How to deep clean seats?

[nayfie]

Hi. So the weather is hot (good for drying), so I'm going to give cleaning the van seats a whirl. They are fabric (not leather).

I've bought some cleaner, a fabric brush, and I have a VAX vacuum to stuck water up. But I'm unsure on the way to do it! Does anyone have any experience/tips?

I've read about wicing (when parts dry sooner than others), and I don't wish to scrub the fabric too hard.

Any advice welcome! Do it right, do it once!

 

[DXX]

I use a Vax carpet cleaner with the hose and small nozzle, I don’t use the brushes. Works well.
Now is a good time to do it with higher ambient temperature.

 

[Ayjay]

Halfords do an own brand upholstery cleaner that I’ve found to work. I first go onto it from reading a reviw of it an others in Auto Express

 

[nayfie]

Thanks both.

I too had read up on the Halfords own brand cleaner. So armed with that, an upholstery brush, a squirty bottle (warm water) to soak the seats first, then using the VAX to stuck it all, it's done wonders!!

I even did seat seats in the wife's 20yo Clio, they have come up looking like new!!

One tip I have now (and only probably because seats were filthy) was to after sucking up as much water with VAX, is to put a few sheets of good kitchen towel (like Regina Blitz) on the seats, and it soaks up some horrible looking moisture.

I guess if I clean the seats again, it would not be so bad.

But great result!!

 

[DXX]

The foam inside is closed cell, there’s very little water retention on the main seat body.
I just used carpet cleaning detergent, works fine and didn’t need to soak.

 

[Paynewright]

I’ve done both the kids cars - seats and carpets.

On the seats I dampened them first then smothered with cheap shaving foam then used a mini vax to scrub / suck the water out using their shampoo but happy to use any when it runs out.

The other thing I did was spray with clean water and vac again - a rinse to get shampoo residue out.

The results were incredible and slightly shocking!

 

[DXX]

Done a few things with shaving foam in my time but that’s a new one.
Do you need to do it again in a couple of days?