Upholstery cleaning shiz

[Mr_Bo11ox]

You're on the Costa del Crewe as well eh CCC? Seems to be a few shiters in the area.

[saucedoctor]

Stardrops is great and the only cleaning product from poundland that works.

 

A Rug Doctor from B&Q for two days is £25 well spent. It gets every spot of dirt from your carpets.

This. I rented one of those Rug Muncher machines from the big plant hire place on Belfast Shore Road (near Crusaders' Football Club). Did a brilliant job on my Audi Coop seats. Rented a Stihl saw too, that was brilliant fun.

[dugong]

You're on the Costa del Crewe as well eh CCC? Seems to be a few shiters in the area.

I was in Crewe today swearing at the Volvo specialist who sent me the wrong crank oil seals through the post.

[crapcarcollector]

Not quite Bol. Newcastle, but the Costa del Crewe B&Q had the tiles we wanted on offer.

[carlo]

I treated my 405 to a professional interior valet for £50 a few weeks ago; carpets, headlining, door cards & seats.  Absolutely brilliant, car looks and smells like new, and would have taken me a weekend to end up with something not half as good.

[Station]

Taken a few photos of the final result and the bucket which holds the used water. It's always black!

[CreepingJesus]

Buy a Kirby G-series off eBay for not much. Make sure it's got the shampoo kit, even if not, they're available for not much either.

It'll last for decades if looked after, and the Kirby Dri-Foam stuff is bloody good. It's not actually dry, but you can fill your car with foam, which I intend to try sometime.

For everything else there's Stardrops.

[Jon]

On the hire versus buy options, I've (so far) gone down the former and used a Rug Doctor sourced from a local supermarket over here; ASDA did a similar deal, IIRC? The first time we hired it for 24hrs and I managed to transform the Commodore's blue interior from a grubby, mechanical smelling abomination in to something much more palatable, especially when I added the optional odour neutraliser, which naturally cost more. It certainly wasn't a cheap option when I included buying the Rug Doctor official fluids (probably about £50) but it was vastly cheaper buying the bigger bottles for using next time, I didn't want to risk breaking a hire machine with other products and we also managed to clean the one-run beige carpet throughout our house, so quite good vfm when domestics are considered. In fact, I can't believe I put up with the smell in the Commodore for so long!

 

Next time, I was far more prepared. It was my birthday and I'd just picked up the Visa and fancied a tinker day, so put some birthday money to good use and hired a rug doctor for 6hrs. Here's the Rug Doctor lining up for duty, waiting for my NOS Hitachi CV50D to hurry the hell up.

 

 

I left the carpet in situ as it just received a cursory tickle but removed the Commodore's the time before as it was really heavily stained, so went over it multiple times. I'd hooked out the seats before picking up the cleaner to save time (and therefore money from hiring for a shorter period) and had plenty of fluid left over from the previous hire, so the whole exercise cost a little over a tenner. The Commodore also had a bit of a look-in again, mainly to squeeze the most value out of arguably one of life's more boring (though admittedly self-inflicted) birthday gifts. Anyway, here's a Vulgalour-style gander of the waste water trough after cleaning the Visa's front seats:

 

 

They do seem to work well but I'd be a little annoyed having to pay to hire one all the time, so have a wet and dry vac on the long term list of things to buy when they're cheap. That said Mr B, I'm sure you could get plenty of use from hiring one for a day and ripping the interiors out of all your projects beforehand. It must be said that I had sunny days on my side, which helped dry out the seats in no time, so do take that in to account. I guess that a few towels weighed down with some bricks or something would help rid most of the moisture at this time of year.

[KruJoe]

I have very little patience for car cleaning, but if I'm GOING IN on one, I'll whizz out the seats and the carpet too if there's not too much twatting about with centre consoles, seatbelts etc.

Then a blast with the jet-wash gets most crap off, with a spray/sprinkle of whatever cleaning product you like soaking in while you have a brew. A strong suspension of laundry powder in hot water is as good as owt. Lay the carpet on a slope (not a problem where I live!) and work from top to bottom, and watch the muddy stream run off.

 

This isn't an option if it's your only car as it takes yonks to dry, but for Bollx that's not an issue! You can let it drip for an afternoon, then lob it back in the car loosely with a dehumidifier running for a few days, that'll suck it dry FO SHO. Then give it an extra 24 hours - seats are never as dry as they feel, you'll learn this after your first drive out! Damp patches ahoy.

[laser wheels]

I'm really itching to get to work cleaning the inside of the Sierra now and don't want to wait the six months for some sun. Would I be okay if I used a dehumidifier inside to avoid any damp or mould issues?

[fordperv]

Not quite Bol. Newcastle, but the Costa del Crewe B&Q had the tiles we wanted on offer.

Nice to see another local shiter on board, I'm in stoke

[Partridge]

1) Buy an AutoGlym veleting gunk kit. It will have everything you probably need to clean the whole inside well, not just the seats.

 

2) Wet the seats wth a damp cloth until they're slightly wet to the touch [insert Sid James laugh] then spray the relevent cleaner on the the seat, but again, don't soak it.

 

3) Give it a slight rub (oooooh, Matron) with the cloth after two mins, then hoover off with a brush attatchment. Done.

 

Don't panic if some parts are darker than others, they don't always dry evenly.

 

4) Sit in your shite and feel proud of yourself.

[KruJoe]

Would I be okay if I used a dehumidifier inside

Yes, as I previously described. Keep it running as long as you like with the car closed up. Then give it another 24/48 hours on top. Empty regularly to keep it running.

[Lankytim]

Nice to see another local shiter on board, I'm in stoke

I'm in Stoke too! Group hug!

[minolman]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works every time, costs nearly nothing.  But the B&Q thing is probably less effort.

My mum would be a big fan of you. Nearly everytime I have ever mentioned cleaning anything she tells the "Stardrops Story" and ends with the elbow grease serenade as I call it.