My car has gray leather interior.

I treat it with ArmorAll's leather conditioner every other wash or so, and the passenger seat and back seat are probably 90% perfect.

Even though I treat the driver's seat just the same, it's developed some serious creases and cracks since I bought the car in '03. I know no amount of leather conditioner I apply to the driver's seat will make it look perfect again.

If I take my car to an upholstery shop, can they restuff my seat (the padding is wearing thin too) and put new gray leather over it that will exactly match the leather GM has in my car or will I have to order a new seat from GM?

Have any of you ever had this done before?

 

I highly doubt it will match much. There's too much dirt that has darkened the leather on the other seats, door panels, etc. for it to ever match.
Maybe with enough time it will start to look like the rest because you obviously use the driver seat more than any other.

Edit: You might want to look at Zaino also. Not sure how well Armor All works (I hated the leather wipes personally) but I know Zaino Z9 and Z10 work excellent on cleaning and treating the leather. Just incase you ever wanted to try a different product.

 

I have found that if you treated the leather from day 1, then you could've dramatically reduce the chances of serious creasing and cracks. You can't stop them outright, because of the nature of leather wear and the "really good" grade of leather that GM put into our cars. You may want to try a good leather cleaner and conditioner product, and then use the leather wipes in between.

If you want to redo the driver's leather, see whether you can pick up the gm part for your interior. If it doesn't match you may want to consider replacing all of the seat covers. I would try the full clean and conditioning before doing that, however.

Good luck.

 

Please stay the hell away from Armor all for ANY use in your interior, especially leather.

If you want a 'one stop fix-all' for your leather get 303 Aerospace cleaner and 303 Aerospace protectant. Clean all that armor all off with the cleaner (off your leather, dash everything), but make sure you dilute it properly for the leather especially... in basic form it's way too concentrated for leather. Then use 303 Aerospace protectant in all of those places.

If you want to get more specific use Aerospace on your dash, wheels, plastic trim, seals, etc, and use Zaino cleaner (Z9) and conditioner (Z10) on your seats.

It won't really cure it instantly but it'll keep it from getting any worse.

If you want to restore the seat from I suggest you start reading here: www.leatherique.com . They make some great, but expensive products for restoring leather.

 

I've found the Armour All wipes to have been especially good. Mind you that you have to start with a good leather surface, as it will not cure leather that is abused or has wrinkling issues.

The key is to stay "on top" of the leather seating surfaces from day 1. Any lapse in its care may bring irreversable results. I would, however, invest in a good leather care kit, such as Connolly (sp), Zymol or Lexol.

 

I think the grade of leather in our cars isn't the best.

I did take care of my leather from day 1, which was about 41K miles for me, and it's now almost 89K. I'm about 6'1" 210 and I know me taking up the entire seat (and the thin padding), getting in and out a lot and moving around can't be good for the leather. Like I said, every other seat in my car is about 90% except for mine.

Please enlighten me as to why Armor All is an inferior product.

Is there any research to support what you said or does ArmorAll use something volatile to a car in its formula?

I've used ArmorAll, Armor All leather cleaner and tire shine and it's always made my car looks great, with NO issues. I even treat my weatherstripping and plastic with it about once a month to keep it from drying out and it looks fine.

 

The 'grade of leather' used in f-bodies is pretty bad; it's largely vinyl with a thin layer of leather behind it - just enough to say they weren't lying.

As for Armor all, it's greasy, smeary and slings all over the place. It is dimethyl silicone oil too. This is a rubber degradant. The worst effects are seen when you STOP using it. It turns tires brown and dries out vinyl dashes causing them to possibly crack over time. Some tire manufacturers will not honor their warranty for sidewall failure if a silicone oil containing tire dressing was used on the tire.

It's essentially like liquid crack for your car. Feels/looks great while you're on the high point, but then it causes a low or 'crash' afterwards that causes you to have to use even more next time.

Now I will say that this is just in reference to their original formula protectant. They have other specialty products that I have not used but will never try just because of the horrible experience I've had with their original formula.

I know for a fact that 303 outperforms Armor All by a wide margin. Granted it also costs quite a bit more so pick your poisin I guess.

 

I think you will have to judge it by your own use. I've been using Armour All for more than 3 years with excellent results. It should be looked at (wipes) as a quick, weekly maintenance, as opposed to a thorough leather care product. For a comparison, I think Meguiars is worse than Armour All IMO, because it is a lot more filmy (greasy in appearance), it has a perfumy smell that is a tad too strong for my taste, and it also feels heavier in its application.

I am sure that my seats would've been quite more worn and chewed up had I not used the Armour All leather wipes. Compare products and judge the results, and that will tell you which one to use.

 

303 looks and smells like armor all.

 

I've noticed this too, but it's most definitely not if you look at their chemical composition as well as their results.

303 makes some crazy cool stuff. I did a test as recommended by the manufacturer on one of friend's life jackets (his parents have a boat house). I sprayed one half of it with 303 and the other half was left per OEM specs. I asked him to leave the life jacket out on the dock or in the boat, but to where the sun would hit it during the day. It was also used frequently in fresh water skiing and such. After the season was over the untreated side looked noticably faded and the other looked 99% mint, especially the color brightness/uniformity.

I've also taken some of their fabric and sprayed it on one piece of triple ply toilet paper and let it dry. Sprayed another triple ply sheet of toilet paper with scotch guard (supposed to do the same thing more or less) and let it dry. Put them both under the kitchen faucet and turned it on slowly increasing in waterflow. The scotch guard piece repelled for a few seconds but before even reaching 50% flow from the faucet a hole got tore where the water was hitting and within about 10 seconds of that it fell to pieces. With the 303 fabric guard the water went all the way to 100% and the TP looked like it was trying to survive in the middle of a tornado, but it stayed in one piece without any signs of absorbing water whatsoever for about 3 minutes straight - after that I stopped the test because I didn't want to waste anymore water.

 

Here's a great cure for all those greasy/filmy "stuffs" like armor-all and 303: Find a GREAT leather care product which contains NO silicone additives. Just a nice leather creme conditioner that preferably smells good.

Use it on leather, and EVERYTHING ELSE. It will protect the same, but will dry non-shiny and "matte" just like the interior of a new car. An added bonus is that everything will feel soft.