Interior Masters - Is this too much?

David Fermani said:
Good luck with those. It should be lots of fun!
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I hope you're not being sarcastic, lol.



They should be here Friday. debating on what the best course of action will be. Been doing a lot of reading, and I'm torn between a smaller low cost extractor like the Bissel Proheat Auto, a steam cleaner with microfiber like the Shark Pocket Steamer. I think ideally something in a steam vacuum would be best, but I don't think that's in the cards.



My main concern is that the microfiber (let's be real, this is a GM, it's not suede and not alcantara) will be more fragile to clean than the leather. I'm concerned about using too harsh a method on the leather and it causing issues with the microfiber portion of the seats.



This is my proposed methodology:

1) Spray with interior cleaner (I have SCG Interior stuff, but if this doesn't work I'll get some woolite as it seems to be well liked for this application, diluted VERY heavily at first)

2) Scrub with a brush (only for the leather parts?)

3) Use the steam thing

4) Vacuum with the shop vac to lift out all the yuck

5) Repeat as needed



Please make any suggestions you have to my methodology
 
Good luck on your seats and don't forget some before and after pictures. I'm curious on how this turns out. The Bissell LGM should work but it will be a long slow process compared to a professional extractor.If all else fails I guess you can use a pressure washer as David F. has posted. I'm pretty new at this game but the results he got with the pressure washer amazed me.
 
Dr. Woo said:
Paging Roger Koh!



Removing the seat covers might be a good idea, even in this situation. It all depends on the hardness/dryness of the leather. Cleaning/hydrating from the underside of the leather seat covers is the most effective method if the leather isn't perforated.
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Here are the two guides that may be helpful to solve the Leather-Suede seat Problems…



Questions are welcome…



Roger Koh

info@leatherdoctor.com

Tomorrow’s leather care Technology delivered Today!



AutoPigmentedLeather1-LPG.jpg


A leather-safe Problem Solving Guide-AP9 for Auto Pigmented Leathers







Suede11-LPG-1.jpg


Leather-Safe Problem Solving Guide-S9 - Suede​
 
Please remember that these are not suede inserts in the seats but a fabric equivalent and should be cleaned as such. Using leather cleaning produtcs and techniques on these could ruin them.
 
They finally arrived today, and they're... ehh... well, could be worse. I already wiped them down with some Surf City Garage Interior Cleaner (magic juice in a bottle). The leather cleaned up nicely. The microsuede on the other hand needs some work. They definitely got a little wet, what looks like a waterline is actually from where the passenger seat was folded down, below it didnt get wet, above it did. There's a nasty scuff on the driver's seat left bolster, well, actually 2 of them. Anyways, here's some pics of the fronts.



2011-04-06%2016.40.34.jpg




Stains on the suede (kinda hard to see.



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Scuffs on the bolster

2011-04-06%2016.39.51.jpg




Overall, passenger seat is in pretty good shape, has some stains in the suede too, but those will be dealt with.



The rears were more dirty than anything, need a good vacuuming and such. A few spots where the foam is crushed, hopefully in a little bit the foam will pop back out to normal. It's more an issue on the rear seats. If it doesn't I can just swap the skins. Thankfully the rear seats are the same other than the coverings.



Anyways, Going to pick up a Bissell LGM tonight to hopefully get the stains out of the microfiber unless someone has better suggestions.
 
Haven't tried Folex yet.



I picked up the LGM and went to town on it with some hot water with very diluted dish soap in it (people swore by it on google searches to remove water stains in microfiber). Lo and behold it works AWESOME. Pulling al sorts of horribly disgusting yellow gross out of the seats. I did the passenger seat for probably 2 hours last night, let it dry out and it looks great today, though there was still some yellow gross coming out of it. I'll probably have another go at that seat tonight just to see how much more of the yellow gross I can get out.



Tried cleaning the scuff, it's pretty rough, down through the dye. I think I'm gonna have to take it to a leather repair guy to have that section re-dyed (and possibly one bolster redone and the frame unbent. I think the seat frame is a little bit bent, not 100% though).



Unfortunate part is that I was hoping the driver's side would be the first one I could get done, not the passenger side. The rear seats have some foam that's a little squished, hopefully that will fluff back up. I'm reading that steam might help it.
 
XRL said:
I hope you're not being sarcastic, lol.
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Not at all. I love these kind of extreme reconditioning projects! I suggest using a towel to thorougly lift/wipe away the soiling. Otherwise it will wick back up.
 
Well, I think these are more or less ready. They've cleaned up very, very nice I think.



I may have fixed the bolster on the driver seat. I pulled the cover up some and was able to see the issue. The foam and become ripped and lodged underneath the wire for the bolster. I took some craft glue and tried to glue it back together. It's holding now, but I haven't put any force against it, I don't know how well it will stay together. I'm hoping it stays together, but I dunno. If it doesn't work I'll have to find something else to glue to back together.
 
Well, they LOOK great now, and I think my foam repair will hold. The main issues I've got now are the smell and the scuff.



The scuff will need painted, I'm going to have to look into doing that and matching the color (or just hire an expert).



The seats still kinda smell. I'm currently febreezing the crap out of them. Hopefully that will work. When I use the LGM on them now, it comes out pretty much as clean soapy water, so there's not really anything left to pull out.



I haven't gotten to the carpet yet (workspace size constraints means the seats have been on top of the carpet while I work). Also planning on doing some light vibration dampening on the floor to try to minimize road noise some.
 
Remove seat covers and clean the foam directly? That's probably what I'd do, though I'm not sure of an appropriate method for actually getting the smell out.
 
Contact forum member "Quality Leather" and he'll hook you up with the recoloring of the side bolster. He goes back and forth from S. Florida & Atlanta and this would be a sinch for him to correct.
 
The foam didn't look bad when I pulled the covers, though that's not exactly a scientific method.



Febreezing the crap out of them helped. I think they just picked up a little odor from sitting outside with the LGM and its disgusting water I haven't emptied out yet. I also picked up some baking soda and worked that into the microsuede portions and put the open boxes under the seats. I also found some sort of citrus thing that claims to remove odors and replace with citrus smell (mmm Florida-y) by just sitting there. It's pretty strong smelling so I think it'll overpower any smell leftover. Put the front seats in though, the rears I haven't put in yet. I don't remember why not, but I'm pretty sure I had a reason. It'll come to me I'm sure :P
 
Well, vacuumed up the seats today. Frankly I can't tell if they smell or not still as the car smells hugely like citrus. I'm hoping that the stuff worked, but I dunno. Will let the thing sit in the car today as well and take it out tonight, then tomorrow will be the day of truth I think.



I remembered why I kept the rear seats out, I wanted to see if I could fix the stickiness of the folding rear seats. But then I got lazy. That and it would save me some work for putting the new carpet in. I still need to get some cheap sound dampening for the floor before I put the new carpet in though.
 
I'm happy to report everything worked out GREAT :D Driven on them a few times and they're so much better than my old seats, don't smell at all, and feel awesome. The foam appears to be holding, and the only thing left to do is fix the little scuffs. I may have that done by a professional so that it matches up perfectly.



The next phase is to find someone who can wrap the armrests, steering wheel, and shift knob in a similar microsuede material.
 
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