Differentiating between leather types

[Spilchy]

How can you be sure if you are working on leather that is either classic leather or vinyl coated leather?



Is there a way to tell?

[imported_f150smith]

I`m glad you brought this subject up. I was detailing the inside of my F150 and Cadi last week and became somewhat confused about what I should use on different parts of the interiors. Seems that the seats are for the most part leather. But is it coated or not? Another issue I ran into was the dash in the Cadi. It`s soft and padded, but is it leather or vinyl or coated leather?



I hope someone can chime in on this topic.

[SK2003TypeS]

Yes, good topic. I just logged into my "owner`s link" and all it says is "Leather trimmed seats and door panels". The leather has a satin look to it, so I`m guessing it`s coated.



I started 303 on the leather when I first got it and had good results. Recently I`ve been using Pinnacle Cleaner/conditioner, again good results.



But still, I`d like to understand leather better. Also, how would you treat suede ? I have that on another car I`d like to treat.

[tpgsr]

if you take some water and drip it onto the leather, traditional leather will absorb the water and coated will bead and not absorb. That is the only way that i know of differentiating.



As for suede, I find it best to use a spray bottle of water with a very mild very diluted bit of soap in it. I used wollite on the $1,000 dollar recaros that i had to do. I dilluted it around 50:1 and used very very little. The trick to suede is not to get it real wet. You want to spray a light mist of the cleaning solution, then use a leather brush to bring out the nap, and follow over to dry with a cotton terry towel.



My only concern is that what you are looking at isn`t exactly suede, it most likely is Alcantara. It is a suede immitator. There are actually products made to work with this material, but if you use the method i outlined above, you should be fine, you just might not get "perfect" results.

[Mantic6t9]

I`ve found that almost all american cars have coated leather.

[GoodnClean]

The water bead test is really the best way to know.



f150smith- Every Cadillac I`ve ever seen has coated leather. As for the dash, its vinyl not leather. Hope that helps!