Leather restoration / renovation

[Monty1502]

I have a 1968 Mercedes Pagoda. Recently I took it for some tuning work to a Mercedes specialist and whilst they were giving it a "once over" declared the leather interior to be "hard and needing replacing" .

I'm certainly no expert in the area of detailing / leather restoration, but does there come a time when leather is beyond " restoration/ renovation " , or is it always possible, with the liberal use of some form of connolising, to bring it back to life / softness ?

Please excuse the banal/basic question, as I said I'm no expert. Any advice, product recommendation or suggested action I can take ( without a full retrim ) would be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you in advance

[Jaz2000]

Sounds like they are trying to upsell, you didn't seem to think there is a problem with the leather until they mentioned it.
If you did want to do something with the interior many owners prefer to refurbish the existing leather and keep some patina than go for a full retrim which I imagine will be very expensive.

[dhutch]

I am coming here more looking for answers then to give them, but assuming its reasonable leather to start with rather than plastic bonded stuff in my bmw, I have had great success with Gliptones 'liquid leather' leather conditioner on my half leather pug 306 seats.

https://gliptoneeurope.com/product/car-leather-car...

[Belle427]

I was under the impression it requires a little light cleaning and maybe some good conditioner to keep it looking good.
Thats if its real leather.

[Monty1502]

Thanks very much for the replies - I'll give it a go with the products mentioned

[9xxNick]

OP, have you had a chance to try any of the conditioning products yet? It would be interesting to see the results.

In general, I have to agree with those who recommend reviving the original leather rather than retrimming. An OEM-quality retrim will be very expensive and you also run the risk of having a retrim done which doesn't meet expectations. On a car such as yours, I would also think having a good original interior would be significantly more desirable than having a retrimmed one, which would make me question the specialist's advice.