after reading thousands of post on hard leather I have one question. I have a 95 M3 with vaders and Mstriped rears. all seats are hard as hell. I dont think the previous owner ever cleaned them. there not cracked, just hard. the back seats are the worst. ive tried lexol.. boy is that shit terrible, what a waste of time and money. well my question is, you know how the leather has that folded, plus, soft look, like the leather isnt tight? well how can I make mine look like that again? will leatherique rejuvinator make them that soft again? my leather is incredibly tight. there is no "fluff" to it like I see in other M3s. Is there no hope for me? Id love to see some pics of before and after of hard-turned-to-soft leather. :help

if they're cardboard hard, your only hope is leatherique. it make take more than one application to do AND will take you the better part of a weekend to do it right (mainly applying, letting it soak in under heat, then reapply again until the seats are soft - it'll take a while to get it to wick in totally

Any chance you could post a picture of what you've got?

i dont have any pictures, but my seats look like a faded dusty black and the leather is very tight. looks like shit, especially when I wash the outside and look inside.. ehh :mad

Does it look something like the leather in my car? This is not the best picture, but is all i have right now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v457/liquidtiger720/DSC01405Small.jpg

on your drivers seat I can still see you've got a little bit of "plush" left. mine has none. just looking at my seats makes you go "eeh,. hope this isnt gonna be a long ride"

ive tried lexol..
Lexol is bad for Nappa leather anyway.

Multiple applications of Leatherique should help to soften the leather. It will take time and patience.

i dont have any pictures, but my seats look like a faded dusty black and the leather is very tight. looks like shit, especially when I wash the outside and look inside.. ehh :mad
The Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil and Pristine Clean should help as far as the stiffness of the leather, although I can’t say for sure whether these products will help with the faded look you are describing. You should be happy with the results nonetheless.

I have never used Lexol products, but I have heard good things...

Lexol is bad for Nappa leather anyway.

Multiple applications of Leatherique should help to soften the leather. It will take time and patience.


Please explain why Lexol is bad on nappa leather. I have a 95 M3 lux package and have used Lexol with no problems I can tell. Please elaborate.

Please explain why Lexol is bad on nappa leather. I have a 95 M3 lux package and have used Lexol with no problems I can tell. Please elaborate.
Lexol can clog the pores in Nappa leather and give it a sticky feeling. LeatherZ states on its Web site that they will not honor their warranty if the customer has used Lexol.

If you've never had problems with Lexol on your car's upholstery, then I don't see any reason for you to switch to a different product.

damn.. well I used lexol yesterday.. over, and over and.. over.. trying to get some kind of good results. guess that wasnt a good Idea.

I have the same problem, I will post a pic to clarify in a few days

Please do, Im still trying to get a hold of a camera to do the same.. but id still like to see your pics of your seats to see if they look as hard as mine. are yours somewhat dull looking too?

I can tell you theyre pretty hard on the dull, faded areas. I have no idea what happened as I got the car like this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/F4tal3xz/Picture005.jpg

Close up

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/F4tal3xz/Picture003.jpg

anyone can shed some light to solve the problem???

yea, thats about how mine look, but the entire seat is hard all over. have you ever used any leatherique on your seats?

no I never tried leatherique, I didn't think they could be restored. But if someone can confirm they can be, I will give it a try for sure.

Do you have any idea how the seats become like that???

no I never tried leatherique, I didn't think they could be restored. But if someone can confirm they can be, I will give it a try for sure.
In order for the Leatherique to help you'll probably have to do the entire dyeing process, not just the Rejuvenator Oil and Pristine Clean.... While those two products will help the leather feel better, they will still probably look just about the same.

Is that a rip in the seat? You can fix rips or tears although that one looks pretty bad. It would be very difficult to completely hide that...

Also, is this just a problem with the seat bottoms? Or is the entire seat in bad shape?

There are no rips in the seat as I know of, If the leatherique works like you said I might as well give it a try :)

Only the dull sections of the seat bottom are affected as you can see.
I have no idea what the previous owner had done. Seems like a liquid solution of some sort destroyed the leather. :(

There are no rips in the seat as I know of, If the leatherique works like you said I might as well give it a try :)

Only the dull sections of the seat bottom are affected as you can see.
I have no idea what the previous owner had done. Seems like a liquid solution of some sort destroyed the leather. :(
I have a couple threads about the Leatherique project that I did where I dyed my seats. Mine were in pretty bad shape, although different. My seats had small cracks in the dye itself.

Anyway, the leather in your seats may not actually be damaged. It seems that it is just the dye that has been abused. Is it just on the one seat? If so, then this would be a fairly quick job for you to do and wouldn't cost too much...

Just for kicks, here is a close-up before/after shot of my leather:

http://home.comcast.net/~e36m52/bfc/dec2004leatherproject/beforeafter.jpg