Mini Van...'nuff said

[Don]

I cleaned the inside of my neighbor's minivan in exchange for him helping with some projects around the house. I used OXY Clean and Greased Lightning which got most of the mess out, but I still think it needs a second cleaning.

The befores:







The Afters:

[gb387]

the carpet is MUCH improved!

[Lncanney]

How do people live in such nastiness? That carpet before was rank, but it looks BRAND NEW in the after pictures! Great job! How exactly do you use the oxy-clean? Does it get most stains out, or are its abilities limited to certain stain types?

-Lindsey

[Don]

Originally posted by Lncanney
How exactly do you use the oxy-clean? Does it get most stains out, or are its abilities limited to certain stain types?

-Lindsey

(this is borrowed from Detail City, modified a bit from the method posted by GSRstilez)

I take one of the empty OXY buckets (the larger ones) and fill it with water as hot as I can get it. Then I add two scoops of OXY and stir it in with a paint brush. Why a paint brush? I dunno, it seems to work better than a mixing stick. (If you have a large area to clean, such as this mini-van, then get at least a two gallon bucket and use 1 to 1-1/2 scoop oxy per gallon).

Stir it for several minutes until the powder is completely dissolved into the water. From there you can either use a funnel to put the solution into a spray bottle for seats, or set the bucket inside the car (on the floor) to do the carpet.

I take a laundry soap measuring cup and scoop up some of the cleaner. Pour it on a section of carpet and scrub that area until the cleaner is worked in, then move on the next section repeating the process until the entire carpet is wet but not drenched with cleaner and has been well scrubbed. I find that a medium stiff brush with bristles about 1 to 1/1/2 " work well wirthout being too rough on the carpet fibers. Minimum dwell time is 10-15 minutes adding time based on the severity of the stains.

Reapply the oxy and rescrub 'trouble' areas then use a good wet/vac or extractor to **** up as much as possible. Taking your time on extraction is one of the most important parts since THIS is what actually gets the dirt OUT of the carpet.

After I have extracted everything that I possibly can, I take a 3 gallon garden sprayer with a mix of about 4oz fabric softener to 3 gal water and soak the carpet with that mix. After about 15 minutes, I take the shop vac and go over the carpeting again, until I get all of this mixture out.

The mix of fabric softener does several things, it adds a pleasant scent to the car, it acts as a rinse cycle helping to make sure you get all of the soap out of the carpets (avoiding that crunchy "Ooops, I didn't get all the soap out" feeling) , and it DOES make the carpeting feel softer

[showtime]

Don't remind me, I've got one to do tomorrow........

That carpet looks about as good as it gets. I think a dye job is in order to really make it look new again.

Just a minivan tip, I found using an upright for the rear part cuts vacuuming time by more than half. Then go back and touch up the crevaces with your Shop Vac.

[Teak]

Don,
Nice work on the mini-van. Thanks for the tip on using fabric softener.

Showtime,
Thanks for the tip on using an upright vac for mini-vans. I think one could also use extension wand for the shop vac hose.

Eric

[LnkPrkSoldier]

how about putting in a spray bottle? ( the fabric softener ). my carpet is quite stiff and i want to make it a bit more pleasant...from your calculations, it is a 1:96 oz ratio... seems kinda low...is that correct??? Wil using something like 1:30 stain the carpet or make it difficult to remove? how long should i let the fabric softener sit in the carpet before removing it?

Oh and is that on a Chevrolet Venture? my dad has one which looks very similar to that but quite a bit more dirty.

[Don]

Originally posted by LnkPrkSoldier
how about putting in a spray bottle? ( the fabric softener ). my carpet is quite stiff and i want to make it a bit more pleasant...from your calculations, it is a 1:96 oz ratio... seems kinda low...is that correct??? Wil using something like 1:30 stain the carpet or make it difficult to remove? how long should i let the fabric softener sit in the carpet before removing it?

Oh and is that on a Chevrolet Venture? my dad has one which looks very similar to that but quite a bit more dirty.

I guesstimated on the amount, perhaps a cup per the 3 gal container?

The only time I had difficulty removing fabric softener was when the wife spilled a whole bottle in the back seat of her Jeep. Even then it wasn't bad. There was no staining, but the concentrated F/S DID have a mild cleaning effect. 1-2 oz in a 32 oz spray bottle should be OK.

I'd say leave it in about 15 min or so figuring that's roughly the amount of time a washing machine keeps clothes in the rinse cycle with the fabric softener.

Yep, it's a Venture.

[rusty bumper]

One good thing about mini-vans is that you can use a power brush head to loosen the dirt and vacuum it up.

I use our Filter Queen vacuum cleaner for this.

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I take a laundry soap measuring cup and scoop up some of the cleaner. Pour it on a section of carpet and scrub that area until the cleaner is worked in, then move on the next section repeating the process until the entire carpet is wet but not drenched with cleaner and has been well scrubbed.

Is it a good idea to pour a liquid onto the carpet like that?

[Don]

Originally posted by Rusty Bumper

Is it a good idea to pour a liquid onto the carpet like that?

Modern auto carpeting has a waterproof backing and even near bolt holes, the carpeting is compressed so much that water has a hard time getting past & underneath the carpet. Besides, I only get the carpet wet, not drenched to where there are puddles.