[hayerjoe]

Thanks everyone for your comments. There was, of course, no easy answer. But I thought I’d summarise my findings after I tried a number of the suggestions above.

For brightwork a fingernail or old credit card worked well

For leatherette, this is the best process:

1) I know this seems obvious but don't skimp on this, you really need to give the leatherette a damn good clean. I used a good kitchen spray n wipe product and a tough toothbrush. Important to scrub in swirls as it gets into all the grain. Then soak up the moisture with paper towels. do this repeatedly until the towels stop picking up dirt. It took me 4 very intensive scrubs to stop extracting dirt, but when dry it did look REALLY quite nice, and i would say 20% of paint flecks had already been removed, and another 20% had been softened

2) i then used a pick (not as sharp as a pin, or as blunt as a nail) to one by one removed the flecks. The beauty of the pick was because it wasn't too sharp it wouldn't cut the leatherette, but you could kind of scribble over an area moving in all directions and that helped remove flecks without having to be too precise

3) it took a long time, and I'd return days later to revisit areas I thought I'd completed, but the end result not only looks really good but it also feels great, almost slippery to the touch...you could say factory fresh!

Hope this info helps future restorers