Well, it was finally time to put my new 16oz bottle of Leatherique Prestine Clean to the test on my 89 260E with beige MBTex. The old owners were pigs.

So, I spent most of the afternoon, and scrubbed and wiped to get the front seats done. Am I impressed? Man oh man.... this stuff made my grimey old seats look new. I mean NEW NEW. Wow!

My friend was curious how it turned out, so I drove to his place to show the results. He was impressed, but claimed he had something better. Better than Leatherique?!? BAH! Humbug I proclaim! (Actually, I told him he was full of ****, to be perfectly honest.) The boys from the M-B forum say nothing is better! (I tried Lexol too, but not on my seats. I was never that impressed with it.) He pulls out a can of General Motors Leather care. I scoffed, pointed at him, and made fun of his silly domestic tripe. Well, we agreed to try it half way on the armrest. So, he squirts his can and a white hair-mousse like foam comes out on my precious interior. Well... as much as I hate to say it, this stupid can which costs 1/5th of Leatherique did an amazing job in a 1/3rd of the work. Tomorrow I'll try Leatherique on the other half of the armrest and see what worked better.

I may have to go to a (shudder) GM dealership and buy some of this stuff and save myself some work. It was seriously THAT good. I'll gladly email pics of my current progress with the Leatherique though. Before/after shots.

altinger@shaw.ca

I just used one of the Mr.Clean magic erase bars, and OMG the diffrence was amazing. i mean in spots where it looked clean there was a huge diffrence in how clean it looked, and its PERFECT in between the doors.

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Kenni
'85 300D turbo
208K miles
FOR SALE (kinda)

The question is not only how well the cleaner works, but also how SAFE is the cleaner. It is one thing to be able to remove dirt and grime. Its quite another to do it without also damaging the leather or the stitches. To go to the extreme, Mr Clean and steel wool, or sandpaper will really clean out the dirt...

Most door trim is not leather, it's MB-Tex. As for leather seats, after cleaning, all hides should be treated with the proper oils/food. On MB-Tex seats, cleaning and then UV protection is more important for longevity.

I would be interested in viewing the before/after pics using the leatherique.

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Sam
1989 Mercedes 300E

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=122877

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Current Stable:
1994 S500 v140, 210k miles, white with grey.

Former Mercedes in the Stable:
1983 300CD Turbo diesel 515k mi sold (rumor has it, that it has 750k miles on it now)
1984 300CD Turbo Diesel 150 k mi sold
1982 300D Turbo Diesel 225 sold
1987 300D Turbo Diesel 255k mi sold
1988 300 CE AMG Hammer 15k mi sold
1986 "300E" Amg Hammer 88k mi sold (it was really a 200, not even an E (124.020)
1992 500E 156k mi sold
etc.

OOOOO now I get it, General Motors dealership stuff!

Okay, sorry about the stupid question I asked you regarding the name of the product from GM...

With the boycott in progress of leatherique, GM sounds like a great alternative...

I tried BlueMagic Leather Cleaner and the Conditioner bottles,
Results were pretty good when I used a sponge. but the after smell was horrible, I cannot stand it and the seats were really sticky!

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2006 BMW M5 "Heidi" @ 109,000 miles
2005 MBZ C55 AMG "Lorelai" @ 165,000 miles
1991 MBZ 300E "Benzachino II" @ 165,000 miles
1990 MBZ 500SL "Shoshanna" @ 118,000 miles

(On the hunt for a good used M103 engine as of 6/10/23, PM me if you have one to sell!)

Issue 2-2004 of MERCEDES-BENZ CLASSIC has an excellent article on leather cars.

MERCEDEZ - BENZ CLASSIC is a daimler/chrysler publication and it's very good