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The OEM Leather package only comes with leather faces and vinyl sides. The vinyl will photo-degrade (UV susceptibility). So use Lexol on the faces to clean and condition, use a vinyl UV blocker on the sides. You can tell one part from the other by the grain, the vinyl looks synthetic if you stare at it long enough; the leather has an irregular non-repeating texture.

 

Tint your windows to filter as much UV as possible; use a tint with a metallic sheen. The tint films made with metallic oxides imbedded within the film will last longer and absorb a larger portion of the spectra with greater efficiency. This will give you a head start on preserving your interior.

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Wowie!

Thank you for such a warm welcome!

 

Is Lexol an ingredient in more commonly known protectors? Or is it its own proprietary mixture?

Are there any brands of tint you suggest? I'm getting them tinted tomorrow hopefully :)

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Is Lexol an ingredient in more commonly known protectors? Or is it its own proprietary mixture?

 

Leather 101

 

Leather is skin. The skin on your body is kept hydrated and pH balanced by your epithelial cells maintaining homeostatic conditions within your dermis. For your seats, since the skin has been removed from the animal, this job falls upon you. Just like live skin, hides respond better to emulsified suspensions rather than petroleum distillates. And just like your skin, the flexibility and malleability is affected by the pH balance. As your leather dries, the pH drops (becomes more acidic).

 

With that said, you need to hydrate, but not with greasy sprays. You need to maintain optimum pH without over neutralization. Most leather conditioners contain strong bases that neutralize the acids that develop within the leather, problem is if to much base is applied to the leather, the pH will be too high (basic).

 

There are many leather conditioners and saddle soaps that will do the job of hydrating your leather, Lexol is not special in that aspect.

 

What I like about Lexol (which is brand, not an ingredient), is that it does not contain a base, rather a buffer. The buffer will bring your leather to the right pH range and hold it there until the solution desiccates, then you need to treat it again. They make a pretty good hydrating suspension (imo) and the plus is that they put the buffer together with it in one spray.

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Are there any brands of tint you suggest?

 

Sorry, I am accustomed to spotting films with ceramics imbedded in them; I don’t know of any specific brands. We had a visiting professor at the University of North Florida performing research in films containing titanium dioxide (high-tech stuff). So, you see one transition metal dioxide imbedded film, you've seen them all. You can spot them by their slight metallic sheen.

 

These films have ceramics imbedded in the polymer; the ceramics absorb the high energy photons and move to a sigma star exited state. By internally shifting their pi electrons, the energy is dissipated over time and the metal moves back from the degenerate energy excited level.

 

What this means is the film fades from black to grey over a period of 7-9 years, rather than black to purple (or blue) in 2-3 years.

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