Oyster Interior Durability?

[dalepearson]

Another pre purchase question for you guys.

I quite like the look of the Oyster Interior, and I had something similar in an Elise a long time ago.

I appreciate it could show dirt easier, but as I clean my cars alot I am not to phased by this. I just want a feel for how the light colour is durability wise, and also good and bad feedback from people who have it in theirs.

Who knows I may plays safe and stick with the black, but I think the Oyster adds abit more up market look to it somehow, but hopefully not to OTT.

[anubis1]

Oyster is absolute no problem. Also Jeans on it for more than 5 hours drive in the summer. I clean it with a leathercleaner every 6 month and put some leather conditioner on it = perfect. I would rebuy it at everytime again. the only critical poiont is there where the belt goes over to the shoulder; this point must be cleaned a bit more often because it gets light grey from the belt.

[Bibs]

Leather conditioner hasn't been effective since the late 80's, leather now is sealed and can't absorb the conditioner.

[Suddabym]

Agreed. I have the oyster and it's fine. I clean and treat reasonably regularly. My car is 18 months old now and I am finding that the driver's seat outside side bolster (?) is wearing wear I drag my ass across it, but that's not an issue with the colour, although it would show less if it was a darker leather. My dealer can treat reasonably easily though.

Mark

[anubis1]

@Bibs it is not an ordinary conditioner ... it is a treating milk that gives a smell of old library. The company which produces it is called Gliptone. I love it, my wife don't=keeps her out of the car! Ritchie

[Bibs]

I've got Gliptone product, I used to use it on my Esprit.

Nick Fulcher who has been working with car interiors since the 60's and still does work for Lotus from time to time told us of the changes to leather. They're polymer sealed, you're rubbing product onto a thin layer of plastic so you might as well be rubbing onto the paintwork, the leather sees no benefit.

Nick will confirm this, give him a call if you want to know more, he's a living legend! http://www.coachtrimmer.co.uk/

[Suddabym]

Don't say that. I like treating my leather. What am I going to do now?!

[Bibs]

Carry on, enjoy yourself! Just don't expect it to actually do anything

[Suddabym]

Well, you've ruined it for me now.

I have decided to not believe you and am going to carry on anyway.

And any way, this is Lotus we're talking about; so they probably forgot to put the plastic layer-thingy on my seats. I'm going with that.

Mark

[Bibs]

Makes it smell nice too doesn't it

[Suddabym]

It does, actually. I'm going with that too

[JonneyB]

Bringing this one back up..

Gradual deterioration.  Any suggestions on how to a) stop this getting worse and b) restore them?

[gregs24]

Sadly it was a QC problem at Recaro which means TADTS

 

MY12 onwards used a 'better' quality leather and suffers less although the design of the seat with heavy bolsters means that the surface will scratch eventually.

 

It is possible to 'repaint' the surface of leather

[sellman]

I had similar wear. I used gliptone liquid leather scuffmaster kit. I sent them a sample off cut from my interior. They matched it and gave me toners to match it 100%. The result is fantastic just dab the dye on with a sponge, I wish i'd got before and after pics. When I get chance I'll take apic of my seat . I did mine about 2 momths ago and use it daily

[Al]

I had a LE act with the early leather in Oyster and it wore exactly like yours.  The leather quality was actually much finer in the early cars as Greg said but downside is wear in those places.  MMC our dealer arranged for a touch up of the parts and it was called re-connolising or something but I wasn't involved.  Craig at MMC could help you with what they did.  It sounds exactly like Paul's product above as I could see the paint effect and was worried about it wearing off again which it would have done if I'd not traded up.

 

To be honest it has put me off an interior that light a colour ever again as a first and last time for me.  Even lighter greys etc. would hide it better although I only ever wear jeans which do not help for sure with pockets and studs etc.  I'm sure if you were a regular suit or chino type wearer it would be much better.  That and if I had a garage where I could even get the door 1/2 open!!

[auRouge]

You can buy the dyes on line but it needs care. I used these guys on my old 964 which had huge side bolsters. A mates 997 has had the same issue, I used Paul a specialist in sorting seats out. Cost me about £250 for two seats and the gear cover.

Watch the video clip of a 4 year old BMW seat, they are all prone to wear on the bolster... Quite a simple fix. My seats were really bad and the interior was all masked up before the spray job!

http://www.leatherrevive.co.uk

The chap (Paul) fills any cracks and then airbrush paints the seats with dye. He does it in layers and it takes a morning or so. He's a real professional and I was very happy with his work. He lives up North but comes down south every month so get your car booked in

[EuropaSman]

I use Gliptone GT12 cleaner and GT11 conditioner - excellent stuff and a nice smell too. As I have found out, it's best to keep the leather regularly maintained (clean and condition once every 3-6 months, but the Gliptone products goes a long way!).

 

I've also used their Scuffmaster product; as I'm only about 45 miles away from their HQ in Redditch I took to them (in the Evora of course) a sample of the oyster trim from the back of the centre console under the rear seat. It was the only bit I could get to! I've attached before and after photos (if any of you are on the Lotus Evora Owners Group on Facebook you will already have seen them).

 

I have to say even though I'm a bit cack handed the results are very good. As Sellman said back in April the kit comes with toners to match the exact colour of the leather. It is water based as well – if you mess up an initial application you can wipe/gently rub it away.

 

Gliptone had returned the sample to me, but I've sent it back for them to keep in their colour bank, so it should be available to others and me when I need more, as no doubt the bolster will show signs of wear again over time. For about £32 for the cleaner, conditioner and Scuffmaster it's a very good value fix. In fact if anybody has watched Car SOS on TV, the guys on that programme use a company on the outskirts of Birmingham called Bespoke Leathering (http://www.bespokeleathering.com/) and they use and retail Gliptone products.

Edited August 7, 2015 by EuropaSman

[C8RKH]

That's a nice set of before and after pictures. Impressive result too.

[sellman]

I should have posted my results but forgot to take the pictures : (.

 

Looks ace Mark.

[Kalli]

Fantastic. I've used Gliptone before and was weary of giving them a sample. But now someone else has done it, i'm getting right onto ordering some! Nice one matey!

[Kalli]

Mark - Do you have any details I can give to Gliptone? I've been trying to get the Oyster colour, but they cant find any details. They've brought up your invoice comments, and it only lists it as 'Cream' and cant do anything with that. 

 

Do you have any other details?

[EuropaSman]

Hi Tom.

 

Okay, from memory I dealt with a lady called Asmah. I sent back directly to her the samples with completed colour bank form which explicitly said they needed retain the colour samples. I had bagged up and labelled the samples "Lotus Evora 2009 Oyster two tone interior" from what I can remember. Asmah mentioned that the colour will be added to the new Gliptone website that was being worked on, so it won't appear on the old one.

 

I'm sure a member of the Lotus Evora Owners Group on Facebook ordered up an oyster Scuffmaster kit a day or so after Gliptone received the sample. I'll PM you his name.

 

I hope that helps. I'll be majorly cheesed off if they've lost the samples!

[Kalli]

Hi Mark,

 

Thanks for the response. I contated Gliptone again, and met with more confusion. They're apparently going to detangle their web of confusion and get back to me. 

[Alfa2Evora]

If you're still having problems with Gliptone, I recently ordered and received an Oyster repair kit. Tell them to look at Order # 33237 dated 20/07/15 if they're struggling to trace the details - it clearly states "Make to sample (Lotus Oyster). Sample to be kept for our records".

[Shorty]

I use the leather cleaner every three months from BMW more than 15 year in many cars. As a result I never had any problems with the leather. I have Oyster in my Evora too. For example I own a 1997 Ford Escort convertible. All older cars i saw on the streets have brittle leather around the gear knob. My one looks like as brand new from factory.

 

I never trust the car industry when the say that you have to do nothing... For example this remembers me to Jaguar or Audi. They said that you never have to change the oil in the automatic gearbox. The manufacturer of the gearbox (ZF) said you have to change it after 80tkm...