2 questions??

mhurley1

mhurley1

New member
I live in northern Wisconsin. The dealer I work for has been buying a lot of auction cars for our lot. These cars along with our trade in's have an exceptional amount of road salt in the carpet and mat's this year. It has become extremely hard to get this salt out as it has hardened right into the fabrick. Any suggestions on an easyer way to remove it?? I currently scrape it with a knife, soak it with chemical and then extract it with a professional hot extractor. Second is 80 percent of the vehicles I do are also loaded with pet hair, an I meen LOADED!!! I spend hours with a shop vac and pet hair brush to get them clean. Is there a spray or something that will make the hair release from the material?? Especially the hair on the underside material of truck and suv back seats! And in my experince the Jeep vehichles have the worst seat and carpet material for this problem. Thanks for any suggestions. Oh, and I go through a 5hp 5gal commercial shop vac every year because of this!!
 
I don't believe our road crews probably don't use "salts" (or excessive amouns anyway) to clear ice down here, and though we seem to get some (ice storms) every year it is likely no where near what you experience; so my advice is strictly hearsay. I like to use vinegar (white distilled 5%) for a variety of cleaning chores, and I have read on various "vinegar tip pages" that you can use vinegar/water 1:1 to remove salt residue from carpet. Before picking up a true fiber rinse product I used this dilution rate to help to remove soap residues and restore the "touch" to carpet and upholstery. It works. Worth a try and it is relatively inexpensive.

For the pet hair, I believe that I have tackled the toughest customer, our own She-Boxer. Tough, tough removal due to the apparent nature of the individual hairs and I never found a much better tool than the rubber pet hair brushes it sounds like you are using. After a thorough and brisk brushing, I would sometimes use one of the sticky tape lint removal tools for spot pickups. The longer haired breeds, though a much larger volume of hair/fur, were always much easier to clean up.
 
i havent found anything to get pet hair out of the back seat material of suv's yet easier then what you are doing. It literaly locks in like velcro.
 
For salt on that mats, take them out, spray them with APR and pressure wash them. I started putting rubber mats in my vehicles during the winter months to avoid that because it is a pain to clean.
 
Thanks for the reply guys. Your right about the pet hair, longer is easier to vac out. As far as a lint or pet hair rollor I would have to spend my entire paychecks for enough rollors to remove the amout of hair I am dealing with-lol. Many times I have spent well over an hour just vacing out the hair along with useing the rubber pet hair brush. I am wondering if spraying something like scotch gard or spray starch might make it easier, might try it some time? As for the road salt, I can get the mates clean it's the drivers side carpet that is the problem. I can get most of it after a long process but there are some car's that it seem's to have actually melted the carpet into a rock hard spot that after soaking just won't come out. Of coarse this all could be avoided if people wouldn't wait so long or never clean it!! Salt is a terrible issue up here. Thanks again for the input.
 
Spraying (misting, you don't want to over wet), with plain old water, the longer haired breed's hair will keep down the fly away if necessary.

Since these are not customer's vehicles then this isn't a help, but I have encouraged all of my customer's to invest in "rubber" matting to keep their carpets clean. It has proven to be an easy sell for those with leased vehicles.
 
I know this an old post but I thought I'd add something. I use a "lava" rock type stone for pet hair removale. It works AMAZING. It cost around 12.95 and I got it off the local detail supply truck (automagic is who carried it). I would highly recommend it.
 
Mobile Detail said:
I know this an old post but I thought I'd add something. I use a "lava" rock type stone for pet hair removale. It works AMAZING. It cost around 12.95 and I got it off the local detail supply truck (automagic is who carried it). I would highly recommend it.
Click to expand...
May be the same thing as a pumice stone (?),whitch works well too . It can scratch vinyl so you have to use with caution
 
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