Leather steering wheels are subject to special stresses because they are constantly touched. However, since leather is open-pored, hand sweat and skin oils penetrate the material over time and have an aggressive effect. This causes the leather to become brittle more quickly and the paint to peel off. To counteract this is a regular cleaning with a mild leather cleaner and care with a leather seal is recommended. In the case of sticky steering wheels, additional Leather cleaning spirit be used. Because of the corona pandemic, steering wheels, gear knobs and door handles, which often come into contact with skin, have been increasingly cleaned and disinfected. This often caused the paint to peel off. A special hygiene cleaner for leather, artificial leather and plastic surfaces, which enables gentle cleaning and disinfection, can prevent this.
prepare the leather steering wheel
With older and dry leather, a leather grease should be used regularly to make the leather more supple. If the color has already worn off, the leather can be freshened up with a conditioning kit. However, thorough cleaning and degreasing with leather cleaning petrol is required beforehand. Rough areas should also be smoothed out with a leather sanding pad before the paint is applied (tinting), whereby not every scratch becomes completely invisible. You have to be aware of that. How exactly the process is if you want to prepare a leather steering wheel, that shows our following tutorial video:
While the leather treatment doesn't make the material look like new, there is a noticeable difference. If the result is still not sufficient, professional coloring by a leather repair shop is necessary. And very brittle or even damaged leather collars should be replaced immediately by a saddler.
The process of processing in bullet points
- Cleaning:
- Apply leather cleaner to sponge
- Thoroughly clean the leather steering wheel
- Allow the leather to dry/air dry
- Masking:
- Mask the steering wheel clip etc. with masking tape
- Preparation:
- Use a leather sanding pad to smooth rough areas, sand the steering wheel all around
- Apply leather cleaning spirit to ensure degreasing (do several times)
- Leather Fresh Application:
- Shake Leather Fresh
- Apply Leather Fresh thinly and evenly
- Allow to dry and apply further layers if necessary (Use a hair dryer to air it off or. wait approx. 30 minutes for each round)
- Dab or brush as needed until desired saturation is reached (allow to flash off again)
- Sealing:
- Apply leather sealer to ensure a protective layer
- Air dry.
- Care (optional):
- Apply leather grease to older leathers to improve suppleness
- Allow to soak in and remove excess fat
Conclusion after 3-4 months:
After about 3 months and about 5.000 km we have a very clear conclusion: not recommended! If you talk it up, you could say it looks a little bit better than at the beginning. But the truth is that the effort for this effect not worthwhile are. And we don't even want to know how things will look after 3-4 more months or even after half a year. It can be expected that after approx. 6-8 months and a use of approx. 7.000 to 10.000 km the condition will completely improve before processing corresponds. So save yourself the work!
The following note is essential: For safety reasons, tuningblog recommends all repair, inspection and maintenance work exclusively to be carried out in a specialist workshop! Although our information is summarized to the best of our knowledge and belief, we cannot assume any liability for the content. All information is therefore "without guarantee".
In most cases, our repair instructions also provide initial information on the approximate costs listed.
The goal of ourAuto Repair Guide“ is to create a head start in knowledge for the next visit to the workshop with initial tips.
