Cloth Seat Professional Cleaning Question

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Jun 16, 2005
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Danville, Indiana
How good are pro detailing shops with shampooing cloth seats? My old Jeep JK seats have cloth that is in good shape, but over the years it has accumulated spots and slight stains. Store bought products like Turtle Wax or Blue Coral fabric cleaners can't get the job done. I'm wondering if it is worth giving a pro shop a try and how much they typically charge?
 
For what you will get charged … could probably get this little guy and use it again and again.

bissell.com/little-green-proheat-portable-carpet-cleaner
 
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I've had good luck using the wand from our carpet cleaner.

Hot water (and soap, if you like) go on the cloth, and then are removed by vacuum. That gets dirt out of the cloth seat.

I just don't see how spraying stuff on the seat removes anything. Hides it perhaps. Drives it deeper.

To clean something, you need a solvent (water) to dissolve the contaminant, and then you need to remove the solvent.
 
If you have a wet dry shop vac you can clean them. First vacum the cloth take your time. Buy real furniture shampoo use a soft clean brush to apply. Don;t over wet the seats. Now vacum out the shampoo and then most important use a water bottle of water to mist the seats to rinse out the dirt and cleaner. Try the water rinse twice to get the seat clean. . The shampoo is okay but using the water rinse is much better. Try not to do the cleaning in the direct sunlight but use the sun after the job for quick drying leave the windows down for drying.
 
Thats great but if you rinse it with water it will be clean. Would you wash your clothes with out a rinse cycle. All cleaning needs a water rinse cycle. I own a carpet & furniture cleaning service for the past 39 yrs and really don't like dry cleaning without a rinse cycle because it not clean until it's rinsed but that's just me.
 
Some Home Depots rent upholstery cleaning machines (smaller version of a carpet cleaning machine). They come with a three inch clear head that has a sprayer and suction all incorporated in the same piece. The hose leads to the machine that has two tanks. One for the soap/hot water mix and one for the dirty water. I would also suggest several soft bristled brushes and a spray bottle to spot clean places that are stained or heavily soiled. The clear head makes it easy to see when area is clean because the water that is being suctioned back out will be mostly clear. We normally rent the machine for 24 hours which I believe is $65ish. We do all the cars and then do the furniture inside along with the carpeted stairway down to the basement. If you do the cars first then you can let the dry and if some of the stains reappear you can go back over a couple more times. There is a night day difference between theses machines than the small handheld Bissells ones you can purchase.
 
I bought a bottle of cheap carpet shampoo at Target years ago, and it works great. I liberally spray it on the cloth seats or carpet then blot the stains with a soft cloth dampened with the cleaner. Then I use a soft cotton terry cloth dampened with plain water to rinse out the cleaner, rinsing the cloth often. I then blot the fabric with a dry terry cloth and leave the doors open for a few hours to air dry. I never use a brush to scrub the fabric as it will destroy the nap of the fabric by tearing the fibers if you get too aggressive with the brush. As always YMMV but this has worked well for me for years.
 
Originally Posted by PurpleT
Some Home Depots rent upholstery cleaning machines (smaller version of a carpet cleaning machine). They come with a three inch clear head that has a sprayer and suction all incorporated in the same piece. The hose leads to the machine that has two tanks. One for the soap/hot water mix and one for the dirty water. ...... The clear head makes it easy to see when area is clean because the water that is being suctioned back out will be mostly clear.

That's exactly how the Little Green works. Recommended by 4WD above. It pays to buy one. They're quite inexpensive and we use ours often.
 
Wow, lots of great ideas here. The sprays I used I did rinse and vacuum up. They just didn't get the job done. I've had a Bissel before and it was great, but I think I'd need to make sure the cleaning chemical was powerful enough. I don't remember at least the Bissel brand cleaners being exceptionally strong. I'd imagine there are commercial grade cleaners that will be strong enough but not damage the color or the cloth itself.
 
from a small detailer i worked with. a 50% mix liquid tide + water scrub with a sponge both ways + vac both ways drying as much as possible. with seats being foam you need fans or hot summer sun to dry with windows open. i cleaned my VERY light tan upholstery yearly + it still looked new when traded after 10 yrs + 200 thou miles. cheap + good but labor intensive as i did my whole interior, roof sides + seats. or open your wallet for a pro
 
A set in stain may not come out no matter what you do, short of bleach that destroys the cloth and possibly foam under it. An enzyme cleaner will help with protein based stains but otherwise, standard foaming carpet cleaner, left to soak for a few minutes (but not left long enough that it starts drying), then remove with a wet/dry vac. It may help to repeat this, first time you are just making gravy.
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I filled an empty spray bottle with about 1/10 Ajax dishwashing liquid and the rest with water. I sprayed it on the bat spots and let it soak a few minutes before scrubbing with a rough textured washcloth. It did the job.
 
Laundry detergent will do about as good a job as is possible. Rinse with cool water, using the upholstery tool on your carpet extractor.

I had a dog "let loose" on my F150's drivers seat. It was a real mess. Clearly, there was no extracting that disaster, as it soaked right through the seat. I removed the seat, cut the hog rings, rinsed off the fabric with the hose, and threw it in the washing machine. Came out like new.

The foam was another matter. That took hours to clean, but it came out fine. I used tie-wraps to re-attach the fabric.
 
Another vote here for the Bissell extractor. I picked one up on Craigslist for $20 and use it often.

Prior to that I used a solution of Tide, a brush, and a shop vac. Extractor beats it hands down.

Don't go crazy with the soap or you'll be rinsing forever.

I've had good luck with Folex and Woolite. Could tell no difference among Tide, Simple green, Super clean, LA Totally awesome, ammonia and others that I can't remember....

Unless you have a specific stain I tend to agree that hot water will get the everyday dirt out effectively.
 
Buy a soft drill brush and work the fabric, then use an extractor to remove the dirty fluid.
 
I have removed all manner of spots and stains from cloth seats with nothing more than a microfiber rag and water. Whatever that doesn't remove might require one of the above suggestions, but I recommend you try that first. You'll be surprised.
 
A good scrubbing microfiber cloth used for glass is also good for other surface like seat covers. A 80/20 or 70/30 (Polyester/Polyamide) microfiber cloth not the Costco kind those are gentle type you need a scrubbing microfiber cloth.

It's what I use first with water so it's good to do periodic cleaning as a preventive measure on buildup.
 
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