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Upholstery cleaning ideas?

11K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  luckies 
#1 ·
I'm looking for a good product to clean my interior. The seats I have are leather/cloth and the cloth part of them are pretty stained, mainly the back ones, I'm guessing because the previous owner had kids. I've already used a can of the Turtle Wax Oxy Interior cleaner/stain remover on one of the seats and it's got out a bunch of the stains but they still look.... nappy. Are there any home mixtures or other good products to use to clean the seats and possibly bring back the bright color that they used to be?

I've considered using a shampooer, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea or not. I don't want the seats to get "water logged", for lack of better terms. Any suggestions or tips on what to use?
 
#3 ·
I know this is an old post but i thought i would put my 2 cents in.
I work in the automotive interiors business with leather, cloth and vinyl materials and when we clean parts before we ship them to a customer we wipe them down with Murphy's oil soap, yes the hardwood floor cleaner. We mix a couple cap fulls of that stuff with water in a spray bottle not too much that it makes bubbles though. I use it in my own car on the plastic dash on the cloth seats and everywhere cleans it up nice and smells great.

As for the stains, If you have an air compressor with a nozzle that just blows air you can spray some of the Murphy's oil soap on it, Let it soak in and you can blow the stain with the air. Sometimes its more effective to blow the stain through the seat than try to pick it up with an extractor or a rag.
 
#4 ·
I use Pure Acetone for anything really tough like grease and it yields great results. Rubbing alcohol removes gum stuck to anything. I
Dawn dish soap, piping hot water, and a wet/dry vac for any "sticky" food stains. If the floor mat/ entire carpet is woebegone I spot treat with Dawn and hot water then have it soak for 5 min. I then break out the pressure washer and go to town and blast every stain and dirt particle off. Hang it on a fence to dry and after it dries use a upright vacuum to fluff up the carpet again and it will be like NEW! These are my tactics tried and true. :thumb:
 
#6 ·
MadMax said:
How about the light color headliner? I need to clean mine, just not sure what the best way is :shrug: Any ideas?
Okay headliners are EXTREMELY delicate. You need to first identify what dirt you are cleaning (grease, soil, or dust). My motto is go with the most gentle method first and work your way up. I always try to use a vacuum hose to suction up the dirt first, If it's more stubborn I use a clean paint brush to gently loosen the dirt while sucking with the hose. If it is a stain blotch it when it first happens if it is dry moisten the stain with water and DAB it with a dry paper towel to pull the stain out. If you got greasy hands on it, use pure acetone with a cotton ball. Be light and gentle when scrubbing, do small areas at a time so the glue/foam doesn't get destroyed. Be very careful when using acetone on the roof liner as prolonged exposure to the glue will cause it to fail and it can melt plastic with ease. This is a final resort but, almost always works. Good Luck and be patient. :rockon:
 
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