Ferrari 328 Interior Restoration Series: Part 2

This is a multi-part series on a project I tackled to restore the interior of my 24-year-old Ferrari 328 GTS using products from Leatherique.  Throughout this series, I’ll give you some background and show you the “before” condition of the leather.  I’ll walk through the Conditioning and Cleaning process, the Re-Dying process and, finally, show the end result.

I hope this series as much fun to read as was the actual restoration work (and seeing the end result).

Part 2:  “It rubs the lotion on its skin…”

While carefully removing the seats, door panels, center console and tunnel, all the fasteners and knobs were placed in plastic storage bags and labeled. 

Once everything was removed, I brought the seats, door panels and all the bits inside and set-up shop in the laundry room. 

After buying a pack of white terry towels, I began the cleaning and conditioning process.  The first step was to remove all the surface dust and contaminants by vacuuming the seats, door panels and other bits using the dust brush attachment.  This pulled most of the loose dirt out of the cracks and crevices, but the ground-in dirt and years of skin oils still remained on (and in) the leather. 

After thoroughly vacuuming the items, I applied a light coat of Prestine Clean and wiped with a terry towel dampened with warm water.  This removed, yet, more dirt, but the leather was still visibly filthy—right down to the pores of the hide.  This also revealed the condition of the color of the leather.  Time and UV rays had taken its toll.  There was significant fading on the exposed surfaces of the leather.  I knew then for the job to be done right, we would have to ultimately re-dye the interior.

It was winter and everything I read about using the Rejuvenator Oil stated it was best to apply the it on a sunny day and roll-up the windows to create a “steam room effect”.  With the car in one place and the seats in another, I had to make other arrangements.  I accomplished this by using the laundry room and an electric space heater.  Since the laundry room is a relatively small space, using the heater, I was able to get the room to around 110 degrees.  That’s not quite the same as a closed-up car sitting in the sun, but in the dead of winter, it would have to do. 

I cut a plastic cup down to make a smaller plastic cup and used that to hold the Rejuvenator Oil.  While wearing clear (dye free) latex gloves, I generously applied the Rejuvenator Oil with my gloved hand and rubbed / massaged the oil into the leather.  On a seat, for example, I applied the Rejuvenator Oil.  I then turned on the space heater and closed the room.  I let the room heat up and remain heated for four to six hours.  The next night, I repeated the Rejuvenator Oil application, indoor steam room effect for a similar amount of time.

Why the heat?  The heat (from a closed-up car or small room with a space heater) effectively relaxes the fibers of the hide and lets the Rejuvenator Oil soak in and do its magic.  Think of it like this, your skin naturally secretes oils to keep it moist and pliable.  Once the cow that blesses your car’s interior met its maker, the secretion of those oils ceased.  When the Rejuvenator Oil is applied, you are actually replacing natural and essentials oils back into the leather.  The Rejuvenator Oil also works deep in the pores of the leather to help “push out” any foreign oils (like the oils from our skin), dirt and grime. 

So, after a couple application cycles of Rejuvenator Oil (generously apply the oil, massage it in, heat and close the room for four to six hours), Prestine Clean was sprayed onto a clean terry towel (that had been rinsed in warm water then wrung almost completely dry), then the terry towel wiped across the leather to remove the Rejuvenator Oil (and all the dirt that it helps remove).  Several towels were used in this process, but they wash up for reuse with Tide, bleach and hot water (no fabric softer ever on any car towels...period).  The results were amazing! 


Can you tell which half is clean and which half is still dirty?

A little closer look...

A real close look!!

However, I did notice that some of the dye was being removed when wiping down with Prestine Clean.  This, combined with the UV fading I already noticed, confirmed a re-dye was in my future. 

The seats were really dirty, but came clean relatively easy.  The door panels, on the other hand, were a different story.  You may recall in my last post an extreme close-up of the dirt and grime in the pores of the driver’s door panel.  Chalk it up to 24 years of sweaty arms and dirty hands.


Here's the extreme close up again...

These panels gave me the most trouble.  I put enough Rejuvenator Oil and Prestine Clean on those panels to float a battleship!!  After hours of rubbing, I just couldn’t get the leather clean like I wanted.  George at Leatherique and I swapped e-mails.  He suggested I use a soft bristled brush.  I tried an old toothbrush first, but the handle angle wasn’t conducive to this kind of work.  I found a scrub brush that I could easily hold in the palm of my hand and began to very gently brush the hide.  The bristles worked the dirt, sweat and grime out of the pores of the leather and left a very clean result. 

A little closer... 

Here is a shot of all the trim pieces that needed cleaned (and will also need re-dyed to match the rest of the interior). 

Here is a close up of part of the center console.  Note the how the original color is intact where the knobs and switches attach to the console, but all the surrounding areas are faded.

When researching how to do this process, you'll probably run across articles that mention wrapping the leather in plastic when the Rejuvenator Oil is applied.  Some say this helps keep the oil from evaporating.  I had a couple conversations with the folks from Leatherique and they really dispelled this myth.  The only time plastic should be used is if the seats are still in the car and you apply the Rejuvenator Oil, then need to move the car around.  You certainly don't want oily pants, so you can put plastic on the seats to move the car in and out of the garage.  One EXTREME word of caution....(coming from the folks at Leatherique)....do not (stress, DO NOT) use black plastic garbage bags to wrap any leather item.  I won't get into the reason on this forum, but do some research....you might be amazed as to the reason.  I certainly was!!


I will have to admit, though, that I did wrap some parts in clear kitchen plastic wrap.  You could definitely see the oil evaporating and adhering to the underside of the wrap after sitting in the homemade steam room for a few hours.  However, I really couldn't tell a difference between the parts that were wrapped and the parts that were not wrapped.  So, if I had to do this process again, I'd probably not waste the plastic wrap. 


The next part of this series will document the painstaking process of re-dying the leather.  The process itself is not difficult, but can be very time consuming.  Especially, doing it the way I did.  Stay tuned for the next part of this series…..


(I sure hope the Geek Squad can recover the contents of our hard drive so I can post some pictures of the re-dye!!!)