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
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