Auto Carpet and Mat Cleaning the professional way

[MobolWerks]

At a certain point the fibers in that make up the carpet are to damamged to "clean"... In terms of the carpet you showed pics of, I would start with properly dilluting a solvent based cleaner, such as Kleenrite's Dissolve... It is a solvent that is meant to be mixed with water... After that, I would spray it on the whole area, brush it in, and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes.

After that, you would want to rinse it thoroughly, and then start in with a detergent-free cleaner like the 303 vinyl and fab that I mentioned before.

In terms of the pic you posted, what is actually happening is that light is reflecting differently off of the worn down areas than it is on the unworn areas - this cannot be fixed

As towards the name of the thread being odd, I'm curious what you mean???? I am a professional carpet cleaner and the senior trainer at a carpet cleaning company, and this IS the professional way to clean carpet and mat's in vehicles.....I actually wrote a manual with this in it for our technicians

[RaskyR1]

I just saw what I think you meant... While I do understand that there are many ways of doing any job, there are certain ways of doing the job that will produce a more long-lasting positive effect...

i.e. if your way involves a detergent, foam, or anything that would leave a residue behind, you are only solving the current problem, rather than the long-term problem which is that as long as dirt, debris, etc. remains, the problem remains - and if you use Scotchgard, you are not actually protecting the fibers from stains, you are just protecting them from abrasion from dirt being ground into them....

I am curious what everyone else does that's different????

Hope that clears up what I meant.

Thanks!!

No problem man. I knew what you meant, it's just the way it comes off when I read it.

I do understand the need for different chemicals to treat each type of stain, but at the same time most detailers don't want to carry several different products when a good APC does the job well. Less chemicals equals less cost and space needed. I think a lot of it will come down to the car and the type of clientele you are doing work for. Your process would be great for a high end retail job on an expensive car where you have all the time you need, but when some soccer mom comes in with a trashed 1990's Dodge Caravan, I don't think many of us care about things like that as long is it comes clean quickly and effectively.

Most detailers are using extractors combined with brushes and they pretreate with Folex or some other APC. Some will pretreat the areas and just run straight water in the machine to rinse the fabric too.

Again, I do appreciate the article.


FYI, I cleaned the carpets above by letting an APC dwell for several minutes, scrubbed them with a brush, extracted with a Bissell LGM, followed up with a shop vac to remove more water. I Then proceeded to scrub and extract several more times until I no longer saw an improvement....think I made 5 passes.

I then place two fans on the interior until dry.

[MobolWerks]

Gotcha... One thing you may want to look into is going to a carpet cleaning supply company and purchasing a "spotting kit". It would include versions of most of what I meantioned, and it only costs about $150.00 - keep in mind too, that this kit lasts an actual residential carpet cleaner about 6-9 months, so a detailer doing carpet occasionally would likely get a solid year or more out of the products included..

Typically you would get an ink remover, 2-4 stain removers, red-dye remover (which can be used on any artificial color-based stain like kool-aid), and a bag to store it all in... A great one is the spotting kit by Pro's Choice - but there is also a Matrix brand kit that includes even more choices (pretty much anything you could dream of) for about $175.00

Both of these are available at Jon-Don. It would really take your game up a notch or two if you had 'em, simply because having multiple choices, means having the opportunity to get out stuff you may be having trouble with...

Thanks!

[RaskyR1]

Gotcha... One thing you may want to look into is going to a carpet cleaning supply company and purchasing a "spotting kit". It would include versions of most of what I meantioned, and it only costs about $150.00 - keep in mind too, that this kit lasts an actual residential carpet cleaner about 6-9 months, so a detailer doing carpet occasionally would likely get a solid year or more out of the products included..

Typically you would get an ink remover, 2-4 stain removers, red-dye remover (which can be used on any artificial color-based stain like kool-aid), and a bag to store it all in... A great one is the spotting kit by Pro's Choice - but there is also a Matrix brand kit that includes even more choices (pretty much anything you could dream of) for about $175.00

Both of these are available at Jon-Don. It would really take your game up a notch or two if you had 'em, simply because having multiple choices, means having the opportunity to get out stuff you may be having trouble with...

Thanks!

Thanks!

I'll have to check and see what's in my area. My fiancee has a townhome she rented that got completely trashed by her renters...would be a good place to test some of them out!

I'll have to bookmark this thread.


Rasky

[MobolWerks]

Send me a message with pic's of your girlfriends place and I will walk you through everything you'll need!! Most of the dirt should be pretty simple, but things like blood, make up, oil, etc. can get a little tricky..

Also, Jon-Don has an online site, so you can order anywhere in the country and have it shipped..

[RaskyR1]

Send me a message with pic's of your girlfriends place and I will walk you through everything you'll need!! Most of the dirt should be pretty simple, but things like blood, make up, oil, etc. can get a little tricky..

Also, Jon-Don has an online site, so you can order anywhere in the country and have it shipped..

She's got an offer on it now and if it falls though I'll have to go take some pics.



Is this the kit you were talking about?

Pro's Choice Spotting Kit

They only listed 3 "spotting kits".

[MobolWerks]

Thats it.. The Matrix brand by the way, is Jon-Don's private label.. Both are great, and they both come with complete instruction manuals, so even if you've never used these types of chem's, you should be fine.

Good Luck!

[HotRod]

Thanks man...

The nice thing is that you can be a true carpet and upholstery pro for about $150.00-$200.00!! (rather than the $500-$1,000 it would cost to buy an extraction machine and chem's)

...and better results in my opinion

I appreciate your write up. I too have been IICRC trained in carpet cleaning and also disaster restoration when I worked for a company called Service Master Clean for a number of years. And we were trained to use hot water extractors as the "professional way" of cleaning carpet-automotive or residential. I guess I agree with Rasky with the wording of the title of this thread. Not trying to step on anyones feet, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. JMO

[MobolWerks]

I hear ya on the hot water extraction.. The main reason I left that part out, is that the extraction machines you used and I currently use are leaps and bounds more powerful than anything you can buy from a detailing website - not to mention they're about $3000 ...This is a little outside the budget of most detailers who simply do this as a side item...

If I had to do it over I would have said "Professional Carpet and Mat Cleaning on a budget"

I'll be honest though, I'm a little surprised everyone is sooooo hung up on the title????? Wasn't thinking about the title that much when I wrote it

[RaskyR1]

I hear ya on the hot water extraction.. The main reason I left that part out, is that the extraction machines you used and I currently use are leaps and bounds more powerful than anything you can buy from a detailing website - not to mention they're about $3000 ...This is a little outside the budget of most detailers who simply do this as a side item...

If I had to do it over I would have said "Professional Carpet and Mat Cleaning on a budget"

I'll be honest though, I'm a little surprised everyone is sooooo hung up on the title????? Wasn't thinking about the title that much when I wrote it

Sorry.