t-dog

What did you use and how did you do it?

jussnb

just make sure to rinse it off really well when you're done.

Dr. Mike

Hiya,

To get a stain out, and this refers to anything, you should do two things with any potential cleaning product:

Does the cleaner dissolve the material the stain is made of (soaps are a different story)? Take a little of the ink in question on some paper and see if the hairspray (they all use different propellants, you may not have the same as jussnb) will "dissolve" the ink.

Second, try the product on a sample of the material you can't see (like under the front lip of the seat) to make sure it doesn't remove the coloring of the fabric or damage it.

If you are going to use hairspray, as suggested, for the alcohol, why not just save a step and use alcohol. I forget the exact formulation for ball-point ink, but I believe it should be soluble in 70-90% rubbing alcohol (iso-propanol).

I would apply the alcohol to a cotton ball or swab and clean only the ink mark (be patient, and use fresh cotton/swabs often). If you pour the alcohol on the spot or use a towel and start wiping you will more than likely make a little line or spot a big blue or black smear.

Also, after the spot is out, no matter which cleaning method you use, get a good leather conditioner (or lanolin) as many cleaning agents may adversely cause drying of the leather.

Good luck!

Michael (Ph.D. Organic Chemistry)
Better living through chemistry...

MarkItZero

Most automobile leather when damaged by anything that is permanent, such as pen ink, needs to be professionally restored.

One issue is the fact that most automobile leather the grain or pattern on it is a "stamp" in a sense, or not the natural patern. They do this to retain consistancy in pattern as well as remove the natural marks found on a cow hide. When you apply a harsh cleaner to the area you run the risk of not only discoloring the material and removing the dye but removing the texture as well.

My experience comes from working with a company that specialized in leather hides used for crafts and various other projects. The rule of thumb was if you couldn't remove the stain using something like Lexol Cleaner, available at any auto store, then it needed to be restored.

Recently our E430 Mercedes had a similiar problem, a pen left uncapped on the back seat. It left a sizeable stain and I called a restoration expert. For under a hundred bucks they came out to me and removed as much as possible of the stain and redyed the leather back to its natural beige color.

For those of you impressed with Dent Wizard the work done from the outfit I hired was equally impressive. I think the name was the company was "color glow" and I believe they are a franchised national firm. Its well worth the $100 not to permanently damage your seats.

Just my two cents.. Thanks