Help! OPC stained my leather!

deS

deS

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Let me preface this by saying that I'm an absolute idiot for not having tested the product on an inconspicuous area first. Instead I got excited and sprayed the OPC @ 3:1 (a ratio recommended by a few AG members) all over the driver's seat, which resulted in this (btw that's not streaking, the stains appeared almost immediately upon application):

leatherstain.jpg


leatherstain1.jpg


leatherstain3.jpg




Are these stains irreversible? If so I won't be able to forgive myself, lol...
 
FYI I use it at 10:1 on anything but the tough stuff ;)

Not sure what to say about what happened, maybe CHris will step in and help out.
 
Could those spots just be really clean ... how much did you spray on?

I would still test in an conspicuous area with a little agitation and see what happens.

Edit: were you spraying the product directly on the leather, or spraying on a towel then cleaning?
 
Thats what happens when you let APC or any cleaner drip down leather seats. You can try and clean the rest of the seat to see if you can make it match those spots, but I'm not sure it will work. Good luck.
 
well, I was able to get most of the spots out by using water with MF and a whole lot of elbow grease. t h a n k g o d for that. let this thread serve as a warning to all us newbs out there.
 
guess I made the mistake of spraying it directly on the seats eh? i'm not gonna try again to find out lol.


can anyone recommend a good leather cleaner that would work well with Optimum Leather Protectant?
 
it looks like those are the clean areas where solution cut thru all the grime. try cleaning it again with a soft brush to see if it more of it lightens up. maybe what happen was where the spray directly hit the leather is where it is very clean and lighter in shade.
 
Your seats have perforations why are you spraying stuff on them?

Even when adding product like creams or lotions, put it on a MF towel and start on a non-perforated portion of the leather like the bolster or headrest until most of the product is in the towel so you don't risk putting product into the holes. Once the towel is primed, then you can go over the perforated sections.

see warning about this very thing happening in post #9 here

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/37085-diluting-optimum-power-clean.html
 
deS said:
guess I made the mistake of spraying it directly on the seats eh? i'm not gonna try again to find out lol.


can anyone recommend a good leather cleaner that would work well with Optimum Leather Protectant?
Click to expand...

OPC, now that you know how to use it.
 
Rsurfer said:
OPC, now that you know how to use it.
Click to expand...


so 3:1 is fine and I should spray the towel instead of the leather directly?


also, if the stains were actually clean spots, how do you explain me being able to scrub them out with a MF?
 
deS said:
Are these stains irreversible? If so I won't be able to forgive myself, lol...
Click to expand...


This are cause by "Alkaline Overexposure" with side effect as brightness that is the begining of deterioating the finish - that may reslt to tackiness when wet finger test with tap water.

Check the pH of your product - Leather neutral pH value is betwen 3 and 5.

Solution to the problem is to acidify it at pH 2 to neutralize the alkalinity.

Roger Koh
[email protected]
 
Your seat just needs to be cleaned. Those are just spots from the cleaner penetrating the dirt. Get some magic sponges, and spray some of your cleaner on the sponge. Then just massage gently section by section. Do one section, then wipe it clean. So on and so forth. Never spray directly on to the seat.

Once the seat is clean, it should all even out. Then throw some conditioner on.
 
Glad I read this before using it on mine or customer's car. Read so much review about how OPC>APC+, I thought OPC was real safe on leather. Now I have to just be more careful.
 
I did the same thing, sprayed it on the seat and let it dwell for a bit.

However all my runs/stains came out with a lot of elbow grease and time.
 
After you use OPC on leather, wipe it down with a damp MF (helps to have a bucket of warm water to soak the MF in, then wring it out really well).
 
LegacyGT said:
After you use OPC on leather, wipe it down with a damp MF (helps to have a bucket of warm water to soak the MF in, then wring it out really well).
Click to expand...

Why the hell didn't I think of that...
 
deS said:
so 3:1 is fine and I should spray the towel instead of the leather directly?


also, if the stains were actually clean spots, how do you explain me being able to scrub them out with a MF?
Click to expand...


They didnt, you cleaned the area around the spots to match the clean area they you were calling stains. Now you just have well blended clean areas.
 
Jeff120 said:
They didnt, you cleaned the area around the spots to match the clean area they you were calling stains. Now you just have well blended clean areas.
Click to expand...

I thought that might have been the case but wasn't sure. It's weird though because I would focus on cleaning one "stain" at a time and when it disappeared it would match the tone of the dirty leather around it which I didn't even touch. Most of the stains are gone now, apart from a few bright blotches which actually seem to have gotten larger the more I worked at them which seems to support what you're saying.

Here's the after pic:

leatherafter.jpg



I'm not sure I want to keep using OPC but if I do decide to, should I use 10:1 instead?


This are cause by "Alkaline Overexposure" with side effect as brightness that is the begining of deterioating the finish - that may reslt to tackiness when wet finger test with tap water.

Check the pH of your product - Leather neutral pH value is betwen 3 and 5.

Solution to the problem is to acidify it at pH 2 to neutralize the alkalinity.
Click to expand...

Can anyone else comment on this?
 
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