Cleaning Ambla : did anybody encounter something like this?

[RoverP66166]

Hello,
I thought it was time to scrub the grease and dirt of 40 years out of the buckskin ambla of my P6. I had read a lot of threads here and I saw a lot of perfect clean interiors.
That's what it looked like when I started:

Being cautious, I began with the gloveboxes, I used several products from Mr Muscle and Mr Propper to really though things like white spirit and thinner. Everything worked perfectly:

Next the headrests.... everything perfect.
So I attacked the rear seats and I used only Mr Muscle with the same stiff brush as before, I changed nothing to my procedure .
And then ... shock The dirt went off like never before but then I saw the damage: :shock: :shock:




Has anyone an explanation for this? And now... Vinylkote?
A bit desperated this afternoon..

 

[christopher storey]

I hate to tell you, but your seats look as though they are leather to me, and if so white spirit etc will probably have removed the topcoat lacquer and some of the colour coat underneath . Either that or something in the solvents has reacted with the plastic ambla, but the results on the gloveback suggest that this cannot be the case

 

[PeterZRH]

That's leather!!!! Ambla doesn't develop creases like that! It was exceptionally good leather too, if dirty.

If you are used to the stuff in modern cars old leather is much thicker and feels more functional than the soft modern stuff.

You'll need to recolour it now. Stina did a nice job of hers a while back.

 

[ghce]

Had me doing a double take on this, that certainly looks to be leather to me also, I suspect you have taken the colouring off on the top coat, I think your only choice now is to do a recolour.

PS they look to be in excellent condition excepting the now damaged colouring.

Graeme

 

[symes]

those seats are leather not ambla at all-you should have put picture up first and anyone on here would help prevent the damage you have done. On my Connolly leather I use wet wipes to remove dirt and every so often a bit of baby oil rubbed into them=This was recommended to me by a man who worked leather for years and it works for me

 

[RoverP66166]

Hello everybody and thanks for your replies,

So you think it's leather. I was all the time wondering what the material was. At the beginning I thought it was leather, but then i felt a bit plastic-like to me, nothing like the leather in my Daimler.

Here are 2 pictures of a little piece I cut off, perhaps the back coating will elude the question if leather or vinyl




What stays a mystery to me is the fact that I applied much more "aggressive" products on the headrests and the glovebox and everything went ok.
And then on the rear seat Mr Muscle (that had little effect on the headrests or the glovebox) did that damage.
At a moment I thought that the seats had perhaps been recolored?
If you have a close look at the top right corner, you see a bit of material that is normally under the back of the rear seat (so no sunshine influence or wear) and the color of that area has a much more brownish tone?

In fact what is the color of the seats: buckskin?
Every help is welcome
Nice Sunday from Luxembourg

Well there is no avail I am gone for a recolor... pfffffffffffffffff (at least for the seats)
So I'll read all the threads to find the best product.

 

[colnerov]

Hi, the glovebox, headrests and the piece you have cut off, (Was it from the seat side panel
where it wraps under the frame?) is vinyl/ambla. The seat facings are leather, the damaged
seat may have been recoloured many years ago and it has come off again, may have not been
done too well.

Colin

 

[christopher storey]

It's the thinners that have taken both the lacquer and part of the colour coat off . It's a nuisance but curable with a recolouring kit from eg Leather Clinic. The material cut off is part of the vinyl backing - hence those bits have survived this rather impetuous cleaning process

 

[PeterZRH]

Only the FACINGS of the seat are leather. The sides and the backs of the seats, the headrests, the door panels, the glove box and the pillar trim are all vinyl/ambla.

 

[RoverP66166]

It's the thinners that have taken both the lacquer and part of the colour coat off .

Sorry Christopher, no thinners have been used on that part of the seat.

Yes the part has been cut off under the rear seat, where it wraps under the frame (so this explains why it is vynyl).

I think the explanations of colnerov and PeterZRH solve the mistery : the facings are leather, they didn't withstand Mr. Muscle, all the rest is ambla and these parts withstood Mr Muscle and all other products.
You learn everyday ;-)

In the meantime I read the threads about recolouring and I visited the website of Leatherliquid. Will this do it, because I had the impression that it is thought for cracks and local wear, but now I want to redo them completely. Every pictures I saw from stina and PeterZRH looked very well and it seems to me that an airbrush applying is the best method?

Nice Sunday

 

[RoverP66166]

Ooops
I forgot the main question...
Before I order any product... What is the color of the seats or glove box in your opinion?
From literature it is said that a tobacco leaf 2200TC build 74 was delivered with following color options :
"tobacco leaf : bronze, buckskin, ebony"
So in my opinion it should be buckskin?
Thanks for all comments

 

[harveyp6]

What is the color of the seats or glove box in your opinion?

Buckskin.

 

[RoverP66166]

Thank you Harvey

 

[Ethelred]

I wouldn't recommend it for routine cleaning because of the abrasive nature but for anyone who is going to recolour leather or ambla with the kit from, say, The Furniture Clinic, I recommend Cif cream as a 'Stage Zero'

I've recoloured two interiors so far - a leather Series 1 and an ambla box-pleat Series 2 set and each time the results were impressive, if I do say so myself.

Tom of Lake View gave me the advice before I did the first set - at that time he'd only done it once himself - some seats for a Porsche.

Tom didn't state to use Cif cream but he did tell me to get the seats as clean as I possibly could before starting the work in earnest so I tried Cif on a small area of the seats and could see straight away it was ideal for the job.

 

[christopher storey]

About 18 months ago I went to the Furniture Clinic seminar that the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club runs , and enormously instructive it was. I have since done two sets of seats, and what it really requires is patience . Incidentally, the cheapest for removing the finish is cellulose thinners and some fine grade 000 or 0000 wire wool . If you then work plenty of coats of glycerin ( available from any pharmacy ) into the leather it will make it supple before you recolour it . I used an ordinary spray gun for mine, but an airbrush is just as good if you have not got a gun . If you have cracks to fill, the F Clinic flexible filler is wonderful

Here is a before and after of one of my 2000TC cushions

 

[Ethelred]

About 18 months ago I went to the Furniture Clinic seminar that the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club runs , and enormously instructive it was. I have since done two sets of seats, and what it really requires is patience . Incidentally, the cheapest for removing the finish is cellulose thinners and some fine grade 000 or 0000 wire wool . If you then work plenty of coats of glycerin ( available from any pharmacy ) into the leather it will make it supple before you recolour it . I used an ordinary spray gun for mine, but an airbrush is just as good if you have not got a gun . If you have cracks to fill, the F Clinic flexible filler is wonderful

Here is a before and after of one of my 2000TC cushions

That's excellent work - you can see where the glycerin worked its magic. If I ever do this again I will try some of that.

 

[roverp5Bcoupe]

About 18 months ago I went to the Furniture Clinic seminar that the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club runs , and enormously instructive it was. I have since done two sets of seats, and what it really requires is patience . Incidentally, the cheapest for removing the finish is cellulose thinners and some fine grade 000 or 0000 wire wool . If you then work plenty of coats of glycerin ( available from any pharmacy ) into the leather it will make it supple before you recolour it . I used an ordinary spray gun for mine, but an airbrush is just as good if you have not got a gun . If you have cracks to fill, the F Clinic flexible filler is wonderful

Here is a before and after of one of my 2000TC cushions

That looks very nice! Which supplier did you use for the paint and filler?

Peter

 

[christopher storey]

Furniture Clinic for the filler and the PVA stuff which you put on before applying colour ; a Leather Clinic franchise in Knowsley area of Liverpool for the paint and finishing lacquer . Note that the lacquer comes in a range of shininess which is achieved by mixing gloss and matt ! It is best to buy a bottle of both and you can then experiment until you get the degree of sheen you want

 

[pat180269]

How many times did you apply the glycerin? My seats are dry and hard. I have applied 'softening products' before which gives a temporary improvement but they harden again within a few weeks.

 

[christopher storey]

Pat : The whole car took about 250 mls of glycerin . I probably applied 6 or 8 thin coats to each unit, allowing an hour or so between each , over a period of several days , worked in with the fingers . You get the feel for when it's had enough from the fact that the glycerin takes longer and longer to soak in , and you can see it shiny on the surface . When you start it soaks in almost immediately i.e. within about 5-10 minutes. Incidentally, it's no good doing this on seats where the topcoats have not been stripped off, as the lacquer prevents it soaking in