I have read that one must be careful which leather care products one uses on Jaguar interiors. Seems that you can sort of take the surface off your leather interior with some products.

Not knowing much about these things, I decided to see what the local dealer was peddling. They carried a product called a Connolly Leather Care Kit. They wanted $50 for it, but a little chatting got a little discount so I paid $32 for it. My reasoning was that the Jaguar dealers must know what is good for Jaguars. (After reading some posts, I sometimes wonder)

The kit contains two bottles. One is Concentrated Leather Cleaner. You dilute it with water before use. I followed the directions and it cleans up the leather very well. (Have you noticed that if you are over 4 feet tall and cross your legs in the passenger seat your shoe rubs on either the console or the door handle?)

The other container is labled Hide Care. I am a little scared of it, because it smells a lot like paint! So, I'm a little reluctant to rub in on my interior. The contents listed says "Lanolin waxy cream containing white spirit". Lanolin I know, but what is "white spirit"?

Has anyone else used this product with acceptable results?

Tom

Has anyone else

 

I think "white spirit" is a rather loose term for a variety of petro-based solvents.

I've never used to Connolly-labeled products but some people seem to like them. I've never heard of anything bad happening as a result of using them.

When it comes to leather conditioners everyone seems to have a favorite. Lexol is my choice these days but I've changed allegiances a few times over the years. I've concluded, FWIW, that if your leather is in good condition any of the usual brand name products will work fine for keeping it in good condition. If your leather had dried out then some products (Leatherique, for one) seem to do a better job of rejuvenating.

A pal of mine teases me about my experimenting with some unusual products when he uses ordinary off-the-shelf Meguiers ($8.99) conditioner with great results. I'll have to admit that the leather on his 14 y/o car is as perfectly supple and crack-free as the day he bought the car. "Feels like buttah". :-)

Others will chime in.

Cheers
DD

 

Connolly supplied all the leather for Jaguars for decades, but finally went bust in 2002. I believe the company was reformed but no longer supplies Jaguar as far as I know. However the leather kit you bought from the dealer will be perfectly OK to use, but there are many products now on the market.

I am using Mer leather cleaner at the moment, plus Autoglym Leather Balm to keep it supply. With Ivory leather, I find I need to clean more often than if the leather was a darker colour, but I do like the lighter leather and trim.

 

I just cleaned my interior with lexol and it did the job pretty good for the price. But I was thinking of trying this next time. Seems like its more for couches than cars but should work well too.

 

"White spirit" is a UK term. You might call it Stoddard solvent. It is used to thin paint and clean paint brushes, and a little is found in some shoe polish, especially military "Parade" polish, where it keeps the wax soft while you brush it on. It is volatile and will evaporate away quite quickly when it is applied thinly to a surface. It will probably (I am guessing) help the oils or fats (lanolin is grease from sheeps wool) to soak into the leather rather than lie on the surface.

 

At the risk of sounding cynical, is it possible that the chap in the video simply applied way too much Lexol?

That would certainly give the result shown, I would think.

ETA: My inclination would be, in the absence of any other criteria, to pick the one of the top three which smelled the nicest.

 

RCG - was thinking the same thing - I also noticed it looks like he worked their conditioner into the leather longer than he did the lexol which may have also attributed to the appearance.

 

Here's a pic of my interior after I cleaned it with Lexol.

 

where?

 

Did the photo not show up?

 

I see no photo.

 

Maybe It'll work this time

 

yes, can see that.
Never seen that colour combination though

very eye-catching

 

I once used Lexol on my Mercedes interior. I did not dilute it as you are supposed to. Still, it completely stripped the protective layer off of the leather and trashed it. The leather interior was spotless after 10 years of use before. I was really unhappy.

Lexol -- and perhaps other cleaners -- should contain warnings that overuse or using undiluted can strip the protective layer or damage the leather.

(I think I was using Meguiers(sp?) before and had great experience with it.)

 

I use a few different things, Meguirs leather care, Blue Magic Leather Care and Griots Garage Leather Care. All do a fine job. I probably like the Griots the best because it leaves a shinier finish that looks very nice.

 

I've used Leather Honey, Leatherique and Lexol. Each seems to work "better than nothing", and results vary depending on leather type... for example, with Leather Honey, my Infiniti's leather came back to life. But in the Jag, Leather Honey just sits on the surface as if it's not getting absorbed by the leather at all. It may be that Jag used a certain top dye which won't allow for much absorption?

 

I've used Lexol for 15+ years on my 911 seats and have been very happy it. Decided to try something new with the XJR and purchased Gliptone leather cleaner and their leather conditioner as well. I am very pleased with the results and it smells much better than the Lexol. We'll see how it holds up.