What do you use to clean the upholstery on a really dirty vehicle? And the carpet too. She's all luxed out ready and waiting for a female touch.
rainrain1,
Feb 18, 6:56pm
Slighty ott, but a few good ideas. thanks
lissa25,
Feb 18, 7:22pm
It might seem ott, but most front seats come out with around 4 short bolts and in many cases an electrical plug, and rear seats are normally easier, much easier to give them a thorough cleaning outside the car than in. A quick search on youtube should show you seat removal, perhaps even for your model car, once you have done the first one, the second one should take about 5 minutes to get out. Not a job that you need previous experience for in most cases. The added bonus is with the seats out you can get into all those nooks and crannies in the carpet with ease.
shuddupowh,
Feb 18, 8:07pm
I like kazbanz idea - if you want it done right! I may look at doing that one day to all our cars - set one weekend aside just for that. I also seen a video on youtube of a guy who fully stripped his interior (except dashboard) and even cleaned the steel under the carpet even in the boot and pillars etc with cleaning product. Took him ages but he said it was much nicer smelling (previous owner had a dog) so just doing the seats wouldn't do much as it be everywhere (even showed dog hairs under the carpet!) I also don't want to think how many rags he went thru. But on the topic of electric seats, how dodgy is it water blaster & shampoo them compared to non-electric seats!?
tamarillo,
Feb 18, 8:17pm
Supermarket spot stain remover for worst bits, upholstery cleaner after that on while seats. Carpet cleaner and brush it into real bad stains. Carpet deodorise once all dried. Smell makes huge difference.
From super cheap warehouse etc armour all on all plastics. Cotton buds for cleaning vents and little places.
Kabanz is right if it is bad and you can, but if not too bad and can't do that this lesser approach will certainly help.
martin11,
Feb 18, 9:08pm
Do what is in post #2 to my car and you would destroy the electrics in the seat , a good carpet cleaning machine has attachments for doing cars seats without the need to take then out of the car .
kazbanz,
Feb 19, 12:07am
Just am word of warning-My advice is based on the current hot weather. If the weather ISN'T like it is now I wouldn't be going to that extent simply because you need the foam and fabric to dry completely or the car gets smelly with that wet carpet smell
kazbanz,
Feb 19, 12:10am
Rainrain--I PROMISE you that it actually ends up being quicker taking the seats out than trying to work into all the nooks n crannies of the car with them still in.
pandai,
Feb 19, 1:45am
Do the electrics in the seat - i.e. adjustment motors, occupancy sensors, SRS pretensioners, seat heaters, mind the water much?
kazbanz,
Feb 19, 2:22am
The cars with that stuff fitted don't come in with seats that filthy. Don't ask why but there seems to be a relationship between car quality and car cleanliness
sooby,
Feb 19, 3:59pm
Used to be a car valet many moons ago & agree with kazbanz about removing seats - way quicker than trying to clean in place PLUS you can move them around to follow sun to speed drying.
Never had to waterblaster an interior before, normally the wet & dry vac shampoo was enough after a couple of goes at it.
Important to make sure the upholstery is 100% dry before using, so pick a sunny weekend and wash saturday morning & dry saturday arvo & all sunday.
Just my 2 cents, good luck & post before & after photos
lookoutas,
Jun 6, 10:58am
Shame everyone has wasted time giving advise when we don't even know whether it's fabric, vinyl or leather!
I friend had a Cortina once, and previous owners had spilt all sorts of crap over the fabric seats. They had been cleaned & cleaned with a steam vac, but the stains would never come out. I had the base of the back seat out of the car and just out of stupidity, hit it with a steam cleaner. Quite a simple theory actually - sucking the crud out only sucks more crud out of the foam and into the fabric. I suppose sucking for long enough should get a result, but blowing it from the outside was quick and not re-contaminating the fabric. In fact, we could see the crud spewing out of the foam, until it was clear.
That caused enough excitement to remove all the seats, and the door trims. They took a few days to dry, but the result was perfect.
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.