Jean Stud marks on leather

M

Maniac

Elite
OK, so I know I should be prepared for marks on white leather, but I've recently had someone in the car that wore jeans that left a real mess from what I can only think are the jeans studs/rivets.

Looks like someone has tapped biro all over the leather. I've tried all my cleaners, even resorting to slightly abrasive options on an out of sight test area ( a seam ) and nothing. I'm concerned that I might a) have to get some leather paint/restorer to literally repaint that area. I'd rather find something that might lift these marks, any ideas?

Silly that I'd have to get my passengers to sit on a towel now!

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Yeah tried that... tried the gliptone cleaner I have too which is fantastic but won't touch this. Tried some rubbing alcohol on an inconspicuous area (pulled the panel off the back of the seat and tried it on an internal part of the leather you don't see) as lots of forums online suggested it... first thing it did was take the paint off the leather, good job it wasn't on a display area.

In 3 years nothing has ever marked it like this, I might just leave it to wear as it may well wear off... Gliptone (liquid leather) tell me to send a piece of leather and they'll send me a scuff kit to sort it out, problem is, there's not enough leather to take from anywhere...
 
Christ that's bad - were they wearing white jeans that had been painted with a blue felt-tip pen?
 
That has taken the top layer off :(

It is true that I won't let anyone with jeans in my car though for that exact reason.
 
The stuff I tried that took the top off was inside the seat so its not seen, thought it wise to test there. The main seat leather is fine but has marks I can't get off easily, I just can't find anything to remove those marks.. doing my head in. Perhaps as I say, best to leave to wear off than make it worse. Cover goes on with anyone wearing jeans now! Anyhow I plan on seeing what BMW recommend, and failing that I'll get a scuffmaster kit from liquid leather... Thought about a new seat cover but thats over a grand!
 
I take it that the marks we can see is where the colour has been taken off the leather colour..?

No amount of cleaning will remove them. You need a leather repair kit from gliptone,they are very good..
 
No, the marks appear to be the dark metal colour from the rivets/studs. I've managed to get the slighter marks off after a lot of cleaning, but the larger ones simply won't shift with the stuff I have. I'm guessing the jeans rivets/studs were made from something very soft and like a biro, have marked the leather. If I can't get anything to lift it, it will have to be the repair stuff, or just leave it to see if it wears off in time... the latter option makes my OCD pop up.
 
Weird..

You wouldnt think metal rivets would do that,unless they were coloured with some kind of paint..And the paint was rubbing into the leather ?

And then you would think it would come off easy enough...

I would take it to a leather refinisher and see what they say..
 
Weird indeed... I've driven my car loads with jeans on... I've had passengers with Jeans before, never had an issue until the latest occupant... perhaps he wore jeans with special 'make a mess of leather' rivets? :x

Thing is, I can't be worrying about things like this, I've too much else going on in my life right now, much bigger things, so things like this just annoy the crap out of me.. and make me go 'EH?'
 
Yea......


I have seen a leather seat destroyed by a pair of Dickies work trousers.... Looked like someone had rubbed a concrete block over the seat base.:(
 
Walking around some clothes shops with SWMBO over xmas its quite horrific at what they call fashion with spikey studs and multiple zips and other various bits of metal hanging from them(tops and jeans)-just makes you cringe :cry:
 
I had a car with perforated leather seats ages ago and the edges of the perforations hardened turning the seats into sandpaper. I realised this after I wore the arse out of a very expensive suit :(

Those marks look awful though. Hope you get them shifted.
 
"Classic" jeans will not do this, as the rivets are bronze and only on the front pockets. Today's "fashion" jeans... who knows? Unfinished aluminium rivets or studs will certainly make marks like that. The grey material transferred is aluminium oxide dust and much of it should come off. It can be difficult to remove because the object slightly indented the leather, making it difficult to apply enough pressure to remove it without abrading the surrounding material. Some will also be pushed into the pores, making it very difficult to remove completely.

Some of the marking may be due to burnishing the leather. This will not come off except by abrading the damaged material. This will also of course remove the finish. I don't have any recommendations about removal, but knowing what you're up against may be useful information.

Besides fashion jeans, also be vigilant of passengers wearing certain belts. My seats are stained slightly by the previous owner wearing probably just a standard men's leather belt, which burnished the seat leather over time. I now either don't wear a belt or wear one made of heavy woven fabric.
 
The general consensus is a liquidleather.com scuffmaster kit... Now ordered (hopefully they can colour match it spot on) for just £15. If anyone else ever needs the kit for this colour of leather, the BMW code is : LZEW ((Ivory White Nappa Leather/Ivory White Exclusive - EXCLUSIVLEDER NAPPA/ELFENBEINWEISS (LZEW))

Probably too late for it to arrive for the weekend now so I may need to wait until next weekend (daylight) when I'm not working to give it a go. Will post up the results here. Positive to all this is, if the colour is spot on and sorts the passenger seat base marks, it should also sort the drivers side bolster and the seats could look like new again (which = a very happy Maniac).
 
The Gliptone liquid leather scuffmaster kit has arrived for my leather paint colour. The weather and lack of light in the evenings will mean its a job for next weekend. I'll post up the results once I've had a go. I can't wait to get the passenger seat sorted, but I'm really looking forward to tidying up the drivers side bolster. Having seen the results that other people have achieved, I'm hopeful I can get my 3+yrs seats back to almost new.
 
Yea...


Its really good stuff..

Take your time and follow the instructions and the results can be amazing..
 
So here are the results after one coat. Ignore any colour changes in the photos its just the light. I've left it to dry overnight given how cold it is out there and will give it a wash over with a diluted mix tomorrow.

I did the bolster at the same time.. Truly amazed by the results. It's a fractionally different colour at the moment but I saw the colour change in just a short time so rather than add any toner I thought I'd leave it to fully dry before making any assumptions.

... And you saw the seat as it was before at the start of the thread.. This is it after its first coat..

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I can honestly say I've never used anything that's been so spot on. Liquidleather.com
 
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