Seat belt cleaning

[Sarah99gxe]

Any idea how to clean these withought having the threads dissolve? Mind you mine have some mildew on them from being rain soaked. The interior of my car is now completely gutted and the seat belts are unbolted. I was going to stretch them out and power wash them to get the dirt out of them. I don't want to use bleach and have them disintegrate so what can I use that will kill mildew?? Maybe just a little bit of bleach with water? I remember seeing that peroxide or ammonia (can't remember which one) also kills mildew/mold but will those products eat away at the material?

Anyone got any ideas short of buying new seat belts which I can't afford right now?









Thanks

Sarah

 

[Spilchy]

Hi Sarah :wavey



I did a little research for you and came up with this product:



http://store.yahoo.com/tolae/32ozmicroban.html



Mildew is VERY tricky and unless it is killed it WILL come back. Bleach is the best way to kill it, but I wouldn't use it simply because I wouldn't want any discoloration.



Maybe others can chime in and offer a bleach solution safe for the seat belts.



First, I would clean your seatbelts with a soft scrub brush and some dilluted Simple Green, dilluted Orange Blast or even some Oxy Clean solution. I would also try car wash soap and water. Just rinse real well whatever you use. These are some locally available things. You can try it with the power washer, just on a lighter setting to start to prevent any potential damage of the belt.



OR... can you remove the hardware from the seat belt? If so, why not toss them into the washing machine on a gentle wash with some laundry detergent? Maybe pre-treat with Shout, Spray n Wash or something else?



I would allow to dry and then treat with that product found in the link.



You have to kill the mildew. That's the trick.



(My brother is a painting contractor and informed me that even the slightest bit of mildew on a surface can filter back to the surface even with heavy oil based primers and paints on top of it)



Good luck and post pics of your ride as you go! :xyxthumbs