Pretty cool video on how to remove basic dents using the expansion and contraction of heat and cold. I might give it a try myself.

All right… well the story is: is that I used to be a professional detailer a few years ago… and there I learned of how to properly maintain leather seats… dashes… armrests… headrests and everything else leather.. including leather jackets.. wallets.. or anything else you can think of.

The Goal is to keep the leather in tip-top shape so that it NEVER cracks (which is ONLY due to dryness) and generally keep the seats looking new.

Just so you know… Leather is just cow skin…. that’s all it is…. its nothing special at all… like human skin… it also has pores.. and can also dry out too.
Both of the above are real problems… if the pores fill up with grease and dirt in time (like human skin would if it is never cleaned) then the pores are filled solid and the leather cannot breath…. it also cannot take in moisture of any kind… so they dry out and crack (human skin does the same if not properly taken care of as you probably know) Since there is no flesh behind the cow skin anymore to keep it moisturized… the responsibility is now on you. So the steps and things about to be mentioned are how to clean the pores… and keep the seats properly moisturized so they never dry out and therefore crack.

The first pic is of the drivers seat of the car that I just bought… obviously the seats were never properly cleaned… otherwise they wouldn’t be shiny from all the grease like they are… the seat pictured is mine.. I’m sure you aren’t far off…

That shiny-ness isn’t normal at all.. thats actually from the grease and other stuff in the leather pores. Leather should not be shiny… it should be dull like the pic second to the below one. (the pic of the seat: thats not being cleaned) The leather will feel very hard and resistant to any flexing… since there is so much dirt in the pores… the leather barely flexes at all.

so this is what you do…. you take a normal scrub brush (just like the one you would use for your fingers) as well a very mild cleaner. DO NOT USE A STRONG CLEANER!!!!!!! Engine degreaser is not a good idea!… if you wouldn’t use that to clean your skin… dont use that on the leather…. (You think I’m joking about writing that dis-claimer? People have done that in the past so I wrote that to let you know!!!!) Use a very mild cleaner such as watered down pine-sol in a spray bottle. Water it down 2 parts pine-sol 1 part water. Just a simple house-hold one.. but one with out oil of any sort.

Then scrub it down like so:

Imeditately wipe down the seat… as soon as you can so the dirt doesn’t sink back into the pores again. This will be how the rag will look probably… if its yellow or brown… dont talk to me ever again. (jokes)

Once you’ve done that complete to ALL the leather parts of the car… such as the head-rests… back of the seat (dont forget the rear seats too!)

as well as the shift-boot… arm rests in the doors and and the rear seat arm rests.. they should look like this:

This pic is of a freshly cleaned seat… notice the lack of shiny-ness.. its actually really quite dull… the same way the car was when it was brand new.

Thats exactly how the seats SHOULD look after they’ve been cleaned. NIce and clean.. they will feel twice as soft too… since the leather can bend freely now that the dirt is removed from the pores.

Next stop is moisturizing the seat:.. remember at the top of the post when I said that since the Leather is removed from the cow… the owness is on you towards moisturizing it? well that brings us to our next step..

To moisturize the seat… you need some really good stuff… this cheap crap is just that.. therefore avoid Wal-mart.. most automotive stores sell good seat moisturizer… mothers is not very good stuff… but unfortunately its the best stuff you can get at most automotive stores such as Canadian Tire or such… like pep-boys or whatever. Basically dont cheap out on the stuff… the better the stuff is.. the better it’ll work. Also try a detailing studio where people pay outrageous sums of money to have a person do all this stuff for them… most detailing facilities can definately give you suggestions on the best stuff to use… Being a former professional detailer myself… I REALLY REALLY like “Car-brite” products, “Maalco”…. or “Production detail supply” stuff

The stuff I have pictured is by “Production detail supply” this stuff is amazing.. its called prime… and does exactly what I am talking about… moisturizing the seats… its has a very important ingredient called “Lanolin oil” which is key.. that stuff is the liquid that makes the difference right there…

and if finding any sort of actual “Leather moisturizer” is a problem… as a last resort use human skin moisturizer… it works well too. but you need LOTS of it since there is LOTS of leather to be done… and its all very very dry and therefore needs LOTS. So expect to use about a cup full for all your cars interior. Try to make sure the skin lotion also has lanolin oil.

This is the stuff that I used for the pictorial… as well as for all the limos that I used to detail. however its SINCE BEEN DISCONTIUNED!!! So there is a new product out which is better in quality. Its made by “Malco” which I provided a link for at the bottom of this post. Also.. .Lexol is great too.. so either the Malco Leather Conditioner or the Lexol stuff will work great… apparently you can get the Lexol stuff even at pet stores (so I’ve been told).

Do not use these so called “Leather cleaner *AND* moisturizer’s; they are a joke…. you need to entirely separate chemicals to do this… you cant take a sponge and throw some of that crap on the seats and expect it to work… how can a person just use handcreme and never once EVER wash they’re hands? would the creme work? not really because there is gobs of dirt in the pores…. so how does the lotion get into the skin? barely eh? Leather is WAY worse… so forget about that dual-purpose garbage

When coating the seats.. use a normal (CLEAN!!!!) sponge… just like a household one…

Drop a gob of the leather moisturizer on to the seat… and rub it in with the sponge… leave lots of it remaining on the seat… don’t worry the leather will absorb the remaining lotion… basically you want to apply it a little more then what was done in the picture. but just do that as pictured.

Give the seat about an hour to absorb all the conditioner in it. Then re-apply the conditioner using the same sponge as needed to all the dry spots (usually the large flat surfaces) After an hour after that… you can wipe off all the excess conditioner if you choose too… otherwise leave it overnight… it will all get absorbed in time.

Well.. that’s it right there… don’t forget to re-moisturize all the seats and everything else that you cleaned… You’ll be amazed at how soft the leather will be now… its really something..
If you want to keep your seats looking great forever… you need to do this on a monthly basis for the seats that get used the most… every second month for the passenger seat or the rear seats that don’t get used as much. However at least twice a year is the minimum, even then it’ll still eventually crack over time. The pores collect so much dirt in so little time you’d be surprised. Also, on leather seats with existing cracks, you CAN’T reverse the cracks, only keep doing this to prevent them from spreading; and new ones forming.

There you go…. try this out and see what you think… please leave a post on this thread with the result you’ve experienced..

This guide is brought to you by Graham

So you want to gain a better understanding of photography and how to take better pictures of your car?

I’m far from an expert on photography, and I’m certainly not trying to act like I am, but I do believe in giving credit where credit is due. There are quite a few guys on here that post up some quality pictures and for those guys I am thankful as I really enjoy looking at nice pictures and I know alot of us here do. It offers us a way to see things in ways that we might not otherwise see them. I’m going to use some of my pictures as reference points in this article and may even type up a post with tips on how to get better pictures but for right now I just want to put this together.

What some people dont realize is that there is alot more to putting out quality images than just plunking down a ton of money on an expensive camera and pushing a shutter button. An inexpensive point-and-shoot in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing can produce a much better picture than that of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of photography equipment at their disposal.

Turning out good pictures is like building a house to me. You have to have the know-how (your technique), solid tools (your equipment, doesn’t have to be the best but you have to know how to use it to get the results you want), you have to build a good foundation and framework (the picture), and then you have to present your vision through the house itself (post-processing).

Here are a few examples…

A picture I took over three years ago with a 4MP point-and-shoot:

A picture I took back in the fall with a 5MP point-and-shoot:

While I had a basic grasp of composing a portrait-style shot of a car even in the first picture (its not just a “walk out the front door and snap a picture in the driveway” shot) the second picture is obviously a much better and much more quality image. The difference you’re seeing isn’t all in the camera quality. Both cameras have the capability to produce a good image in this file size. But in the second shot I had better composition, I understood lighting better and how important it was and used that to my advantage, and I used the camera’s settings as well as post-processing to achieve the results I wanted.

Even with a $2,000 camera walking outside and taking a picture next to a building or in a cool location isn’t going to look good if you dont use the light (avoiding harsh light and shooting towards sunrise or sunset as general rules) and camera settings (things like shooting mode, aperture/f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc) and other equipment (things like tripods, lens hoods, filters, etc).

But even then capturing a good image is only half the battle. There aren’t many if any successful magazines or other publications that put images straight from a camera onto their pages. Cameras are devices that have come a long way over the years but are still no match for the human eye. Sometimes what we see and what the camera sees are two very different things and there is a need to correct that. Lighting isn’t perfect and even the best base image still will need at least some minor touching up in almost every case. But that doesn’t mean that you can take a horrible picture and make it amazing. “You can’t polish a turd” and it’s definitely a true saying. You have to have that solid foundation to begin working with to end up with the results that make you right click and set a picture as your desktop.

So you have your foundation and you’re ready to put those final touches on it to really make it pop. But what program do you use? What exactly do you adjust? Those are all things you have to read up on, practice, and learn. For one of my full photoshoots for a car I spend 2-3 hours photographing the car in locations I’ve already scouted out for hours, days, or weeks in advance then I come back and spend another 2-6 hours in cropping, scaling, and post-processing just to get 10 or so final edits of the original vision I had in mind when I snapped the pictures.

Before post-processing:

After post-processing:

Before post-processing:

After post-processing:

So in conclusion, its not as easy as “getting a good camera” and “Photoshopping the picture” to get some of the results you see. So when you see some of these guys on here that turn out those pictures that we all drool over I encourage you to ask what camera they’re using, what lens they shot with, what some of their settings were or what else they used, or anything else you’re curious about, but please dont discredit and shortchange their work by just saying “that camera takes awesome pictures.”

Now go out there, snap some shots, start experimenting, and see what you can come up with. You might be surprised.

Recommended reading (Post 1, Photography - Post 2, Post-Processing and Information)Now that you’ve read that the rest of this might make more sense as it’s about giving credit where credit is due because cameras dont take pictures themselves and “photoshopping” a picture doesn’t turn a dull, boring picture into a jaw-dropping image.

I had some pretty bad spiderweb cracks in this headlight so I had to remove a decent amount of material to get rid of them. I started out wet-sanding with 400 grit, then 800, and finished with 1500 grit. After everything was sanded smooth, I used a Novus 3-step plastic polishing kit ($11.95 shipped from Spa Depot).

It took me about 3-4 hours by hand, but I’m a perfectionist and stuff like this usually takes me a long time. If you decide to use any type of machine to do this, be careful… plastic is very sensitive to being over-heated. I only did the passenger side headlight, the driver’s side was replaced not long before I bought the car due to the previous owner having an accident. I will probably pull the driver’s side light next weekend and hit it with the Novus polish.

Before:

After:

Here’s another write up using different techniques and products. Headlight Restoration Project “How To” with pics

First and foremost clean your interior parts first! Any cleaning products will make it horrible fisheye everywhere on you if you do not. I washed mine with dish soap and made sure to get them super clean.

Sanded down with 120 grit, then once that started getting smooth, moved on to 180 grit, then lastly 220.

Wax and degreased the interior pieces (some will say get a specific one made for plastics but I did not) used PPG brand

Spay with bulldog plastic adhesion promoter
Spray with G2/slick sand polyester primer (bondo that sprays) LOL! Fills in the all the groves that I want to get rid of so that it will be smooth like glass.

Sorry I dont have a pic of that step

Then I sanded down again with 220grit

Reprimed

Wetsanded with 600 grit make sure you have plenty of water on the object that you wetsand

Door panels will have to be built up several times to get the smooth look. So be ready to prime, sand, prime sand.

After many hours here is your final product:

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Supplies:

• Auto Stripper (Gel work great)
• Brush
• Gloves / Mask
• Mothers Powerball Optional

The Procedure

Clean the wheel with soapy water so the stripper strips paint and not loose dirt.

Brush the paint stripper over the wheel with a thick coat. Allow about 15-20 minutes and this is how the wheels should look. Be sure to use your gloves and face mask. Do this outside or in a well ventilated area.

Here is the final product. Make sure you removed all of the paint stripper is removed. A water hose and towel work well. Hit it will some metal polish such as Mothers brand and presto.

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Many of us still have stock parts and not alot of cash. Polishing can be accomplished with a little cash and alot of elbow grease. So if you have the time and the patients, your parts can look amazing.

Supplies:

• 220,400 & 800 Grit Sand Paper
• Black & White Jewelers Rouge
• Power Drill
• Buffing Wheels
• Elbow Grease (Palm Sander)

The Procedure

Step 1: First thing you want to do if get out all of the imperfections, such as bumps, casting bubbles and uneven metal. You should be able to remove most imperfections with 220 girt sand paper, except for heavy castings such as an intake manifold. If the surface is really ruff, you may have to start with 120 grit, but I’d recommend power sanding tools.

Step 2: Make sure everything is sanded to an even surface. I’d recommend block sanding flat surfaces so you don’t get hills and valleys. Sand at 220 grit till the grain looks consistant. The main thing is to remove imperfections. Sanded to 220 grit should look like this.

Step 3: Next move on to 400 grit. At this stage, I usually start wet sanding. The purpose of wet sanding is to keep the sandpaper clean from metal dust so it does it’s job. The finer the paper, the easier it gets clogged up. Sand at 400 grit till the grain looks consistant. Sanded to 400grit should look like this.

Step 4: Continue wet sanding at 800 grit. Sand at 800 grit till the grain looks consistant. Sanded to 800grit should look like this.

Step 5: Go ahead and wash off all the debre and dry the part. Appy the black jewelers rouge to a buffing wheel. I usually just have the buffing wheel on a power drill and spin the buffing wheel on the jewelers rouge. Next, with medium pressure, spin the buffing wheel with black jewelers rouge compound over the part. When level of polish has been achieved, apply white jewelers rouge to a different buffing wheel and finish the part. You can see the effectiveness of jewelers rouge in the picture.

The results? Amazing! Each part will require slighty different techniques. Good luck!

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