years, a very old old farm house. Usually on one side of the porch he would have Elephant Ears planted and on the other side some more elephant ears. I decided to plant some Elephant Ear bulbs from Walmart on both side of the porch and then put some pills in the dirt by the bulbs on one side only and see if there was a difference. Holy Cow.

In three weeks the leaves of the birth control ones where so big I could wrap the leaf around my body and fold it over itself in front of me. The ones on the other side were normal sized. I now use that receipe in my house plants and they go nuts over it. By the way, I got my pills from some stuff my Ex-Girlfriend left with me. I have a daughter with her so its evident she didnt use them.

Ill try that soap thing sandy. Its hard for you to use your cars as a example of how it works when the only thing in your cars is dust. Hell, nothing you own has over 20,000 miles no matter if its a New Lincoln or a 1950 car.

Blaze

[CandyLac]

Hey Sandy, how often should I clean my leather with the dove/pledge program? I did it today by the way and it turned out excellent

[youbetcha77]

Sandy,
I recently bought a 87 Fifth Avenue that has neglected leather that is very dirty. I will try your trick on it and see how it works.

Blaze

[Sandy]

2 times a year. Early Spring, say April, and now, October is a good seperation time, and unless you are in Florida, Arizona or Southern California, it's before the cold weather sets in. Glad you are happy with the results !