Using the variable speed control on a rotary car polisher, you’re able to buff more or less aggressively (depending on your needs).

I recently purchased an Acura TL and want to know how to care for the leather seats. – Kan

There’s no need to hide from leather interiors – while some experts recommend leather cleaners and conditioners, Honda says your seats just need dusting, vacuuming and the occasional wipe down. Another option for leather protector is to take a damp cloth, wipe it across moisturizing soap and lather the leather.

“The simplest way to prolong the life of your leather interior is to vacuum it regularly,” Honda Canada spokesperson Chris Wood says. “Chances are, if it can’t be solved with a vacuum, a soft cloth that’s been slightly dampened with water will do the trick. Just be sure to remove any remaining moisture by buffing the area with a dry cloth.”

It sounds simple, especially since there are lots of leather care products on the market. Wood says they don’t recommend any products in particular.

“Some are cleaners while others are conditioners. Choose the wrong one and you may regret it,” Wood says. “Our recommendation is to consult the owner’s manual and follow the instructions.”

Those instructions say to clean the leather with a soft cloth dampened with a 90 per cent water and a 10 per cent “neutral wool detergent solution,” then buff with a clean dry cloth.

Again, Honda won’t specify a specific brand of pH neutral or near-neutral detergent, but products for wool and delicates fit the bill.

“It’s important to avoid detergents that use any kind of dye or bleach and anything that can be harsh, abrasive, or cause the leather to dry out and shrink,” the auto maker says.

The Good Housekeeping Research Institute agrees that leather seats don’t need much maintenance, but preventing tears and stains is crucial.

“There’s really not much to do to take care of a leather interior,” says the Institute’s Carolyn Forte. “Obviously, you want to keep sharp or rough objects away from it to prevent rips, tears, and scrapes, but that’s [the case] with fabric, too.”

Aside from keeping keys, cell phones and zippers off leather surfaces, Forte says drivers should use a leather cleaner and conditioner for cleaning.

“Stains can be tougher to remove on leather than on fabric, so be sure to keep pens away and blot spills as soon as they happen,” she says.

Good Housekeeping doesn’t recommend any particular leather product, though, and neither does Consumer Reports.

In a March 2012 article on detailing car interiors, Consumer Reports says drivers should gently clean vehicle leather with “leather cleaner, saddle soap, or another mild leather soap on a damp cloth.” Be sure to remove all soap and moisture – especially on seams and folds.

Wood says Honda recommends checking with your dealer before getting your leather surfaces professionally cleaned.

“Without knowing how a professional cleaner gets the job done, it’s hard to predict how it will affect the surface or whether it will void the warranty,” Wood says.

The burning sun and lashing rain take a toll on your car. Paint starts to fade, and the accumulation of dirt and scratches ages the vehicle that’s why you need to apply a new car paint protection.

Painting the bodywork is an opportunity to rejuvenate its original look or even to try out a new look with a different color. However, spray-painting any vehicle is a long process that involves special tools and skills, so it’s a job best left to a professional.

Before you start contacting local auto shops for quotes, it’s a good to ask yourself: How much does it cost to paint a car?

Professional painting or DIY?

While it’s possible to paint your own vehicle, it involves patience, skill and a range of paints and tools that you may need to purchase specifically for the job. Furthermore, the end result may not be of a particularly high-quality, making do-it-yourself paint jobs more suitable for older vehicles or all-terrain vehicles that frequently pick up knocks and scratches.

For people looking to restore a family vehicle or collector’s car to its original condition, it’s usually a better idea to employ the services of an auto repair shop where professionals apply up to 24 even coats of paint for a high-gloss, durable finish.

Professional auto painting costs

Many body shops offer several levels of service to cater to customers with different budgets and requirements:

• Basic: The most inexpensive paint job involves as few coats as possible, using synthetic enamel paint. For the basic job, the painters are unlikely to paint areas that are not normally visible, such as the inside of the hood. Costs range from $300 to $900.
• Standard: The cost of a standard paint job usually includes sanding the body and removing rust before painting to get an attractive finish. Costs range from $1,000 to $3,500.
• Showroom quality: This process involves sanding the bodywork down to bare metal, removing all of the rust and dents, and then applying up to 24 coats of high quality paint. The project may take up to a month, and the costs may be as high as $20,000 in some cases.

DIY auto painting costs

For older vehicles, the cost of a professional paint job may be excessive. In these cases, you may wish to try painting the vehicle yourself. The necessary materials are widely available from hardware and automotive stores for as little as $75. Your only other costs are in time and effort.

The required materials and tools include:

• Gloss paint
• Primer
• Foam brushes
• Paint trays
• Masking tape
• Sandpaper
• Mineral spirits for cleaning

One of the biggest concerns with a DIY project is finding a location to paint the vehicle. Many body shops have climate-controlled booths, designed to limit the amount of dust and dirt that might come into contact with the paint and ruin the finish.

For a DIY project, the best option is to paint the vehicle in a clean, well-ventilated garage.

Quality vs. price

Everybody wants a cost-effective service, so when you are contacting body shops to get quotes for your auto-painting project, it’s tempting to go for the lowest price offer.

However, you get what you pay for. Lowball quotations may be for a low-quality paint job, using inferior materials. Rather than removing trim, the painters may simply mask it off; and they may not paint areas that aren’t visible. Furthermore, the quotation may not include certain services that the auto painters charge as an additional rate.

Before committing to a service, ask the painters what their price covers. Check if sanding and preparing the bodywork is part of the cost, and look at previous examples of their work to make sure you are happy with the quality.

Conclusion

When deciding to get your vehicle repainted, always be sure to figure out how much it costs to paint a car.

So, after finding out the costs, consider your budget carefully. If you try to get the job done as inexpensively as possible, the work may not be to a high standard, leaving you displeased with the result. Consider paying for your paint job with a credit card that earns you rewards or cash back.

Conversely, if you look at the most expensive paint jobs, you may decide it’s better to trade in your car for a new model. You also may wish to consider alternatives, such as vinyl wraps which start at around $1,500. Learn more about the alternative cost for paint protection.

Car detailing products you might see pages of polishes, car waxes, sealants, buffers, towels, and cleaners – we see shiny paint, gleaming wheels and sparkling trim. Ever wonder why leather is always in a higher grade vehicle, or a higher trim? Leather is awesome when its fresh and soft, it beats cloth in almost all scenarios. Whether your vehicle has synthetic vinyl leather or real leather, over time it will suffer abuse much like most other materials. Don’t waste you time trying to use a product which cause your car interior to degrade, why try our leather care products.

Dirt, grime, grease, body sweat, dust and among other things get trapped in the pores and crevices of leather. While cleaning it out can be labor intensive and in most cases require some finesse, it’s not impossible. When using the right leather cleaners created “specifically” for leather, you’ll be able to bring it back to new with a lot less effort.

From there, it’s your job to keep it protected and soft (much like your hair). This is where a good quality conditioner comes into play. Right below we put together a list of the 6 best leather conditioners and cleaners to use on both automotive applications, furniture, and a host of others.

Here’s 6 Best Conditioners and Cleaners For Leather (and other uses)

6. Meguiar’s Gold Class Rich Leather Cleaner and Conditioner

You can never go wrong with Meguiar’s products. Especially when it comes down to their Leather Cleaner and Conditioner. Designed for casual use and mostly light to medium duty jobs, this spray bottle is created to be both a dirt fighting cleaner and also a moisturizer.

There’s no need to buy separate products to get both steps of the cleaning process done. As you probably know, clean leather is important to keep clean for visual factors and resale factors. The UV coating embedded allow you to get some protection from the all-mighty SUN’s harmful rays.

Be results can be found when light to medium pressure is applied when scrubbing. One bottle should last you through at least 1 full leather cleaning endeavor of your vehicle.

5. Chemical Guys Leather Conditioner and Cleaner

Moving down to our #5 listing for the best leather cleaners and best leather conditioner products, its Chemical Guys Leather Cleaner and Conditioner Care Kit. If you aren’t familiar with this brand, they pretty much are a premium upgrade from ordinary off the shelf products. Their presence on YouTube and in the automotive community sets them apart in quite a good way.

Their leather cleaner is created for use in cheap and fine leather. Combined with the separate bottle for conditioning your leather, you can bring back the “new” feeling it’s supposed to have. Dirt and oils that can often get trapped inside leather pores will have a much harder time once conditioner has been applied.

According to them, their pH balanced cleaners are efficient and help to preserve strength, durability, and appearance. Each bottle comes as 16oz.

4. Lexol Leather Cleaner and Conditioner Kit

If you know of any leather cleaners, you’ve probably heard of Lexol as a brand. Well, they make a kit that is essentially everything you’d need to clean your leather, condition it, and protect it. Coming in 3 separate bottles to complete each task, it’s very simple to start and finish the leather cleaning process (the hard part is just scrubbing).

The first product is the cleaner, designed to be sprayed on and brushed in with a soft bristle brush. Once you have removed stains and old gunk from your leather, its time to spray-on conditioner. This product will ensure your leather does not dry up after the cleaning phase.

Now to mention the 3rd item on in this leather cleaning kit, its the protectant. This isn’t to necessarily protect you from physical contact, but instead from UV rays and among other things (such as temperature).

3. Leather Honey Leather Cleaner

For leather care that is better than what you find in your local store, you’ll want to move towards products that are specifically created for leather of ALL kinds. Seriously, while the big detailing companies make products, they really worry about price and making sure everyone can afford them. This as a result, can compromise the overall potency.

Here are have the Leather Honey Leather Cleaner. First, thing we like about this product, is that its made 100% in the USA. This concentrated formula is often too strong to be used by itself, that’s why diluting it to certain ratios is required. With the 4 oz of this concentrated leather cleaner, you can make up to 32 oz of diluted cleaner.

Tackle vinyl and leather of all type, there’s no chance dirt, oil, stains and grime will stand a chance when brushed properly. This product is 100% non-toxic, and is perfect for automotive, furniture, handbags, shoes and jackets.

2. Leather Nova Conditioner and Cleaner

As we move towards the best of the best, our #2 pick for leather cleaning products is Leather Nova’s Conditioner and Cleaner. This 18oz bottle of goodness is created for all types of leather, ranging from furniture, cars, jackets, handbags, shoes, sofas, couches, wallets, and much more.

This way this product works is simple, you first need to apply this product to the leather, brush appropriately until foam builds up, wipe away, and repeat the process. Until you begin to notice a “new” like leather look and feel. While you were doing that, you were also conditioning your leather for softness and further durability.

With the pH balance, you can use it on fine leather that you’d find in BMW’s, Mercedes, Audi’s and some other higher end vehicles.

1. Chamberlain’s Leather Milk Conditioner and Cleaner

The leather cleaner for automobiles we found, is Chamberlain’s Leather Milk Leather Cleaner and Conditioner. This is exactly what you will use for small to heavy duty cleaning on literally all types of leather’s (from super expensive to cheap).

What we love about this product, is the natural ingredients + a cleaning agent which allows you to erase grime and oils. By applying a light coating of this product, softly rubbing it in, and using a soft bristle brush to get some foam going, you’ll help to lift hard embedded dirt. The conditioner will soften up the leather and give it fresher look.

This product comes in a 8oz bottle, but its not concentrated. Use liberally to get the most out. Get most out of our products to maintain your car leather.