When my car was new, the leather steering wheel cover had a nice "tacky" feel to it. Three years later, the leather has lost its original luster, and it now has a hard, shiny gloss. It doesn't look that great.

My guess is the oils in my hands were absorbed by the leather. I've tried cleaning with Lexol Leather cleaner to no avail.

Doe anyone have suggestions on how to restore the leather to original condition?

Thanks in advance,

-Lou

 

Go to a sporting goods store and get some spray-tack.

 

What has happened to your leather is that the top coat has been worn out from use and needs to be reapplied in order to get rid of the extreme smoothness. It is not the case that oil has been absorbed, which may have happened, but would not cause this problem, it is just wear. The same thing that happens to your seat with excessive wear, they get shiny after a long time. I am from The Leather Institute, we are located in New Jersey, but have trained several people across the country in what we do, we actually just had two people in from colorado in December, so maybe they are near you and can be of service, but in the meantime do not spray any tacky stuff on there, you will just make the problem larger...sorry pfb. PM me if you want more advice or the location of those two people out near you.

Thanks,

Sean

 

i haven't personally tried this, but you can try using a VERY FINE grade sand paper to "roughen" up the texture a bit. like the previous poster stated, the smoothing of the leather has nothing to do with the oil from your hands, but is a result of the years of "rubbing" off of the leather texture.

 

Update:

I used a 3M regular Scotch Brite pad (not the heavy duty variety) with Lexol leather cleaner. Worked up a decent foam, then rinsed and dried. Followed up with Connolly's Leather Conditioner (the kind Jaguar recommends), and the leather looks better. Not as good as new, but much better than before.

Hope this helps,

-Lou