CLEAN MACHINE

Grease and dirt can make high-contact areas of your Porsche’s leather look shiny. Wallbank has the cure, costing little more than a quid...

This month, I decided to treat my 987 Boxster to some more DIY detailing and turned my attention to the car’s full grey leather interior. Considering the age and mileage of the beautiful blue rag-top, the sumptuous hide is in amazing overall condition, but highcontact surfaces were beginning to look rather shiny. The steering wheel, driver’s seat bolster, gear knob and handbrake cover were the worst offenders.

You may remember a previous ‘fleet’ article about detailing the Alcantara in my 981 Cayman GTS (now sold to a new owner, but this is a story for another time). The shiny material I was doing battle with wasn’t wear as such, rather a build-up of grease and dirt deposits. All I needed to do was carefully remove the layer of muck. I reasoned the same was true of the leather in my Boxster.

Even if you’re a very clean person and wash your hands regularly, your skin carries natural oils contributing to the shiny appearance of automotive interior surfaces. It’s somewhat unavoidable with regular use. To help combat this unsightly affliction, I’d like to share with you my simple guide to getting your Porsche’s leather back to its original matte-looking factory appearance. As you’ll discover, my preferred method is easy, cheap and not particularly time consuming.

All you need is a clean microfibre cloth, general household washing-up liquid mixed with hot water in a bowl and — the most important piece of apparatus in this process — a ‘magic eraser’ sponge. There are plenty of different brands making these type of sponges, but I tend to use Flash’s offering, which can be bought through Amazon Marketplace for around £1 per sponge. See, I told you this would be a cheap fix!

The process and method is really quite simple. The first step is to fully soak and submerge the sponge in your soapy bowl of water, then rinse out the excess liquid before gently rubbing the leather with the sponge. I find it best to work the leather back and forth, rather than doing so in a circular motion. Of course, depending on how dirty or shiny your leather is will depend on how many passes are required.

You should start seeing the dirt transfer away from the surface and onto the

sponge straightaway. You’ll be amazed at the amount of dirt and grease released from your car’s steering wheel. The same will be true of the handbrake cover. Have a look and see how affected your car’s door card handles have become. You’ll also be impressed by the fact you don’t need to apply much pressure to the sponge to achieve great results.

I use the clean microfibre cloth to wipe off any excess soapy water before letting the leather dry naturally. And this really is all there is to it! You should see an immediate difference.

Some of you will argue it can be beneficial to feed the leather with a moisturising balm to counter the possibility of natural oils being removed through the cleaning process, but I’ve done without for many years — for almost a decade, I periodically cleaned the leather in my 2005 997-generation 911 the way I’ve described on these pages and didn’t experience any premature cracking or drying of the hide.

As you can see from the photographs on these pages, the ‘before’ and ‘after’ state of the leather is like night and day. I’m thrilled with the results and hope you achieve something similar when detailing your own Porsche. Feel free to send me photos of the results by emailing this magazine or by contacting me via Instagram. You can find me at @chris_wallbank. I look forward to hearing from you. ●

Above The 987 still looks fresh, but can be given an even newer appearance though considered detailing of key areas

Right Impressive results don’t always come at high cost

Above ‘Magic eraser’ sponge, a bowl of soapy water and a drying cloth is all you need to rid your Porsche’s leather of its build-up of grime