Upholstery Cleaner?

Well,

 

I was getting into my car the other day and I had an open bottle of Propel without the cover. I had to adjust my driver's seat because 'ol girl wanted to drive the night before, and for some reason I set the drink on the passengers seat.

 

Well, I just drove off.. didnt move the drink, just drove. I went about 30 feet and over it tipped. As I watched my passenger seat fill up with Propel, I ripped my shirt off and did what I could with that.

 

I got a towel and it seemed to dry up relatively quickly it felt damp and it looked damp.

 

The problem is, now its been a couple days and it still looks damp but it isn't.

 

Not sure what the best cleaner is, I dont want smelly stuff, I just want cleaner.

 

Any Ideas??

 

2005 Legacy GT Wagon cloth/tweed/whatever its called seats.

 

Thanks

 

IGGY

You are probably going to want an extractor for that. Your seat looks wet because it is stained. An extractor would be the best way to solve that problem. However, since not everybody wants to go off and spend 40 bucks on an extractor rental and all the fun stuff you need to clean your seats, there is another way. My favorite product for interior carpet and upholstery cleaning is made by Prestone. You can get it just about anywhere. It looks like this:

 

http://a1061.g.akamai.net/7/1061/5412/home/www.walgreens.com/dbimagecache/218181.jpg

 

Don't be fooled by other carpet cleaners with red tops or bottles. This is stuff that I have been using for years and I haven't found anything off the shelf that can beat it. Here is just one example of how good this stuff is at cleaning things up. These are from a detailing workshop I did back in May.

 

http://www.ocdetails.com/assets/images/01carpet1.jpg

 

http://www.ocdetails.com/assets/images/01carpet2.jpg

 

Seats are a little trickier than straight out carpet, but the principles are the same. Pop the lid down, spray the foam on the affected area (for seats I would spray the whole bottom of the seat), let the foam sit for a minute, and then lightly brush it out in circles. Brush it just like you were brushing your teeth. The key word is brush. You don't scrub the seats when you want to clean up stains like this. Just gently work the foam into the seat and brush it in circles until you see an improvement. Leave the windows down and park in the sun so the seat can dry out. It should make a big difference.

Thanks.

 

It really isn't that bad of a stain, in fact you can only notice it because the forward area of the seat, or thigh bolster is a bit lighter than the rest.

 

This stuff should do the trick.

 

Oh, do you recall if it has much of a scent? I am hoping that its simply a lifter/ neutralizer and doenst have any perfumey cover up scent.

 

I appreciate your time and input.

 

Iggy

You'll be hard pressed to find a product that doesn't have at least a little scent. This product specifically kills smells and it doesn't leave any kind of fragrance afterwards. The cleaner itself has a smell, but it doesn't linger. It isn't intended to be an air freshener or anything.

OCDetails, I used some turtle wax "power out" carpet cleaner on my headliner for some stains from leaving my moonroof partially open in the rain. After using it, the water stains just seemed to spread out some more, like the cleaner just pushed the stain lines outward. Do you think the prestone stuff will help me get rid of the stain lines? Any other products if no?

 

*gonna pm you*

That is one of the problems when you clean headliners. You can't really spot clean those. The best way to clean them is with an extractor, but that isn't always possible. What I would suggest is that you try the Prestone product and let it really soak in a bit before brushing it out. Give it time to break up the stain. Then instead of using the brush on the can I would use a damp rag and press against the stain and try to soak out the cleaner. Rinse and repeat. Brushing will do like you said and just spread the stain. Try to 'sponge' it out before you resort to the brush. Let me know how it goes and we can try something else if that doesn't work.

 

Oh, and soak the rag in the hottest water you can soak it in. Hot water is great for getting stains out. Hot tap water should do the trick, so don't go boiling anything or something like that. Hot enough that you can still hold it is good enough for this.

Yeah, I figured that was the problem since the tendency would be for the stain to go down, except it has nowhere to go down to.

 

I'll try what you said this weekend, thanks for the tips!