How do you clean filthy seats and not soak them?

[ShineTimeDetail]

I had a filthy car today and I had to clean the seats 4 times. I sprayed cleaner, hit with stean then used my hot water extractor. The extractor obviously shoots water into the seat.

Well the seat was dry to the touch but when you sat down you got soaked!

What am I supposed to do here? I know I could open windows and let the sun dry it but I need a better solution than that!

Anyone have some solutions?

[Pureshine]

I use a fan over night with windows down.

[ShineTimeDetail]

I'm doing a small dealership and can't be doing that.

[AeroCleanse]

I use a tornador or a steamer. If you have an air compressor you could try using that to dry.

[SR99]

For your immediate problem you could set a few layers of terry towels on the seats and sit in them for a while (or put some weights on the seats), as they wick up the water/solution.

How long did you wait before sitting in the seats?

Do you pre-treat with a fairly light spray of a cleaner first, to get the bulk of the grime?

Can you adjust the flow rate of the nozzle on your wand, or change the nozzle?

A stronger vac motor on the extractor can help a lot as well, but you'd probably need access to a couple separate 20 amp circuits for that type of suction plus the heater, and I assume that's not very practical if you do this mobile.

[ShineTimeDetail]

For your immediate problem you could set a few layers of terry towels on the seats and sit in them for a while (or put some weights on the seats), as they wick up the water/solution.

How long did you wait before sitting in the seats?

Do you pre-treat with a fairly light spray of a cleaner first, to get the bulk of the grime?

Can you adjust the flow rate of the nozzle on your wand, or change the nozzle?

A stronger vac motor on the extractor can help a lot as well, but you'd probably need access to a couple separate 20 amp circuits for that type of suction plus the heater, and I assume that's not very practical if you do this mobile.

I do 90% work at my shop now.

[SuperiorAutoLLC]

I would make several lengthier, slower passes over the seats until you feel like most of the water is extracted. Then put an air mover in the car for about 30 mins.

[Jeffro]

The trick is to move your extractor slowly while you work. Now that the water is in there, you don't have much choice but to get it dry any way you can. I use a big fan when the weather is warm outside and not much humidity. When it's wet and cold, I start the engine and crank up the heater on fresh intake and leave the windows cracked a half inch or so. May take a couple hours, so make sure there's a few gallons of gas in it.

Get all the excess water out first, anyway you can. Re-extract with no spray and go slow. Press firm with towels. Whatever it takes.

[ziggo99]

What about switching your order to hot water then steam?

[T3 AutoDetails]

I don't have the extractor but I do have a steamer. When I get really bad seats this is what I do.

-Remove seats from car

-Spray some 2:1 D103 on a interior cloth and do a quick wipe down and see what comes off freely with normal pressure over the towel.

- I than use a medium bristle brush and spray quite a bit of APC into my towel (1 towel per seat) and break the seat down like I would panels on a car since most seats have different portions in between the stitching and rub the towel into section i'm working to apply the APC then use the brush too pull the dirt out and follow with a clean dry MF towel.

This method has worked for me because I was having the same issues and no air mover to move air in the car. And from my experience if you don't get all the water/chemical out than after a day of sitting in the sun or heat the seats now have a strong odor from not lifting everything out.

Might not be the best method but it works for me flawlessly.

-Tory