Carpet Cleaning?

tod914 · 03-31-2003, 04:53 AM

Any tips on how to clean an original carpet? My car was from the southwest so it has very fine red dust that discolored the carpet.
the carpet is that black and grey weave from a 75. Steam it? Any good products or methods would be appreciated.

maf 914 · 03-31-2003, 09:08 AM

My girlfriend cleaned my carpet using a carpet shampoo machine. I placed all of the removable pieces on the concrete driveway and first sprayed them with an aerosal carpet shampoo (Blue Magic?)and let them sit for a while. Then she used the machine on them. It sprays a water/shampoo solution on the carpet, brushes it with a rotary brush, and then vacuums up excess moisture. She also did the fixed pieces in the car and the seats using a furniture attachment that came with the machine. It worked pretty well. Lots of dirty water came up from the pieces.

She does good work! She even did my Nissan pickup interior!

Mike

bludden · bludden's Garage

Does she ever get up to Charlotte? ;-)

maf 914 · 03-31-2003, 11:35 AM

So far, no outcalls! LOL.

Mike

Peter_Hinkle · 03-31-2003, 11:48 AM

Guys, I have some personaly experience in this area and after trying MANY things, i have found a way to attack filthy carpets no matter how bad they have gotten. This procedure is only redcommended for the worst cases as it is probably overkill for light to moderate cases but it cleaned up a tan carpet set that had sat in a barn for 15 years and even had mold on it yeat didn't have a single flaw in the material which is why i went to all of the trouble. You will need to machines to complete this procedure. Both of them are available at your local tool rental place. You need either an 8 or 10 inch slow speed hard floor buffer with a nylon brush attachment and an extractor with a wand attachment. Get yourself a good quality carpet pretreater/spotter and thoroughly soak all peices of carpet. Let them sit for about 15 minutes but whatever you do, don't let them dry. You will be a step ahead to dilute the pretreater as well as the more cleaner you put down, the more you have to get up or you will end up with dirty carpet again in no tiem. With carpet cleaning solutions, less is more. After lettig them soak, hold the peice with your foot or even better is to have another person hold it for you and slowly begin scrubbing the carpet with the rotary brush. Have a spray bottle of water with you an occasionally spray to carpet to keep it damp. Be careful around the edges of the carpet as i never had this problem but i can easily see how the brush could tear up the beading on the sides if they are in questionable condition. After you have thoroughly scrubbed them, get the extractor out. Don't use any soap in the water of the extractor, just clean water. Once again, have a compadre hold the carpet and go over the peice repeatedly with the extractor. You will know you are done when you empty the exttractor the last time and the dirty water is just water with no suds. You WILL have to repeat these steps a few times depending on how dirty the carpet is and what is on it. I have used the procedure twice on two different sets and I guarentee that it will clean up almost anything. When I got the tan carpet finished, i couldn't believe my eyes. It litterally looked new and it was darn near black in places. BTW, if you do have mold, they make a speacial tannen cleaner for that kind of stain. Get it, it's worth it. Anyway, ramble finished...pch

tod914 · 03-31-2003, 06:48 PM

Thanks,

I have a steam cleaner at home. I was concerned about the edges getn ruined. But, I guess I'll try your method minus the buffer and see what I get. Thanks for the info.

tod914 · 04-08-2003, 06:08 AM

I went to a concourse workshop that John and Ray Patterak held this weekend. John said to put the carpet in a big vat using woollite and a scrub brush when i asked him. Seems alot less abrasive then the steamer (concern around the edges). Ill tackle that this summer.