I work in a garage and I drive my car to work occasionally. I always put a plastic seat cover and floormat down to protect the seat and the floor, But the grease and grime from my work uniform has stained my seatbelt. In addition to the seatbelt looking like crap, now all my light colored shirts have grease stains on them from my cruddy seatbelt. I tried using upholstery cleaner to cleat the belt, but that didn't really work. Anyone have any tips or suggestions on how to clean it?

 

A good degreaser will work wonders. Start with simple green diluted, step up ratios until you see progress. If you see no progress even at full power, go with something like Purple Power.

A good scrub brush will be your best friend.

 

try this it worked for me also spray it with LA'a Awesome they usually sells it in the 99 cents store is a great degreaser

 

I'm not gonna say its the method that everyone should use, or that its the best, but I tried something when I got grease on one of my belts while re-doing the interior....

Brake cleaner. Non- chlorinated, cheepo brand. I run an auto repair shop we all get stains and stuff from time to time, and I have used brake cleaner on shoes, shirts, hats, and my ACC floor mats. All with no problems. I felt like I had nothing to lose on greased spotted seat belt, so I sprayed the one spot area and stain came right out and left the area ultra clean. I had to spray a littler larger area as to make the super clean area blend in with the rest of the belt. I wiped with a clean white cotton towel to remove any wetness/debris. It made no change in color on my 1992 Med grey belt, but if you try it I would recommend pulling the belt all the way out and trying the color-fastness of the material to cleaner in an area that would not normally be seen.

 

^ good advice BADNBLK

Most brake cleaners include the same ingredient as common dry cleaning agent and perfectly safe for fabric and clothes.

Look for a brake cleaner with a high % of Tetrachloroethylene or Perchloroethylene

These are dry cleaning agents AND huge grease cutters.

These are chlorinated and superior when taking out stains in rugs, clothing, seats....

We use a aerosol brake cleaner(non clorinated) to clean rugs or upholstery that may have accidentally been soiled while working on the customers cars in our shop. The one we use is debranded before it comes into the shop so I cant tell you what it is exactly. It works just as well as the chlorinated brands.

 

I used some cheapo brake cleaner and it made short work of the stains in my GTA's seatbelt and my DD Explorer's. No more cruddy seat belts and stained shirts! Thanks guys.

 

Just an FYI, you have to be extremely careful what you use.

Seat belts lose their strength from chemicals, and I recommend a mild detergent soap. I know it doesn't work as well as degreasers and stuff like that, but the last thing you want to do is compromise the material integrity of your seat belts.

I won't even buy used seat belts. I used to do upholstery and it is a liability so I just order new. My .02

 

You guys want crazy? How about this? My seat belts were pretty nasty. I scrubbed them with detergent and a nylon brush then I soaked them in a mild water bleach solution. They were cleaner than before but not that great. I decided to put them back in the car and resolved to buying new ones someday. I was also cleaning up and "repainting" the interior plastics. At one point I was painting the seat belt retractor housing and I got some of the gray plastic "paint" on the seat belt. It looked pretty good. So I thought, "what the heck" and I literally "painted the whole seat belt with the stuff. They truly look good as new. The key is the stuff is not really "paint". Its a plastic dye coloring in a rattle can.

I used SEM brand color coat flexible coating in Thomas Bus Grey. They look great. Make sure you clean the belts real good tho.