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Carpet Cleaning 101
Hi guys,
Here are some of the things I've picked up over the years while cleaning my cars:
Vaccuming:
Start off with getting everything out of the car. I.E. : Trash, CD cases, School stuff, Kid's stuff, etc. Then vaccum up the major stuff that won't dammage your vaccum cleaner. After that take a good size brush and start really working the carpet with the brush while vaccuming. (Protective eyeware is reccomended.) This will get the deep down hard to reach stuff. This is generally most needed in the front floors especially the drivers. It's also easier to clean if you can get the front seats out and possibly the center console (depending on type of car). In my 95 Mirage there's the requisite four bolts per seat and the center console comes out with only a couple of screws (less than six). After you've gone over the trouble areas with the brush its time to move on to the stains. I try to be really careful in my cars, but I occasionally have a spill and clean other people's cars. Take your same brush you used to vaccum the carpet and use it along with your favorite carpet cleaning agent.
There is another option to using a brush while vaccuming. (Protective eyeware heavily reccomended.) If you have access to a high pressure air hose this will work even better than the brush at getting out the deep down stuff. This will also work at least 5x faster!! This can be messy and hazardous to your eyes. Make sure you really vaccum up the big stuff well before this step. This should also be done before detailing anything else in the car. This will probably get things dirty.
I used these techniques used above to clean the previously mentioned 1995 Mitsubishi Mirage. This car has been very neglected and is the beater of the bunch but looked like new once the carpet was detailed as above and the rest of the car meticulously (sp?) cleaned.
Carpet Replacement:
Getting rid of that nasty stain riddled carpet? Before you go out and buy an expensive carpet kit ($100+) I've got something for you to try. This is going to require removal of the offensive carpet, which will be done any way if you plan on getting new. Once the carpet is removed turn it over and start removing padding (possibly optional but will remove trapped nastiness much easier) and then trace around cardboard used to hold its shape with a permanent marker (if applicable). This will help with re-installation of cardboard if it falls off. The next step is to get several really big heavy duty trash bags. These will be used to bring the carpet home from the carwash. Load up the carpet and take it to the local carwash. Hang the carpet from the clamps used to hold floor mats. Put some money in the machine and begin to spray on the soap setting. Spray the carpet thoroughly until you notice that nasty stuff isn't running out of it any more. I litteraly saw stains just disappear while doing so on one carpet. Be sure to spray both sides of the carpet. When spraying the underneath side of the carpet the pressure, and the weight of the soaked insulation tends to make it fall off. This is part of the reason for reccomending taking the insulation off before washing. After the this step turn the machine to the rinse setting and repeat process until the water running off doesn't look like it has any soap in it. Here again make sure to rinse both sides. Once done load the wet carpet into the large trash bag (may need to double bag it) and take it home. When it came time to dry the carpet I hung it over my chain-link fence for a day or so (nice weather). If you need it to dry faster I've also used a wet/dry vaccum to speed up the process and remove excess water. This does require spreading the carpet out on a clean surface however. After the carpet was dry it was double checked to see if any repeats were needed. Then it was put back in the car and installed within about 30 minutes. This has saved me quite a bit of money on replacing carpet, and it also gives the carpet a nice fresh smell from the carwash soap. I'd say that this can be accomplished at most carwashes with about $5!! This has also saved me the headache of trying to install aftermarket carpet kits that "fit the car" but still required alot of customizing and trimming. I hope this helps my fellow DSMers when it comes to freshing up some of the aging DSMs out there. For the fellow DSMers out there who try this please let me know of your results. Please PM or e-mail me with your stories, suggestion, additions, etc.
Later
-blizzard
Last edited by Blizz92tsi : 01-02-2004 at 09:36 AM.
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