Let's just say I have more than one vehicle that could use a DEEP cleaning. I've rented a professional carpet cleaner for my house before, I'm wondering, do they have anything like that for cars? I'm thinking something like a shop vac with a hose that both sprays cleaner and sucks it back up, and maybe some kind of aggitator? Anything like that exist?

So what happened to you're seat's?? Kids or pets?? At the theater we use Woollite upholstry cleaner. It works pretty well all things considdered that end up on our seat's!!! Its a foam cleaner I can recommand for upholstry. It also removes nasty oders and our seat's tend to get smelly. I dont know what is about children and tootsie rolls but they sit on them and work the goo into the fabric real well. Guess who has to scrubb the stains every day???

Is this your daily driver? If you live in an area that still gets some sun, you can remove the seats and blast them with a pressure washer! They will take a few days to dry, but the combination of the washer, the soap and the uv light will get out the funk and most of the dirt. Since seats have so many angles it's hard to suck out the liquid once it's in there so time is your only friend. Pro detailers have their own tricks, but some use kerosene and really bad stuff, and paying someone isn't cheap.

I think it would not be warm enough right now in your area to get your interior wet and get it to dry. Of course, unless you have a professional extractor that can get it really dry. Either wait until summer or use a foam cleaner like Tuff Stuff for now.

I did mine with the upholstery attachment of our carpet shampooer and it took a couple days to dry and I live in FL.

A bucket of water mixed with Tide, Oxyclean and water...use a scrub brush and you'll be amazed how much dirt it picks up. You can use a wet/dry vac to suck the water out and park it in the sun. I haven't found any other solution that works as well as Tide!

Unless you have a heater it's going to take along time to dry in the vehicle.

I would do it in the Summer myself.

Hmmm...I was thinking something more of a machine that could do the work for me...

I'm curious, what do professional detailers use? I've done the take out the seats, oxyclean, scrub, vacuum, rinse, vacuum, vacuum, vacuum thing before, don't want to do it again.

For drying I can leave them in my shop for a few days with the wood stove burning off and on. My Jeep is currently soaked inside anyway because I accidently left the windows down for 3 days...during the worst rain storm so far this year.


What didn't happen?

3 days?

I use one of these.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=1912923

It even got out a huge coffee stain on my Jetta's cloth seat that had probably set in for a couple of years. (long story) I've also used it to take out water marks on a headliner that were created by a leaking sunroof.

Oh yeah...it works on the carpet too. :)

I did my daughters car with the little green machine,it was cheap enough under $70 i think from wallys.
I used purple power and very warm water to deep clean,then filled the cleaning fluid reservoir a couple of times with clear warm water to rinse it.

The results were nothing less then amazing,the whole interior looks like new.

The carpet extractors used for car detailing are pretty much the same as for home use. The biggest difference is size; the detailer's machine is usually smaller to make it more portable. The home machines have a large solution tank so you can clean your entire house without having to dump out and refill the tanks.

If someone finds an easier/better/more efficient way to clean carpets and interiors than the way we've discussed here, I'd love to know it. Most serious detailers have a high-powered extractor, numerous chemicals, brushes and various tools to disassemble, clean, scrub, and reassemble interiors. Interiors are a specialty unto their own, and the good detail shops charge accordingly.

I'll definately have to check out that green machine, sounds like what I'm looking for. Probably not bad for the house too.

They work awsome!

Another Little Green Machine user. There is also a $99 version that has a heater and rotating brush.
Here's one pass on five year old mats that had never been cleaned. I pre-treat with Folex and use straight water in the tank. The mat is shot, this was a test to see what the LGM was capable of......works well for me. The $99 version was used allowing about 10 miutes +/- for the water to heat up.

I was checking out the LGM but had read the reservoir is small so you will empty it out several times while doing the carpets. It seems best suited for small jobs.