You don't need to if you use a water based product. It will not stain.

 

How often should the leather be cleaned and treated?

I just bought on the Aston leather care kits and am going to give it a good cleaning this weekend. I like doing it so I would not mind doing it once every few months but I want to make sure I don't do it too much and damage the leather.

I am also assuming the frequency you should treat and clean the leather will be different for the seats versus dash and other areas that don't really get touched at all.

 

Have had good experience with Zymol leather conditioner and cleaner. Made in Germany, it's high quality, no synthetics, naturally based ingredients. Same for their wax and detailing products. More expensive, but worth it!

 

Thanks for the recommendation.

Any idea how often the seat and interior leather should be conditioned and cleaned?

 

It all depends on how heavily the car is used. Mine is a pleasure driver, not daily driven. I wipe down my seats and armrest about every 3 months with LTT Maintain; twice a year with LTT Protect. Everything else gets LTT Protect once a year (my steering wheel is alcantara). The 3 month thing is more for rehydration and maintenance of a sacrificial layer than cleaning, given the low frequency of use, and vacuuming/dusting in between wipe downs. On my daily driver, LTT Maintain every month on contact points including steering wheel, Protect twice a year; car is coming up on 3 years old and leather still has that nice, matte, new look.

I'll reiterate my recommendation against the majority of popular, oil based "conditioners" here, Zymol included. Modern automotive leather does not need conditioning, folks! Initial results might look impressive, but oiliing your leather over time is just going to invite more dirt accumulation, excess wear of the urethane coating and that nasty, 'shiny' look in a few years.

 

Zymol has no petroleum based solvents in it, just organic, non-synthetic. Had no problems with it. Apply sparingly. If garaged and using sun-visor when outside, you shouldn't have to apply it more than once a year. Just depends on use of car and in what elements.

 

Website says it contains "penetrating oils" and is "vitamin E rich". Sounds like snake oils...

 

After reading a bunch of threads on this forum, I used Leatherique Rejuvenator a couple of weeks ago. It turned out nice, but it was terrifying to look at mid job, since I'd never messed with leather products of any kind in any car. Basically, I massaged a lot of Rejuvenator into the whole dash by hand, then left it overnight on a warm Texas day. The next morning it looked gummy and streaky. Then I cleaned it off with Leatherique's Prestine Clean (yes, in that order).

Leatherique says on the bottle, "Contains no harmful silicone, wax, or petroleum products."

My car has black leather with ivory stitching. I tried the process in an inconspicuous place first a couple of days prior, and the stitching stayed white. Then I did the whole dash, and all the stitching stayed white. I did not try to avoid getting the stuff on the stitching; I just massaged it in all over. I suppose if someone's car were really dusty or dirty, you could end up dragging dirt around on to the stitching, but in my case it wasn't an issue.

The end result was the dash looking about the same as before, which was a little disappointing. I had hoped the leather nearest the bottom of the windshield would look shinier, so I'd be confident it was now super moisturized, so that I wouldn't be worrying about the Dreaded Shrinkage. I suppose I could have put more on, or could do it again, in case it was just so very dry that it wanted even more Rejuvenator than I slathered on. But it looked good before, and it looks good now. I've decided I'll just try to keep the leather fed, but also be expecting to redo the dash leather someday, so that I can be philosophical about the whole thing and enjoy driving it midday at 30 degrees north latitude where I live.

 

To clean the dash I use a damp microfibre cloth and as protection Zaino, gives a nice shine and smell.
What puzzled me was my automotive saddler (one of the very few still existing in Austria) he said only use neutral coloured shoe cream to protect/condition the leaher. Thats a contradiction to everything you can read here.
Conclusion: The guy works his live with leather in cars and should know, have the experience what is the best, lots of Aston owners here use different stuff and are happy with it. I guess there is no really right/perfect solution, just time will tell.

 

My local AM dealer uses Griot's Leather Conditioner on their customer cars.

 

AMMO Mousse is what I use for all my cars. The product apply nicely and gives the deep rich leather color but does not make things shiny. Some shine is not a bad thing, all you need to do is wipe with a damp MF cloth to lessen the shine of any or most leather products.

I clean my leather only with AMMO Lather and carpet with AMMO ****.

I use most all Larry's products. I own and try many different products as they come out, but I tend to keep moving back to what I know works, wont damage anything, and is made to perfection.

Hope this helps some owners.

PS---- previous posts talk about Letherique. Great product and would absolutely use on a older car if and or when the leather needs deep cleaning. The process is a mess, and scary the first time you do it. But definitely works wonders and works well.

 

Sandstorm interior with red stiching here . I use Auto Glym leather balm , slather it on with a cotton diaper once a year and leave it for a while then rub off the excess . Doesnt bother the stiching at all .

 

This thread is very similar to an oil thread, everyone has a product that they swear by. There's a blog post by Blackstone laboratories that shows that there is really no difference between the wear products of any quality branded oil. I'd use that as a parallel to the discussion here.

 

I use Chemical Guys Leather Cleaner and follow up with their Leather Conditioner.

 

[QUOTE=XWCGT;4100819]Do you guys use anything on the dash to keep it in good shape and reduce the chance of it shrinking? mine is showing a very slight stretch tear up near the windshield (very tiny) and this car NEVER sees the sun. im thinking its just drying out a bit.

When you say your car 'never sees the sun' I expect you mean other when you drive it. My 09 roadster is also kept out of the sun as much as possible but I incurred some slight shrinkage on the passenger side section closest to the windshield. There are some videos and help on this site as to how to repair it. It takes 2-3 hours to do it. The repair for me involved regluing the leather with some contact cement. Worked perfectly. Applying some good conditioner on it should also help.

John