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Vehicle Carpet Cleaning Products and Methods - What Works?

Riles

Riles

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
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86
I am going to clean the carpets in my XJ. I only do this once every 5-10 years, and for all I know this could be the last time, so I want to do it as best as possible. Any awesome sprays/shampoos that I should get to make the task easier? Also, I have a small HF pressure washer, steam cleaner and a carpet cleaner. Thanks!
 
easy. hot water pressure washer and castrol purple degreaser.

wet carpet, degrease and scrub then rince and repeat until done.

i've always done it with carpet in the car shop vac and comercial airdryers on it over a weekend and a heater will dry it out.
 
Vinman said:
Pull the carpets, use a pressure washer, make sure to let thoroughly dry and reinstall
Click to expand...

Or cover the dash and do it in the car, the run fans for a day or 2. Ymmv. Works better on beaters.
 
Vinman said:
Pull the carpets, use a pressure washer, make sure to let thoroughly dry and reinstall
Click to expand...

that is best. Allows you to spot treat and clean as needed.

otherwise I have a upholstery cleaner/vac it works great but really need to pull the seats to do a nice job. If there is any insulation under the carpet it won't clean it, so next time it gets wet it pulls the dirt right back to the surface.
that is why pressure washer works best.

If you are not sure the stain will come out, don't go with hot water. It will make the stain permanent. Clean it with cold water first. try different products like mothers upholstery cleaner to help clean the spots or at least pre treat them.
 
If you don't have a pressure washer; Pull carpet, soak it with water, pour a entire gallon of Simple Green all over it, scrub it clean with stiff brush, rinse lightly, repeat scrub, hose it off until the bubbles go away. Like new carpet.
 
Just rent a steam cleaner. I just did the carpet in my semi with ours and it worked great. Needs another round to be perfect only because I was tired of sweating my ass off cleaning it.
 
If you've got access to a steam and carpet cleaner don't waste your time pulling the carpet. Just use those with a close to ph neutral cleaner. Citrsolv if you can get it from a local janitorial supply, Avenge is a great spot cleaner as well if you can get it. Pre-spray it, let it sit, then extract with just hot water through the carpet cleaner. Avenge, simple green, or just regular old Dawn dish soap for stubborn spots. Drill brush with those cleaners if the spots are really stubborn. Don't go nuts with the cleaners either. More doesn't mean mean effective, it just means you're going to spend more time getting it out of the carpet.

Pre-spray and extract with water only with whatever you end up using. Stay away from Resolv, Oxy-clean, ect. Don't buy carpet cleaners from places like Lowe's, HD, ect. Most of shit sold in retail stores is intentionally high alkaline and the store bought carpet cleaners want you to add that crap to the tanks because you're leaving it behind in the carpet so it continues to attract more dirt and gets dirty faster so you keep buying it.

Did carpet/floor cleaning professionally for a while years ago. Most if the industry is a borderline scam outside of places that do two stage hot water extraction or actual carpet places that are setup for flood washing.
 
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50/50 Woolite and water, a scrub brush and shop vac will do wonders. Not as good as a pro steam option but solid result on a budget. I've even gotten cigarette smell and ash out of carpet with it.
 
I take it out, go to the carwash, and use the engine/tire cleaner on it. then pressure wash it with their nice soap, and bring it home and rinse it out with my pressure washer. If that doesn't clean it, it needed a new carpet anyhow. a piece of scaffolding is nice to clamp it to so it dries out quickly.
 
Motorcharge said:
If you've got access to a steam and carpet cleaner don't waste your time pulling the carpet. Just use those with a close to ph neutral cleaner. Citrsolv if you can get it from a local janitorial supply, Avenge is a great spot cleaner as well if you can get it. Pre-spray it, let it sit, then extract with just hot water through the carpet cleaner. Avenge, simple green, or just regular old Dawn dish soap for stubborn spots. Drill brush with those cleaners if the spots are really stubborn. Don't go nuts with the cleaners either. More doesn't mean mean effective, it just means you're going to spend more time getting it out of the carpet.

Pre-spray and extract with water only with whatever you end up using. Stay away from Resolv, Oxy-clean, ect. Don't buy carpet cleaners from places like Lowe's, HD, ect. Most of shit sold in retail stores is intentionally high alkaline and the store bought carpet cleaners want you to add that crap to the tanks because you're leaving it behind in the carpet so it continues to attract more dirt and gets dirty faster so you keep buying it.

Did carpet/floor cleaning professionally for a while years ago. Most if the industry is a borderline scam outside of places that do two stage hot water extraction or actual carpet places that are setup for flood washing.
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This is good info. Im gonna send it to my wife so she'll see that most store bought stuff is junk.
 
XJ carpets are rubber backed, pulled mine numerous times.

Keep the insulation if in good shape, otherwise you'll have some soft spots where it was. I used spot cleaner, then something like simple green and brush. Rinse till runoff is clear and clean and allow to dry.

I'v dyed mine black in the past after the above, RIT dye in a larger rubbermade tub.
 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6f1N1Cg__5Ex0aWBUZeYGg

This guy has some really good tips for auto detailing. Just wish he'd put more info in his titles instead of 'nastiest car ever' or whatever he writes in all of them. Too lazy to dig through to find it, but there's one where he details an early 00s Chevy farm truck that goes from looking like what you'd expect to looking like it rolled off the lot. He links all the products he uses in the description as well.

HillbillyDeluxe said:
This is good info. Im gonna send it to my wife so she'll see that most store bought stuff is junk.
Click to expand...

If she's using that you can probably walk around and point out everywhere she's used it. Those spots always end up darker. There's nothing store bought worse than Resolv either. More often than not if you have your carpets professionally cleaned after using that crap a lot it'll bleach out all of those spots. Could always tell where people used a ton of it because it would foam like crazy on extraction. Had one lady that used so much of it we couldn't even clean her carpets because it was foaming so much everywhere that it was flooding the machine in the van out.

Have her switch to Avenge. It's like $20 a bottle on Amazon, but you can probably get it at a local janitorial supply place for $5-10. Just dump a little on whatever you're trying to clean and then press a clean white towel into the spot to transfer as much of the "stain" out of the carpet and into the towel. It's PH neutral so it can't set stains and works on damn near anything but artificial dyes.
 
Vinman said:
Pull the carpets, use a pressure washer, make sure to let thoroughly dry and reinstall
Click to expand...

The only correct way to do it.

I also use a cheap wally world pump sprayer and purple power. Power wash the seats too.
 
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