Auto Carpet and Mat Cleaning the professional way

[HotRod]

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

Yeah, the high end machines we used($3000-$10,000) are over kill for a detailer and take up way too much room and can be expensive to maintain.

The title isn't a big deal, its just you have so many different detailers with different experience levels reading this, that may think this is the only way to do the job. But, like I said there are always several different ways of doing things, one system may work for one user but does not work well for the next one. Everyone should have an open mind on trying any method. But I do appreciate your knowledge and the fact that you took the time to make this write up. We need more carpet/upholstery write ups on this forum.

[CEE DOG]

Yeah, the high end machines we used($3000-$10,000) are over kill for a detailer and take up way too much room and can be expensive to maintain.

The title isn't a big deal, its just you have so many different detailers with different experience levels reading this, that may think this is the only way to do the job. But, like I said there are always several different ways of doing things, one system may work for one user but does not work well for the next one. Everyone should have an open mind on trying any method. But I do appreciate your knowledge and the fact that you took the time to make this write up. We need more carpet/upholstery write ups on this forum.

THANK YOU for the excellent write up MobolWerks! I was just thinking about how time consuming my method for cleaning mats was (earlier today) and was thinking about starting a thread to see how everybody else did it. This is perfect! I use the 303 cleaner but hadn't done it this way. This will save me time.

[Matt]

Interesting to know that the 303 Hi Tech fabric guard protects against grease and oil. I'll have to order some next time.

[VR8]

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

My thoughts exactly.

The article is great. Gives ONE of MANY ways to do a job. Thanks.

[LincolnZephyr2006]

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.

Hey Chad, for stuff that bad I would just grab out the carpet dye. It makes a heck of a difference...... if the people neglected that bad in the first place... hey certainly won't mind the dye (or even notice it for that matter)

[MobolWerks]

Interesting to know that the 303 Hi Tech fabric guard protects against grease and oil. I'll have to order some next time.

The reason it will protect against grease and oil, is because it is a solvent-based chemical... Most protectants tend to be water-based which essentially is made to keep dirt and debris from "scratching" the fibers...

On the really technical end of things, Scotchgard in particular works by acting as "blocker" to the "acid dye sets" that manufacturers add to the fibers to attract the dyes that they use on said fibers... The rediculous part about using an acid-based dye on carpet, is that everything in your refrigerator is an acid-based dye i.e. tomatoes, juices, etc....

So while it will "block" stains for certain amount of time, it is not stain-proof like a solvent-based product would be... thus you must remove the stain within a short amount of time, before it inevitably "soaks" into the fibers regardless of the acid-dye blocker...

Hope that made sense

[MobolWerks]

To keep it simple, think of a solvent protectant (like 303) as really good wax on your paint - and a drink spill will literally bead-up like water does on wax

The other major advantage, is that cleaning your upholstery will become more of a yearly thing, rather than a monthly or quarterly thing..

[Matt]

Hope that made sense

That makes sense.

I always wondered why the fabric protection on the carpet in my car (came with it from the factory, not the dealer) was able to block a nice red berry juice that was spilt on it without staining, yet Scotchgard has never been very good at protecting much.

Now I know. Neat!