I picked up a set of stock black seats for $60 last weekend. They had been in a guy’s dusty garage and were filthy. I tried some regular carpet cleaner but it seemed too strong. I got this Armor All stuff and it worked great.
On the left is the cleaned passenger seat, the right is the drivers seat after being only vacuumed.
Too get an idea of how dirty these things where, this was under the driver’s seatbelt.
Just thought I’d share the results with my fellow G2IC’ers. One can at like $4 is plenty to do both seats and it works great. The only thing is I had to go back over the seats with a wet cloth because in some places the cleaner made the fabric kind of stiff.
I used something like this… $5 at Kragen. It doesn’t leave the seats stiff. Smells good and very easy to use. The cool part is the little brush that comes with it… spray on, wait for a sec, then brush off…
While on the subject, has anyone ever scotch-guarded their seats? I was thinking that while they are clean and outside the car it would be a good time to take some preventative measures.
If you have the time to wait for the seats to dry, I would suggest renting the Rug Doctor unit. $20 or so if I remember correctly. But I was amazed at the amount of brown colored liquid came from the fabric. With seats over a decade old, you never know what’s in there.
yea if you have the tools/time you should go for the uber clean with a machine. i did it to my old civic before we donated it. Stains years old can come out. Its amazing.
For a quickie clean though the spray on should be fine.
I would go with the least aggressive stuff first: Soap and water. Rinse well with plain water, dry it with lint-free towels. Rinse and dry again. I like Blue Magic Leather and Vinyl Cleaner. Smells just like saddle soap, guessing that’s essentially what it is. If that doesn’t get it dry enough for you, Dawn dish detergent has ammonia.
