Ink Stain on Leather Seats

[fast_e_man]

I have a leather cleaning question for the board.

My wife took our boys to a 5 K running event, where the race organizers playfully drew tatoo's on my 8 year old's arm with permanent ink markers. They stopped by the swimming pool on the way home, and after the swim, the ink rubbed off his arm onto the tan leather seats in my car. (A big ugly 10" long smear).

Formula 409 and mineral spirits have had zero effect. Thinking of trying laquer thinner but I'm afraid that may damage the leather.

Has anyone had experience with removing permanent ink marker (or similar) stains from leather seats.

I'm still at work and haven't seen the ink smear, but the description I've gotten over the phone makes it sound really ugly.

Thanks for any helpful advice.

Ed
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80 SC Targa 3.2/7:31

[howie944]

I sometimes write with a fountain pen. I've never experienced a leak with any of the different ones I use but when filling them I sometimes get some ink on my fingers (clumsy me). I've found a product called Spray Nine which works great to remove the ink. Its similar to 409 or Fantastik but seems to be much stronger. I get it at the local ACE hardware for about 4 bucks a bottle. Can't guarantee it will work in your situation but might be worth a try. When done treat the leather with Lexol or product of your choice. Good luck!

[ChrisL]

I would contact someone like carcareonline.com and get a professional opinion. Goof Off would probably get it out, but would also remove some of the finish on your leather. I'll second the recommendation that you follow it up with a generous treatment of Lexol.

Chris.

[Dan Owens]

Howie,

You need to be really careful here on what you use and how you use it. You could end up wicking the ink deep inside the leather and it might not ever come out or if you get too aggressive on a cleaner you may take the dye right out of the seat. I'd find one of the leather restoring companies and contact them. Most will be happy to give you advise on this for free and if not it shouldn't be all that expensive to have them clean it. If you reall want to do it yourself use hair spray and a clean white towel. Don't over soak the leather though. Then use a good cleaner and conditioner on the leather.

[walt]

I suggest you also contact leatherique. I has some black dye from a belt rub off on the seat back and have not been able to remove it. It might be necessary to re-dye a portion of the seat in which case leatherique can match the color.

[fast_e_man]

Wow,

Thanks for all the good ideas. I'm going to write down all the suggestions and call a couple of auto upholstery shops here in town (for starters). I've had some prior recommendations from fellow P-car owners regarding who does top notch car upholstry work in the Denver area. Armed with your ideas and the thoughts about not wanting to wick the ink further into the leather should allow me to dig a little deeper and see what the shop owners think. I will post some results from this, but it's gunna be a few days --- the job is demanding some attention this week. BTW, my wife was right, the ink stain is not very pretty. The good news is my wife took 3rd place in the 5k race, so we won a new ice chest.

thanks again for the ideas!

Ed
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80SC targa 3.2/7:31

[pwd72s]

Originally posted by Dan Owens
Howie,

You need to be really careful here on what you use and how you use it. You could end up wicking the ink deep inside the leather and it might not ever come out or if you get too aggressive on a cleaner you may take the dye right out of the seat. I'd find one of the leather restoring companies and contact them. Most will be happy to give you advise on this for free and if not it shouldn't be all that expensive to have them clean it. If you reall want to do it yourself use hair spray and a clean white towel. Don't over soak the leather though. Then use a good cleaner and conditioner on the leather.

Ditto. I'd do a LOT of research here before I did anything...for fear of making it worse.