Help! OPC stained my leather!

I can't speak on all that alkaline talk. But, what I do know...is that seat is still dirty. I can tell just by looking at the picture.

You need to thoroughly, and evenly clean that seat. Otherwise, you're just going to keep getting blotches and uneven streaks. Try the magic sponge. It will help give you a uniform finish.
 
I agree that the seat is still dirty but be careful with those sponges. Kris uses generic ones but magic erasers are more aggressive imo. If you scrub too hard with them you will abrade the protective coating on the leather which is very bad.

Try spraying some OPC at 3:1 on a terry cloth towel and wiping down the seats. Follow up immediately with a damp MF as Legacy GT suggested.
 
embolism said:
I agree that the seat is still dirty but be careful with those sponges. Kris uses generic ones but magic erasers are more aggressive imo. If you scrub too hard with them you will abrade the protective coating on the leather which is very bad.

Try spraying some OPC at 3:1 on a terry cloth towel and wiping down the seats. Follow up immediately with a damp MF as Legacy GT suggested.
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True, the Mr. Clean version is most likely much more aggressive. But if you go gentle, you should be alright. Just dont put pressure into it.
 
I would keep using it a 3-1 and just make sure to not let it drip. I sprayed OPC directly onto the seats but was right there with the brush to scrub it before it dripped at all. Not sure if this is the standard way to use it or not but it worked great for me.

EDIT: One caveat, however, is that my seats weren't perforated. See below for results:

IMG_0641.JPG
 
Looks like you cleaned them to me...

Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
 
We have seen this many times on leather. Generally speaking it occurs when liquid products that are too strong have been allowed to run down the leather and the marks that are left always make the area look very clean but trying then to clean the rest of the area to match is impossible particularly once the liquid has dried. In our experience theses spots or steaks cannot be rectified any other way than recolouring the leather. We have tried all the things suggested and none have ever resolved the problem. Foam cleaners that have been specifically formulated and tested on leather are by far the safer option to prevent this type of damage to the finish.
Hope this helps
Judyb
 
judyb said:
We have seen this many times on leather. Generally speaking it occurs when liquid products that are top strong have been allowed to run down the leather. In our experience theses spots or steaks cannot be rectified any other way than recolouring the leather. We have tried all the things suggested and none have ever resolved the problem. Foam cleaners that have been specifically formulated and tested on leather are by far the safer option to prevent this type of damage to the finish.
Hope this helps
Judyb
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so it is indeed damage caused to the leather as opposed to it just being clean in those spots like people are suggesting?
 
It could be possible that buy only using water to try and remove the bright spots you spread the dirt surrounding the clean spots onto the clean spots again, making them appear the same colour as the rest of the dirty seat.

For a guaranteed safe clean, there are many specific leather cleaners out there.


Roger Koh said:
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]
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I DARE you to try this.........

I'm not taking ANYYYY responsibilty for the results though :rolleyes:
Also, PH neutral is 7, any high school science student knows this. Maybe what Roger means is that the natural PH of leather is between 3-5, so that is what is neutral when being compared to the PH of leather.
 
This looks similar to what has happened to my leather sofa when I tried to clean it with OPC diluted 4:1. I thought it was clean spots and the sofa was hella dirty so I brushed it further only to end up pulling off a skin-like film of some type coating/paint.
 
Roger Koh said:
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]
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, what product does Autogeek sell that would achieve this or would they to shop elsewhere?

I tend to believe the leather is still very dirty so a more thorough cleaning is needed.
 
I just used OPC on my Tahoe seats, sprayed right on the seat, hit it with the horse hair brush, and wiped with a clean MF cloth. Then I steamed the seats to remove and OPC that might be left. At no point did I see streaking like this.

Could the seat just be that dirty? How often do you clean them or have they ever been cleaned?

Could this be because the surface layer that was colored and sealed by the manufacturer is starting to fail?
 
After having been through this scenario a few times, I have learned to treat leather just as I would paint on a car. Start out with a test section to see what will work well enough then work in small areas at a time. If I do spray the product directly on the leather I do it in one section and "pick up" the liquid with my towel immediately and begin to lightly rub the towel over the section being worked.

I have had these spots before working out a good technique and have found that going back over the section with a towel dampened with my cleaner of choice then allowing the seat to air out for about 30 minutes before applying a conditioner usually fixes the problem. By the time I finish the rest of the car the spots have blended back to normal.

I hope this makes sense.
 
I had this happen to me as well. However, I went over the area again and agitated with a brush and the other areas cleaned up and the streaks or stains disappeared. I guess I got lucky on that one. I now spray on my MF and then wipe. Or I spray it on my brush and then agitate.
 
Those seats are still very dirty and the spots look like they are clean like others have mentioned. All you need to do is spray a section at a time, spread it quickly to avoid runs, then scrub them thoroughly with a soft brush or towel. It looks like you just went over it too quickly and the product wasn't worked. When seats are that built up it will take much more than a quick wipedown.

The only time you may have trouble is on seats that have been dyed from a repair. If you see color coming off on the towel, it may look strange from the repair...but that's not whats going on in those pictures.
 
Chris@Optimum said:
Those seats are still very dirty and the spots look like they are clean like others have mentioned. All you need to do is spray a section at a time, spread it quickly to avoid runs, then scrub them thoroughly with a soft brush or towel. It looks like you just went over it too quickly and the product wasn't worked. When seats are that built up it will take much more than a quick wipedown.

The only time you may have trouble is on seats that have been dyed from a repair. If you see color coming off on the towel, it may look strange from the repair...but that's not whats going on in those pictures.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought. When cleaning leather use a white towel to do a test spot . If you see the leather's color coming off and going onto the towel, you may be removing the leather's color, otherwise it's usually just grime and dirt.


Derrick
 
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