Cleaning your seats/carpet.

[AaronATX]

Whats the most effective way to help bring a bit of life back to some old old carpet in a mustang? Its getting faded and dingy now, and before I replace it i'd like to see if I can get it looking better with some elbow grease first.

[85 Notchback]

When I was working at a detailing shop, we used a carpet cleaner type thing (it had a detachable head) That just used hot water and detergent. It work wonders, there was some pretty nasty crap that came throught there. On the other hand there's the poor mans way (my way). I took my carpet out, threw it in the back of the truck on a nice sunny day, drove to the car wash and pressure washed the hell out of it with soap, then rinse. Brought it back home and let it dry out on the deck all day. That thing was CLEAN when I was done. The seats, will either have to be carpet cleaned, or you can buy that "Dry Clean" foam in a can that you spray on the seats and scrub them until you have a heart attack, that works pretty well too 8)

[ethangsmith]

SIMPLE GREEN! It's cheap, available at Wal-Mart, and works great! Futurexdesign gave me a set out of his car that he had stored for a long time and it was faded and stained. I Simple Greened the thing and it really looks fantastic. I am going to do the whole inside of my car with it this summer!

[Puter]

If you don't feel like taking the carpet out, I used some of that "Tuff Stuff" you get from any auto parts store. It has a cheap plastic scrubber head to scrub the stains. I then rented a shampooer from some grocery store and made sure that I got the upholstery head.

For the seats, I have also used the "Tuff Stuff", then pressure sprayed them. After they dried (at least 24 hours), I backed that up with ScotchGuard.

[slickshift]

That Tuff Stuff foam works great to clean mildew off dashes and whatnot
It's actually one of the few things that works on mildew stains

[CarlsV6]

Steam cleaner + Tuff stuff worked amazingly on my Vert when I did the door panels and seats, really brought some life back to it. And the tuff stuff was great on the dash and other panels, followed by several coats of armor-all to try and get some moisture into the dried out panels.

[Puter]

followed by several coats of armor-all to try and get some moisture into the dried out panels.

I'm not a fan of ArmorAll after using it for several years myself. I've been using something from 3M called "Renew". It's a cream, contains UV protection, non-glossy so the sun doesn't blind me from reflections, and is very low-dust.

Darn stuff is fantastic, but hard to find. I found it at Autozone.

[Philly5.0girl]

LOOOOOVE simple green, works amazing. Almost every car I buy gets the simple green treatment.

[J. Alden]

Philly Girl, Do you Simple Green the seats also?

J.

[negusm]

Philly Girl, Do you Simple Green the seats also?

J.

I do. Simple Green works great. For EXTRA stubborn stains use 50/50 mix of Castrol Super Clean and water.

-Mike

[slickshift]

For EXTRA stubborn stains use 50/50 mix of Castrol Super Clean.

-Mike

Do you mean 50/50 SG & CSC?
I use them both often enough to buy them in the warehouse size bottles
But the thought of mixing chemicals like that scares me
It's not one of those ammonia/bleach death cloud things?

I feel like I'm writing to Helpful Heloise's Household Hints here
Will it get the ground-in grass stains out of Tommy's little league uniform without making my neighborhood a superfund site?
If it does make a death cloud, how can I make sure it floats over to the Dickersons on Elm?
Thank You
A Concerned and Vengeful Housewife

[negusm]

For EXTRA stubborn stains use 50/50 mix of Castrol Super Clean.

-Mike

Do you mean 50/50 SG & CSC?
I use them both often enough to buy them in the warehouse size bottles
But the thought of mixing chemicals like that scares me
It's not one of those ammonia/bleach death cloud things?

I feel like I'm writing to Helpful Heloise's Household Hints here
Will it get the ground-in grass stains out of Tommy's little league uniform without making my neighborhood a superfund site?
If it does make a death cloud, how can I make sure it floats over to the Dickersons on Elm?
Thank You
A Concerned and Vengeful Housewife

SORRY! 50/50 water and super clean!

-Mike

[AaronATX]

which simple green? Automotive stuff or the household stuff?

And I guess you just spray/dab it on and then go back over it when I dry cloth to try and suck the moisture back up?

I suck at cleaning.

[negusm]

which simple green? Automotive stuff or the household stuff?

And I guess you just spray/dab it on and then go back over it when I dry cloth to try and suck the moisture back up?

I suck at cleaning.

I use the automotive stuff...but I bet its probably all the same.

I spray it on, rub (sratch) it in and try to dry it up with a cloth (toilet paper seems to absorb the best). Then I vacuum it.

For my door panels I used a small bit of water to rinse it out and then stood them up in the sun to dry and drain. I didn't want the cardboard soaking up too much moistere.

-Mike

[slickshift]

SORRY! 50/50 water and super clean!

-Mike
<cue screaching brakes>
Stopped me just in time, I almost wiped out CT, RI, and Long Island

I usually only use the CSC sparingly, and not usually on upholstery (for fear of bleaching it), but I have some tough spots on this interior, maybe I'll try the 50/50 mix, thanks for the tip
That Super-Clean is pretty potent

[anthonydalrymple]

What kind of mixture do you guy's\gal's use for the simple green? Carpet mixture different than the seat mixture? Thanks in advance! My carpet soooooo looks like crap right now.....

[Philly5.0girl]

I do about 80/30 water to simple green.

This was the 85 GT we had ( that Mighty Mouse has now :) )
Even though the pic is kind of dark, you can see in the before how cruddy the seats were, the drivers seat cushion was almost black- and you can see how nice they cleaned up after some simple green

http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic/11043cixAG/326019.jpg
http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic/11043cixAG/326020.jpg

[anthonydalrymple]

I do about 80/30 water to simple green.



Alway's giving you're pride & joy 110% I guess, huh?;)

[Philly5.0girl]

:oops: oops!

LOL, it was late when I wrote that. I meant 80/20.

But yes, I always give 110%.

[negusm]

http://www.foureyedpride.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15904

[fede85gt]

Friend of mine who was is in the used car bussines use to take the seat covers off and just drop them in the washing machine, coupled with oxiclean, it gave them a 2nd. life. ;)

By the way oxiclean does wonders for carpet stains also, just follow the instructions down to the letter and youll be set.