Monsterliner
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Dirty seat detailing

Discussion in 'Detailing' started by Flexin, Aug 25, 2012.

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  1. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    At the shop we had some nasty jobs come in. Some claimed they were nasty only to find out that they were not very dirty at all. Some would say it wasn't too bad and they were nasty.

    We had a truck shop bring in a seat out of a highway tractor. They wanted us to see if we could clean it up. I went to work and vacuumed it, scrubbed it with a degreaser and then extracted it. I think I did this about 3 times or so.

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    James
     
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  2. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    This one was a Saturn Vue or L300 I believe. It have really dirty seats and poor material. The cloth would show water stains which made it a pain. You would get it clean then you would have to get the water spots out to get them to dry spotless.

    [​IMG]

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    James
     
  3. deltsbrah

    deltsbrah Member

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    These are the before and after seat cleaning pictures for my '99 Corolla, not pleasant :p Dirty seat 2.jpeg Dirty seat 1.jpeg



    Took about 30 minutes to get the entire car done, gonna do this for every car i have every few months .

    Car feels a lot healthier to be inside now + I didn't know my seats weren't meant to be grey !
     
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  4. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    Nice work on the seats. Its is a great feeling getting dirty upholstery clean.

    James
     
  5. erkan orer

    erkan orer Member Founding Member

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    Very nice work on the seats they definatly look tons better cant do with any of my car being dirty it has to be spotless all of the time.
     
  6. shadowk1

    shadowk1 Member

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    Very nice work on the restoration of those seats, damn they are extremely...somewhat grotesque.
     
  7. Ich bin Gia

    Ich bin Gia Member

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    The first seat looked horrible in the before photos. The after photos look excellent. The seat appears to be in brand new condition. I hate the car getting dirty, I wonder why people let it get to that point? eeww.
     
  8. MyDigitalpoint

    MyDigitalpoint Member Founding Member

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    Yeah interesting question, particularly for that seat with grease in it.

    While it's normal that seat get dirty with dust or the dirt of one's clothes, I don't understand how someone may pour grease, wine or any other hard-to-remove liquid and let the mark be for ages.
     
  9. iRichard

    iRichard Member Founding Member

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    Yes, you did a great job on the seats. Before you clean them they looked pretty dirty.
     
  10. tommymac

    tommymac Active Member Founding Member

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    Kiddo once left a crayon and a can of soda in the front seat in the middle of July. The crayon melted onto the fabric of the seat and the can of soda exploded. I was really embarrassed taking the car to the detailer to get cleaned up.
     
  11. jliehr

    jliehr Member

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    That rainbow fabric! It's so fantastic -_-. You perform some miracles on these nasty seats. I hope you wear a astronaut suit to protect you while you clean these.
     
  12. rollybooz

    rollybooz Member

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    Hey Flexin! You work miracles to those seats especially to the second set with the colourful patterned seats. They look almost as if the car was fresh out of the dealer! If you wouldn't mind me asking, how exactly do you do it? You make it sound so easy where you just "vacuumed it, scrubbed it with a degreaser and then extracted it". Cheers!
     
  13. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    That is pretty much it. We would vacuum first. That gets a lot of loose dirt out of the fabric. Then we would use a brush and a cleaner and scrub the fabric to bring up the dirt and get the stains out. At that point we would take our extractor to the fabric. That is the machine pictured below. In the front you see a door flap, this is where the water goes. In there it is heated to about 180 degrees. We add in a cleaner that is made for that extractor with it. That sprays out the blue hose on to the fabric and at the same time it vacuums it up with a duel vac system. It all collects into the tank under the bubble window. Its expensive but a great machine. A lot of people seem to get good results with the Bissell carpet cleaner. Some of those don't heat the water.

    James

    Copy of DSC02829 (Medium).JPG Copy of DSC02830 (Medium).JPG
     
  14. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    Here is a picture of some water from the extractor.

    Platinum Touch 027 (Medium).jpg

    James
     
  15. sidney

    sidney Active Member Founding Member Top Thread

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    Good job with the transformation of the seats! And the tutorial on how to do it is very helpful, I felt like I was reading an ehow.com article! :)
     
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  16. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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  17. jayjacinto

    jayjacinto Member

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    Just a thought, what if somebody took a car seat of a, umm, say 1930's Chevy to you with obvious cracks on the leather, how do you go about it?
     
  18. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    One or a few cracks can be repaired. It just depends how bad. If it was cracked all over then I would suggest that they get the leather replaced. The reason for this is the cost and final product. If it was going to be a show car I would replace it. I have done more then a few repairs. They look decent in person. Under the flash of a camera they don't look as good. They look much better then before. Almost look like a scar. I will have to post some repairs.

    James
     
  19. jayjacinto

    jayjacinto Member

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    Yeah please do! Looking forward to it. I feel that replacing original parts of an old car is a crime, so I would definitely choose to restore, if it is still possible. But that's just me.
     
  20. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    Here is one. I'm searching my hard drive for the before pictures. The circles are where the repairs were made (by me). The color match was good on this one. Not as good on the next one I will show you.

    seat repair.JPG

    James
     
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