Persistent Salt Stains

[DuncanTrout]

I've been detailing for a Ford dealership up in Southern Ontario and I have recently found myself combatting salt stains more than usual. I was just hoping someone could help me out with a new secret to help deliver better results.



I'd say that this carpet represents a pretty moderate case of the stains I've been dealing with.

My method has pretty much been taking an APC (purple power) diluted about 10:1 with pretty warm water. I will then spray the salt stains with a pump spray bottle and suck up the excess water and dissolving salt with a shop vac. Sometimes I will also use Folex diluted about 1:1 on the stains and carpet.

The dealership does have a pretty old carpet extractor that has a large awkward vacuum head which sprays product everywhere and lacks lifting ability on any carpet surface that isn't perfectly level and accessible. I do use this rather frequently on the really bad cases but am not happy with the amount of moisture left in the carpet.

I think the main issue in my process comes from drying the interior. In the best case scenario, as I start to clay and polish the outside, I have been using a large industrial fan with a couple of the doors open to try to remove moisture. I find that this works pretty well but does take a long time (4+) hours to get the job done.

In the situations where I am detailing a customers car where they have promised a turnaround of ~ 5 hours, I find myself having to turn let the car run with the heat on to get the interior dry by the time the customer arrives. I have found it is a nightmare if you turn the heat on high, as the salt stains will once again crystallize and kind of wick to the top of the carpet particles. When this happens I find myself having the do the whole process again, and this just doesn't work for me. When I let the car run at around 20 celsius I find I get better results as far as the crystallization goes but the carpets still feel kind of crusty and it just drives me crazy.

I told my boss to pick up an air mover, which he did. Unfortunately it was a $20 CAD one from Canadian tire which would have trouble with a birthday cake.

If anyone has some helpful tips with regards to different techniques, processes or products that could help out, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[parttimer]

Hot water and vinegar

[GSKR]

Ask your car cleaning supply vendor. Vinegar will break it down but leave a nasty smell ,I hate the smell of vinegar.

[Britsdaddy]

Brush it first to break up as much as possible then vacuum up. Try to minimize the amount of salt that is getting wet.

[Audios S6]

Here's a thread I did on salt removal. This is with an inexpensive bissel pro heat auto, closest you can get now is a little green machine.

There's a link to a video showing pretty much how i do it.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...l-carpets.html

Your boss needs to evaluate these cars better on the front end. If there is bad salt stains, the customer needs to know it will take longer and they should be charged more.

[VeloNYC]

I hate the smell of vinegar.

Oh I love it, sometimes I marinate meat with.

[DaHen]

I hate the smell of vinegar.

And it goes great on salads.......... Ha.

[AGOatemywallet]

Convince your Manager that purchasing a proper commercial extractor will generate additional revenue for the Dealership