I hate doing this kind of work. Seems like in all three times I've attempted this in my life, on various cars, it leaves a different color after it dries. I'd love to hear if you've used some product or method and been happy with the result. My seats are pretty clean but there is mild staining in a few spots.

 

I bought this maybe five years ago and it has been the best cleaning tool for automotive interiors, home upholstery and carpet spots. I use it on the convertible top too. I use a 4:1 solution of simple green or carpet cleaner. Sometimes I'll pre-treat a spot by soaking it, scrubbing it and letting it sit for a bit.

 

Bucket of warm water and a bunch of dry towels on a dry/sunny afternoon. I'm not kidding; If the seats are in rough shape than more drastic measures would be taken, ( Soaps, hose, wet-dry vac, ect,..... ) but for a set of decent seats,....... Just wet them evenly with warm water, use a wet towel to rub any dirty spots, towel dry, then air dry and they WILL look better.


I always go as "easy" as possible on fabric seats,... no extra effort unless it's really needed. Don't "scrub" them dry with a towel,....use pressure instead.

 

Not bad advice..

I like resolve upholstery cleaner, bucket of water, a medium bristle brush or Terry toweles depending on the fabric..
Spray, distress, let it sit... spray and distress again and then wet vac.. let it dry in the sun if possible or use heat..

If there’s still stains repeat.. just go easy so you don’t damage the fabric grain.. They will come out..

Nothing worse than light gray 87 deluxe seats for stains..

 

When I cleaned my cloth seats, I used a spray can carpet cleaner with the brush attached to the end and it made the seats looks new. The trick I learned though is instead of letting them dry in the sun (assuming they're fabric), use a blow dryer to dry them. Mine were very dry and brittle and the blow dryer softened them right up

 

Ideally yes, even the car heat after is good..

If the seats don’t dry evenly there can be water stains too.. you want to clean them evenly and dry them evenly..

Sometimes when you spot clean that one spot will be cleaner than the rest of the seat so it’s good to shampoo and extract with a wet vac the whole area.. blow drying is good to ensure even drying..

Also you really want to use as little water as possible.. Just enough to evenly shampoo the fabric..

Once the seats look really clean, dry and stain free some people use scotchguard, but I find that stuff to be a pain and takes a long time to dry.. It does make your fabric more stain resistant and spills will bead up on it..

 

Those cans with the bristles on top like Tuff Stuff I have seen work fine.. It’s not enough to shampoo a whole interior but for spots on the front seats it’s fine..

 

I used a Bissell can and one can was enough to scrub both front seats fully and they came out very clean. Even the carpet, I pressure washed it, used 2 cans of the shampoo (they're $6 at Walmart), vacuumed it, then blow dried it and it came out 10x better than what I expected.

 

Yeah the Bissell one is really good too..

Its also nice to get a thin crevice brush to brush and vac all the debris out of tight areas if you’re doing rugs.. Don’t even need shampoo for the edge work..

 

Someone is going to recommend shaving cream. I know it.

I've gone after a set of seats with a pressure washer once. It was an extreme case, and they came out OK after drying. Then a cat (not MY cat) came along and carved up the covers. Not that I'd necessarily recommend using a pressure washer on seats at this point, but like I said this was an extreme case.

 

An upholstery cleaning machine is the way to go. I have a Bissell Big Green machine which is better for carpet and heavy duty cleaning and a Bissell Pro Heat 2X which is more of a house upholstery and carpet cleaner. The Pro Heat has upholstery attachments which work very well for spot cleaning also. You'd be amazed at how dirty and gray the rinse water will become on seemingly clean car seats. I clean my seats as part of preventative maintenance and my twenty one year old Firebird seats still look almost new; maybe not that good, but I think they are still in excellent shape. You can use Oxy Clean or hydrogen peroxide as a cleaner and rinse also. I've never noticed any staining with those cleaners.

 

Wow. Lot's to go with. I wonder if I can rent a machine. I like the idea of wetting, soaping, vacuuming.... I do have a wet vac though.

 

The idea is the same with anything.. Lubricate and free the stain.. distress.. extract..

The machines do a lot of the elbow grease work for you and may cut out having to do a once over.. definitely save time..

The Bissell machine works good..

A wet vac, scrub brush, Terry towels and upholstery cleaner will work as well..

 

Bit of gasoline and a lighter will probably do the trick pretty well too. Skips the vacuuming step

 

I second the steam cleaner.I have the little green machine and have used it on quite a few seats.Also have used it on carpeted interior trim such as kick panels and consoles.I use a mixture of purple power and water.The steamer sucks up the water so the parts dry quicker.

 

FYI, THE solvent for COFFEE stains is WHITE VINEGAR, followed by upholstery cleaner or "409" . (Usual "test in inconspicuous place first " warning). I bought a 3Rd gen Camaro w/ TERRIBLE coffee stained r/f bucket. It took some work, but white vinegar got the gray fabric looking like NEW!

 

Maybe a bit extreme but I took the seat covers off and tossed them in the local laundry mat. Took carpet out, pressure washed it and hung it up to dry on a sunny day.

 

LOL That's how I ended up with a GTA seat cover on a coat hanger in my closet for the last decade. You wouldn't believe the horror that was in the wash water before the rinse. The water looked like the Mekong. Someday I need to get some hogrings and reassemble that seat, and follow up on the driver's seat.

 

Just pulled these covers out of the closet to take a photo. I can confirm it works well, these were filthy. Someday I'll put the seat(s) back together and get them in something.

I can vouch for both pressure washing carpet too.

 

I was hoping for this picture Drew.

I've got to show this to my wife. She thinks only I do stuff like that.

 

In my old garage I had a old dishwasher I used for degreasing and cleaning parts after porting.

 

Mix dawn dishwashing liquid and water in a spray bottle, spray everything down. Let it soak a minute then vacuum it up. Have another spray bottle with straight water and keep respraying the area with the straight water and vacuum it up. Repeat the process over and over. You’ll be sucking up all the ugly and sucking up all the dawn. It’s cheap and works great.

for stains look into a product called folex.

 

I don't understand. Why would you use an old dishwasher in the garage when presumably there's a perfectly good, modern one in the kitchen?

 

If you use your Wife's Dishwasher, have this video ready.

 

Just set it to "Pots & Pans". Saul Good.

 

I had a guy recommend pressure washer to me and was afraid that almost 30 year old Firebird fabric would get damaged(like the drivers already was) I bailed and sprayed and soaked then hand scrubbed then ran them through washing machine (had cover off to swap since originals were tore up) found a parts car at Pic n Pull that had a decent (althought dirty/stained) pass seat So... IMO they came out great!