Cleaning the Stains on My Leather Seats

In a recent post, I wrote about the stains on my Panamera’s leather seats. I’d tested the SOFT99 Genuine Leather Cleaning Wipes (¥264) on a small section and was pleased with the results, so I decided to give the whole seat a wipe-down another day. The area I’d tested is circled in red.

The circled area looks a little cleaner, while the rest still looks rather grimy. So I wiped down the whole seat, and here’s how it turned out.

Well, what do you think?(In the style of Shigeo Nagashima)

It looks a little brighter. Here’s a closer look.

【Before】

【After】

Well, what do you think?(In the style of Shigeo Nagashima)

Can you spot the subtle difference? To the naked eye, the seat looked much cleaner, but I’m clearly not great at taking photos (maybe I’ll bring out my DSLR and do it properly next time). Even so, the worst denim dye transfer wouldn’t come off, no matter how hard I tried.

This spot was especially stubborn.

Time to Bring Out the Magic Eraser

So it was time for my secret weapon: the “Gekiochi-kun” melamine sponge, similar to a Magic Eraser. I dampened it with water and gave the seat a wipe. Here’s the result.

Can you see how the grimy blue area looks a little cleaner? I was so excited—“Wow, that actually worked!”—that I went ahead and wiped down the whole seat with the damp sponge. But I got carried away and scrubbed too hard, and the sponge started falling apart.

I hurriedly cleaned up the scattered sponge residue with the leather wipes, and that was that. (“Wiping a seat with wipes” sounds a bit confusing when you put it into words.) One thing to watch out for: if the sponge is too wet, dirty water will run out as you wipe, so don’t soak it.

And here’s the final result.

The Final Look at My Leather Seats

Well, what do you think?(In the style of Shigeo Nagashima)

Here’s how the seat looked before I cleaned it at all:

Side by side, I think it looks cleaner. I’ve done all I can, though. These seats aren’t new, so I’ll call this a win. And here’s my “spoils of battle.”

Not exactly spoils of battle, of course—I just took photos as proof of all that wiping. This whole experience has convinced me that, from now on, black seats are the way to go.