cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

[CieraSL]

A few quick questions. I will hopefully be detailing a 2005 Ford F150 for a co-worker of mine. He had been going to send it to a detail shop (a real hack place - I've seen their work), but I convinced him to let me do it. Hooray! Anyway, my first question is, he has some stains on his cloth seats he wants me to remove. The seats are made of the same material as these seats



except they are a dark grey, rather than tan. For those of you who have dealt with these kind of seats, what would be the best way to clean them? I'm thinking spray some APC on there, blot with a terry towel, then go back over with another terry towel. Is this my best bet? I also have APC+, Quik Out, and the Detailer carpet cleaner.

Second, what is the best way to get scratches out of the side mirrors? Has anybody tried, or know what you can use? Or is there really no solution? The mirrors look like the ones on this truck - sorry I couldn't find any better pics.


Final question. Which product makes a better protectant on exterior plastics: M40 or 303 Aerospace Protectant? I have both. Thanks!

[Murr1525]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

1. Yeah, I would do lots of blotting. Even tell him you may need to do more blotting in a week or two.

2. Do you mean swirls on the glass part?

3. I have never used Aero.. guess I have to be a Meguiars fan.....

[sanddrag]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

I haven't tried it on seats, but Quick-Out worked great on my 2001 Ranger center console top. You have to be really careful and do test spots though, because sometimes the color of the fabric can change slightly. I think you'll have better luck on a darker material, but you may end up wanting to lightly spray and wipe the entire surface seat just to make sure there are no differently colored spots. I had a terrible smell after Quick-Out that lasted for days. I followed it up with water with a few drops of Palmolive to help get the smell out. There may be something better for you to use, I'm interested as well.

[JimboB5]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

I've used the Detailer cleaner... have to be careful about color change, as mentioned. Have used Duplicolor trim black to re-do side mirrors - look great and wear well... all in the prep before painting.

[CieraSL]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

2. Do you mean swirls on the glass part?

No. They're scratches on the actual plastic part.

[Murr1525]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

Not much to do about those.... there is likely a fine texture to the plastic, so any fix will remove the texture and leave it smooth/glossy in that area, so as to stand out and look worse.

[JimboB5]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

My mistake regarding the trim black - actually is Bumper black paint ( know the scratches won't usually come out ). Anyway, if you scuff and clean well, the Duplicolor paint will re-do it a satin black. I've used it to change the " skull caps " on my buddies' side mirrors that were chrome... worked well with the right prep work.

[the_invisible]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

Any heavy stain is probably best removed with Oxi Clean, hands down. I would use Oxi Clean specifically on the stain area, and then APC+ over the entire seating area. APC+ would probably work on most stains, but Oxi Clean works on ALL stains, which cuts down the amount of time to test which product works and which doesn't.

If you do not have Oxi Clean, then APC+ is probably your only option. It will probably work very well depending on the dilution.

[Tuck91]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

Hey Shane,

I have detailed a similar truck before with darker gray seats,

does it look like these?






this truck was 2 years older so I am not sure if they are exact but they are a darker gray.

Not sure if this helps but i cleaned them up with a combination of Quik Out, APC Plus, a Meguiars All Surface Interior Brush and a shop vac and plenty of microfibers.

Not sure much can be done if the textured plastic piece is scrtached,

And as for dressing the exterior trim, I have found that most Ford Trim takes really well to either M40 or ASD.





I tend to apply a couple applications and from what I have seen durabilty is pretty good from M40.

Hope this helps!!

[CieraSL]

Re: cleaning cloth seats...and a few quick questions

Thanks Nick!