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Well back to it. Heat at the tempuratures inside a car under the sun doesn't destroy the polymers in conditioners, they aren't proteins.
UV light is what breaks them down. Silicates are especially succeptible to UV.
Internal temps of a car in 100F weather and no sunshades can be almost to the 200s. with the shades your looking at 120-140F, and taking out 95+% of the UV.
Clean out old conditioners
Remove as much heat from equation as possible
Remove as much UV from equation as possible
Use a Lotion or Oil based conditoner instead of silicate based, as your still gonna have top down days
Once you've done that, just remember to wipe all the leather down with a bucket and damp cloth, to lift dirt and old conditioners off before reapplication every couple weeks during cleaning
If you want to go a step further, you can wire a thermistor for our tempurature ranges in a circuit with a relay, so when resistance of the thermistor drops below a certain Ohm, it kicks on a fan, there is an air flap in the trunk you could use as exhaust. which will pull through the vents behind the seats, and of course the cabin will pull from the front cowl. This would keep the car at close to ambient, while keeping the car closed and secure, without worry of rain. If you're not so much a DIY guy, you can buy one of those AutoCool window fans made for this, steal the circuits from it and retrofit it into the air flap exit.
air flap, accessble from inside the trunk behind the carpet closes to you when you open the trunk
Well back to it. Heat at the tempuratures inside a car under the sun doesn't destroy the polymers in conditioners, they aren't proteins.
UV light is what breaks them down. Silicates are especially succeptible to UV.
Internal temps of a car in 100F weather and no sunshades can be almost to the 200s. with the shades your looking at 120-140F, and taking out 95+% of the UV.
Clean out old conditioners
Remove as much heat from equation as possible
Remove as much UV from equation as possible
Use a Lotion or Oil based conditoner instead of silicate based, as your still gonna have top down days
Once you've done that, just remember to wipe all the leather down with a bucket and damp cloth, to lift dirt and old conditioners off before reapplication every couple weeks during cleaning
If you want to go a step further, you can wire a thermistor for our tempurature ranges in a circuit with a relay, so when resistance of the thermistor drops below a certain Ohm, it kicks on a fan, there is an air flap in the trunk you could use as exhaust. which will pull through the vents behind the seats, and of course the cabin will pull from the front cowl. This would keep the car at close to ambient, while keeping the car closed and secure, without worry of rain
The bold words above are the points I've been "harping" on. The other points above have been raised by Deckoz and others. And yet others have even provided additional suggestions (CERAMIC TINT). Thank you Deckoz for reiterating and corralling the info. Seems like the dots bullets needed connecting.
Last edited by Midnightdennis; 01-08-2019 at 11:36 AM.
The bold words above are the points I've been "harping" on. The other points above have been raised by Deckoz and others. And yet others have even provided additional suggestions (CERAMIC TINT). Thank you Deckoz for reiterating and corralling the info. Seems like the dots bullets needed connecting.
Yea man, I agree with what you are saying, but there isn't a better sunshade option that is custom tailored than the Cee Baileys.
The other options to minimize your two red would be
Tint - Which he doesn't want
Roadster Solutions old school style "Tonneau" or interior covers
I know you were trying to help. But I don't think the last few % chasing sunshades is gonna make substatial enough of a difference, to not go down other avenues of UV/Heat solutions. I just want to help find the "right" solution too. And having just doing what was needed for my leather...I figured I'd share the little I know too..
Also as far as connecting - you are right to a point. But lets say we add tint, and shades, on a white car. Then do the same on a black car. We now have a problem of not just UV warming via passing through to the interior, but also the roof and door panels. Same with the soft top being black, albiet with significantly less thermal mass. Solution will vary for each owner a little bit
Speaking of light, the burn you feel on the surface of your skin js infrared light, the warmth you feel under your skin, is UV light, exciting matter, the excitement creates heat. Heat is kinetic energy, not light. UV ≠ Heat, But UV will always have a biproduct of kinetic excitment(heat) to anything that absorbs it
I also recall reading a thread where a member bought Clazzio seat covers to protect his OEM seats. He removes the covers annually to treat the OEM seats and they were in pristine conditions. Can't find the thread though (it had pictures).
Coming back to this thread with an interesting data point find. But first to recap after several suggestions are not to use products with Silicates.
In an earlier post I mentioned cleaning the seats after the summer with a Volvo leather cleaner that has ethanol and it did a great job bringing them back to a certain stage. I think I have perhaps over conditioned them but nothing like in the videos, the seats still look great.
I've posted in this forum about Honda Leather & Vinyl protector and I don't think any S2000 owner has ever used it, so I went to my dealership and they hooked me up with free bottles of this, carpet spot remover and glass cleaner. Nice! The Leather & Vinyl protector from Honda says to use this on leather, vinyl and rubber to protect them and the only ingredient listed is : Aloe Vera.
Well that's interesting.
So then back to a bunch of everyones comments about not using a product with silicates... can you say what you are using? It seems like this is a taboo question no one wants to answer.
I've scoured the net and can't find information on what does and does not have silicates in it... so I keep coming back to the same question of what are people using if they know silicate products like Lexol aren't the right choice?
Here are pics of my 15 year old, daily driver seats, with 110k miles. Not bad at all IMO, but the third pic of the passenger seat is what is concerning me. I have this de-lamination appearance happening in a bunch of areas, and it's not soft like other areas.
Coming back to this thread with an interesting data point find. But first to recap after several suggestions are not to use products with Silicates.
In an earlier post I mentioned cleaning the seats after the summer with a Volvo leather cleaner that has ethanol and it did a great job bringing them back to a certain stage. I think I have perhaps over conditioned them but nothing like in the videos, the seats still look great.
I've posted in this forum about Honda Leather & Vinyl protector and I don't think any S2000 owner has ever used it, so I went to my dealership and they hooked me up with free bottles of this, carpet spot remover and glass cleaner. Nice! The Leather & Vinyl protector from Honda says to use this on leather, vinyl and rubber to protect them and the only ingredient listed is : Aloe Vera.
Well that's interesting.
So then back to a bunch of everyones comments about not using a product with silicates... can you say what you are using? It seems like this is a taboo question no one wants to answer.
I've scoured the net and can't find information on what does and does not have silicates in it... so I keep coming back to the same question of what are people using if they know silicate products like Lexol aren't the right choice?
Here are pics of my 15 year old, daily driver seats, with 110k miles. Not bad at all IMO, but the third pic of the passenger seat is what is concerning me. I have this de-lamination appearance happening in a bunch of areas, and it's not soft like other areas.
If you are concerned about delaminating, why not just dye the seats and seal them with resolene sealer? That's what gives the leather its sheen. You can wipe it on once and leave it if you want a shiny sheen or wipe over it with a sponge a few minutes into curing to get more of a matte. Your seats are not bad for the age and beating they take. The only bad thing is that a complete dye will cost you more because you need two colors but that's the direction I would go. Really, though, your seats are not bad. You could always steam clean the seats, dye the bolsters black and then seal the whole seat to get consistent sheen on all seating surfaces. Up to you. I'm not going to comment on ongoing care since it is just like a favorite motor oil discussion.
Well this thread has certainly been interesting. I've just been trying to find out what conditioning products everyone is using and it's been 3 pages of crazy novel approaches but only one person has mentioned a product and I'm not sure if Dennis even uses it (Leatherique).
But if understanding that our seats having a coated on top of the leather, then Lexol and Leatherique are not the right solutions. The Honda leather protectant has Aloe Vera as the main ingredient, I've tried a bit of it and it doesn't leave a film or residue. So I think my approach will be a very light mix of this Honda Aloe Vera topped with 303 for UV protection and see how it stacks up over this summer.
But I'm wondering if peeps don't wan't to list the products they use for fear of getting flamed by others? 3 pages and talking about the product you use in this situation has been avoided like the plague.
01-08-2019, 11:16 AM
