This is the year the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts celebrates 65 years of lawn events. "America's Oldest Car Collection" resides in a Carriage House at the edge of a picture perfect park. Larz and Isabel Anderson were early enthusiasts who began their collection of automobiles over 100 years ago. One a recent weekend, this beautiful setting was filled with German cars. Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Opel and Volkswagon were all there, parked randomly on the summer green lawn. The sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy, the sun was out, and most of the bolsters were cracked. Simple maintenance could have prevented most of this damage.
First, let me get to the reason for the cracking on the bolsters. The final color of an auto interior is a resin surface coating over a (usually) vat dyed hide. The cracking starts in this color coating. Under the color coating the leather is losing moisture. Beneath the top layer of the leather is a layer of omni-direction fibers. It is this netwo5rk that gives leather its strength and durability. as it ages, moisture is lost from the fibers. As the leather loses moisture, it shrinks away from the color coating, deepening the cracks. Leather that has not been properly maintained, or re-hydrated, will itself start to crack contributing to even further deterioration of the bolsters.
You can put a stop to this spiral into deterioration with regular maintenance by using SOFFENER Leather Conditioner from Color-Plus. Most conditioning products on the market are topical. This means that very little of the conditioner absorbs further into the leather than just below the surface. And this is what contributes to the "cracking and shrinking" going on in the bolsters, and in other areas of your interior. SOFFENER migrated through the top of the hide and absorbs into the interior, replacing the moisture that the leather loses through use, and exposure to sun and heat. The action is similar to tossing a dry sponge into water. The sponge absorbs the water and plumps up. Your leather fibers are re-hydrating by absorbing moisture and "plumping up" filling in the minute space created by the cracking color coasting and the dry leather. With the leather re-hydrated, the existing cracks minimize. Regular maintenance with SOFFENER prevents further cracking of the bolsters as well as in other parts of you interior.
What if your Bolsters are already cracked?
For larger cracks, fill the cracks with FLEX-FILL. Then apply SURFLEX, the flexible surface colorant for leather and vinyl. Once the repair is completed, maintain with SOFFENER as described above.