What Is Paint Thinners

Paint thinners is a solvent based thinner for taking paint off items and for thinning oil-based paints or solvent paints that are too thick for spraying equipment.

The thinners are an aggressive product designed to strip paint off surfaces when used this way.

Leather has a very fine surface lacquer coating, this coating is so fine that even after a few months some of this can be removed on brand new items, this is why it’s essential to protect leather from new with a leather protection cream or a dye stopper product.

Once this surface coating has been removed the leather painted surface is open to the elements, also with paints today being water based, these paints become absorbent, allowing moisture, spills and dirt to penetrate the paint and cause staining that’s difficult to remove and will require a full colour restoration.

Acrysol is another form of solvent that we see suggested to clean leather, again this is a solvent and should not be used on leather, shipping states the products can’t be shipped via any form or air freight services, the California proposition 65 states, cancer and reproductive harm!!!

There are so many things people suggest cleaning leather with it’s staggering, hairspray again contains solvents, then you get silly suggestions like toothpaste, vinegar, peanut butter etc etc.

Paint Thinners Diagram Showing How Leather Is Made and The Surface Coating

The clear coat lacquer layer on the leather is so thin you be lucky if this is even 0.01um thick, not even 1mm in thickness (which is 1000 um). Jeans can cause this exceptionally fine coating to be removed very quickly with getting in and out of the vehicle.

Therefore, using things that are caustic cleaning chemicals like APC’s, magic erasers, microfibre cloths or scrubber pads, will remove the surface coating in no time, dedicated natural soft bristle brushes are best at all times.