Confused about leather seats....

[ZRX61]

2020 Explorer ST, seats are leather (black) & so are some door panels.

Confusion arises because I read the leather is "painted" not dyed, this seals the leather so the usual leather cleaner/conditioner is a waste of time & it will just sit on the surface, so use regular interior plastic cleaners etc...

Advice/opinions etc?

[John U]

Interesting read:

Is It Leather? - #FightForLeather

[Tasmania]

If i'm not mistaken they have a clear coat applied also

[Desertnate]

I think what you describe is common for most of the "normal" grade leathers you find in most cars today. The leathers may have different thicknesses and some are softer than others, but they are all coated in some material for durability. The open pore died leather isn't that common, and from what I saw in a King Ranch trim Ford truck, would be very hard to maintain.

All that said, I still use a leather cleaning products on them and do notice a difference after it is cleaned. I don't get the same effect from standard interior cleaners. I do however us a normal interior protectant on them for my routine wipe downs.

[The Guz]

Modern day leather has a coating on it. Think of it like clear coat over the paint.

Watch these videos to learn more about leather

Learning About ColourLock with Lars Pickhardt & Ram Iyer - Part 1 - YouTube

Learning Colourlock with Lars Pickhardt & Ram Iyer - Part 2 - YouTube

[DFB]

Leather trim in cars is a murky subject. The majority of "leather" in cars is actually industrial grade vinyl, with selected sections having a coated leather component.

For example, on this Falcon, the leather parts are the inner seat base and backrests. On high contact/wear sections, they used vinyl. Sometimes, you can see and feel the difference between the two materials. Other times, you can tell the difference when you start cleaning and protecting, behaving differently to the same products.



10-15 years ago in Australia, a car company was dragged across the coals for claiming their products were trimmed in leather when in fact they were either vinyl or partial leather. To get around this, car company's now say things like "Leather Appointed Trim" and "Leather Accented Trim" and other fluffy marketing terms to distract the buyer.

Some detailing suppliers will actually take the vinyl and coated leathers into account. Others still offer very old fashioned and traditional leather balms and oils that as mentioned, are probably not suited for modern automotive "leather".

[glen e]

Because of the coating that’s put on virtually every “leather” surface in a car, I’ve never found any of the leather products to do much good, I save them for my true leather products like my saddleback attaché case or my wallet. Instead I’ve always gotten great results with a multi surface protectant like poor boys natural look.

The primary reason leather is coated in a car is because the warranty cost would be astronomical if they were left untreated. When I was with Porsche NA back in 1985, we actually put an optional true untreated leather surface on the seats/dash top, and 18 to 24 months later we were buying them all back because they cracked/split and rolled up like like a window shade… All to the tune of 7500 dollars per car. As far as I know, the only cars that are still using a completely untreated leather in their cars as an option are Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

[DUBL0WS6]

I think Ford King Ranch is real dyed leather. I think modern car leather would be more along the lines of Patent Leather. I think they may be lower grade or chopped and glued leather coated with a plastic type coating.

[vaca22]

Over time I think you can tell that the leather seating becomes less plush (like everything else, really). I had a couch that had some soggy edges and I saw an upholsterer remove them and steam them back to life. Although temporary, it greatly improved the look of the couch.

Has anyone hit their seats with steam to bring back the look? I should mention my seats are perforated, so this probably wouldn't work well for seats that aren't...

[DUBL0WS6]

Steaming would saturate the leather. Eventually the water would evaporate from the leather. Long term, oils would be more effective. That's why some conditioners have mink oil in them.