I just ordered some care products from Leatherique and they refunded my money saying that they don’t sell into the US. Huh? Since when is this and why???
I did a search and the latest post is something like 2010 so I found nothing there giving an explanation.
I bought some just in April. They have a Website, but their sales are decidedly 1990’s level of sophistication.
Is that a leather dye?
I’m currently trying to restore my hard leather seats, Connolys didn’t work, I’m now going old school with neatsfoot oil. Doesn’t smell great, but not too bad a smell.
You were probably ordering off their Canada or Australia website, which is a separately licensed company. Check again where you ordered from. It’s on Amazon too btw.
Nope. I bought it from the guy in North or South Carolina.
Don’t know. I notice Amazon offers all products except dyes. I have bought dye from a few Jaguar suppliers in the US, including Paul’s in Florida.
@Robert_Laughton is an active member on this list an an outstanding bloke generally.
Last I heard, Rob was still in charge of Leatherique products in Canada. Perhaps you could PM him and see if he can ship to the US (assuming he is still in that business).
They have everything for repairing and maintaining leather. Even filler for cracks and then an acrylic to go over it and the whole leather to make everything invisible and new.
I am going to answer their email and refund and ask what’s going on.
I always used vegetable oil on my baseball glove and it worked great to soften and protect the leather from moister. Leather is leather. ( gotta have a “yogism” if you reference baseball.
Phillip
There has apparently been some confusion over that name through the years. There is (1) a gent in (FL?) that owns a co. with that name. Their product of the same name is a very dense fatty fluid that is used for supposedly softening up “cardboard hard” leather. I have my personal differences over that claim, but oh well … 
They also sell a product called “Pristeen Clean” used to clean the leather before (or after treating) with the Leatherique product. (to me, that stuff looked and smelled just like Formula 409 cleaner, btw) Then, there is (2) another co. that (used?) to have that same name based in the UK, which sells dye products for the inside of cars, particularly those of Brit origin. Eventually, the co. changed its name to “Gliptone, Ltd.” (hmmmm I wonder why? 
) The co. had a dye product called “Scuffmaster”, which originally came in a small kit that included color-matched OEM dye (e.g. “Jaguar Doeskin”), a small foam applicator pad, and tiny twin eye drop bottles of “lightener” and “darkener” that could be added to the dye to more precisely match the color you need, to compensate for sun fading and such (you could also send them a swatch and they would match it at the factory). I loved that product and used it on all my Jags. Unfortunately, that co. was bought out several years ago and no longer has the Scuffmaster kit in their product line (and yes, I complained loudly to them about that, to no avail).
Having now been experiencing hardened seats in Superblue, I decided to go with an off-the-shelf product I had heard about many years again - Lexol. It is similar to Leatherique, and it has a companion product that, like with Pristeen Clean, is used to clean the leather before application or to remove traces of it after you have finished treating the area. I tried applying it to my passenger seat cushion in the hot summer sun and letting it sit all day with the windows rolled up. Checking things the next day I couldn’t tell the leather was one bit softer, though. 
I then suddenly remembered a “lesson” I had forgotten back when I was trying to soften up the seats in my XJ40s many years earlier, w/o success. As we discussed on the forum back then, apparently at the Jag factory the Connolly leather in post-'87 or so Jags received a coat of clear spray lacquer over it to act as a sort of “Scotch Guard” and protect it and help lengthen the life of it w/o cracking. THE MENTIONED LEATHER SOFTENER PRODUCTS CANNOT PENETRATE THAT LAYER OF LACQUER. In fact, IIRC, the U.S. Leatherique co. advised taking a piece of fine grit sandpaper and lightly rubbing the leather first to remove the lacquer so that their product could soak into the leather. They cautioned though not to “overdo it”, as leather which has been “roughed up” with sandpaper = suede. Since one of my XJ40s at the time was an old beater, I tried doing this and was still not happy with the end result, so I ended up tossing that co.'s products and have since then just put up with it through the years. 
Hi Paul,
You did order from the Leatherique Canada site, and I did refund because Canada is my territory.
I didn’t know it was “one of us” on this site though.
I get orders from the USA sometimes, due to the favorable exchange rate, but I can’t fill the order.
Please order through leatherique.com which is the owner’s site in SC.
Thanks,
Rob Laughton
Leatherique Canada
www.leatheriquecanada.com
I purchased several times from the US site. Both the Pristeen clean and the softener. They work as advertised on my 95 XJS. The seats were recovered in Connolly hides by Paul’s Jaguars back in 2002 when I bought this car.
I use the park it in the sun technique but never sanded
Hmmmm … I wonder then if it was not Connolly that applied the lacquer coat, but Jag before the cars left the factory. If so, that would explain why Paul’s recover would “accept” the Leatherique liquid. Were the “re-cover” leather bits identical in appearance and feel to the original factory leather? 
btw, I see (stubborn) Paul still does not accept Paypal, despite being a long-time Ebay vendor. 
When I brought that up once with him, he - despite his “invitation” on the site to ask about it - blocked me. I really did not feel comfortable giving a vendor my cc # over the Internet. 
Any idea what’s his beef with Paypal?
Also, while we’re on the subject of seat covers, I still have the pair of front seat recovering kit that I bought on Ebay many years ago for my '95 XJS coupe. It’s black (warm charcoal?). That particular style only works with the '95 and '96 XJSes. Very nice, and still in the box. Problem was that Supercat got totaled in her accident just a few days after I bought the kit, so I was stuck with it (other driver’s ins. also refused to reimburse me for the kit, since they were not yet installed on the car 
). I think I paid $500 for it back then, but would obviously take less than that to unload it, if anyone is interested.
Not me. His website doesn’t give much info. Guess he is a phone call kind of business.
I personally haven’t dealt with him. The seller of my car had the seats recovered by Paul for me before I took possession
Can you send me photos of the kit. I’m interested.
Will do. Need to find and dig them out of my storage first. Also want to reopen the box to make sure they are still O.K. - no moth damage. 
Atty, yes the recovered were just like original. Perfect match.
Not sure about lacquering… maybe it was done in MY before 95?
As for “sanding”, from the Connolly info at Wikipedia -
The company also sold leather-care products (e.g. Connolly Hide-Food); restoring leather is sometimes known as “Connollising”, thanks to the reputation of the company.
Although “Connollising” is somewhat shrouded in secret, it basically involves scrubbing down the leather with a cleaner/soap while using a stiff brush (such as a nail brush) or slightly abrasive sponge which thins and removes most of the original surface color & finish. The leather is then moisturized and recolored, bringing it back as close to original condition as possible. Connollising involves the leather surface more than the leather itself. Connollising can not fix cracks or extremely dry leather. Connollising fixes the “wear and tear” of the surface due to typical usage and age (and possibly some neglect).
But i have read in some forums about folks sanding the leather when re-dying it
No hurry. Send when you can.
A note on Leatherique with the XJS-
I’ve a 1977 with red interior.
I used a copious amount of rejuvinaotr oil on the seats to get them back to somewhere decent once I got the car as the leather was in BAD shape, it cracked when touched, and I didn’t date sit in them.
After a couple weeks of application in the hot sun, the seats became usable again HOWEVER, when I used the cleaner and even when I applied the oil, the leather dye bled out and the seats became very sticky. Like, a toddler’s hands after eating ice cream kind of sticky, it was bad. I had to clean them a lot.
A combination of the leatherique cleaner, wiping and finally, Lexol cleaner got rid of the stickyness.
In the end, there are definitely some lighter spots and the seats were staining tee shirts for a while as the dye bled out through the whole process.
Perhaps it was my incorrect use, I don’t know.
In any case, it was still better than having to replace the interior. it was a win for Leatherique in my opinion.