Interior cleaning suggestions

[Guest JDHolmes]

My 53 Chieftain has original seats which are still in fantastic shape; i.e. not torn or excessvively worn. However, the front seats do need to be cleaned of their 55 year accumulated dust and dirt. Does anyone have suggestions for upholstery cleaner that they've actually used. I'm leary of using just any advertised upholstery cleaner.

Thanks, in advance

Jeff

these are cloth seats

[hilgretasmom1]

Jeff,

Griot's Garage has a spray upholstery cleaner that you agitate with a a brush and then wipe with a white cloth. It works very well. I even use it on the carpet in the house. Just make sure the brush is clean when you start.

[Guest Moepar]

If it's vinyl or leather, Murphy's Oil Soap is very good. Used in on a '66 Polara with mold on the seats, cleaning with it did it wonders.

[JB-ed]

With all the new interest in orginal cars, and the seemingly huge number of these coming out of barns lately, I am surpirsed none of the magazines has presented any info on how to clean and preserve these vehicles. I have a 1928 car, parked since 1952, mohair upholstery. No one has anything except speculation on how to treat this upholstery. Likewise no help on paint, spots of rust, rubber, etc.

[Bhigdog]

I guess this is also speculation but about once a year my wife has a guy come in and clean the upholstered furniture and rugs. He uses a system that sprays a cleaning solution and vacuums it back out. It leaves the material damp for a day or so but it really brightens everything up. I don't see why it wouldn't work for auto upholstery...........Bob.

[Guest JDHolmes]

The majority of those carpet cleaning systems use chemicals which "attract" dirt after they dry. I'm sure that they would clean it originally, but I'm not really interested in shooting chemicals, which may or may not react with the foam in the seat, into my seats. It MAY work, but the downside is much worse than the upside in my opinion.

I imagine that I can buy a steam only cleaner, but again, I'm just worried about what this will do to 53 year old foam, fabric.

I just thought there might be a mild cleaning solution that someone had used in the past on 50 era's vehicles that they had good luck with. Appears not.

[RocketDude]

I purchased a 1951 Olds in January, that had been parked in a barn since '79. The The windows were up, so the interior was in excelleny shape, except for some nasty stains on the top of the back seat. Both sides were badly stained. Not sure what got in there to stain it, because there was no sign of dampness anywhere else. All of the painted moulding near that area, were nicely painted still, with no signs of rust, so I don't know how the stains got there.

Anyway, I just took a spray bottle of Folex, which I bought at Home Depot for about $6 bucks, and sprayed it on the bad area. It s advertised to clean spots in carpets with no rubbing, just spray it on. I have used it with great success at home for some time, so I gave it a shot.

I am more than pleased with the results. I had to spray it a couple of times. The first application helped a lot, but there were still some signs of staining, so after it dried for a day or so, I shot it again. It improved it probably 90 percent. I could do it again, and I might, but it looked good enough to go to other areas of repair that had a more immediate need, such as brakes. The interior can wait until all of the mechanical is finished, but I just couldn't look at those ugly stains any longer.

Give it a try, it's inexpensive and does a terrific job. I have several bottles around the house.

[nearchoclatetown]

JD, I understand your concern. I would also be cautious about useing a product that has to use a vacuum to remove it. I'm sure the fibers are rather delicate and the vacuum would make it worse.

[ex98thdrill]

I would check with a reputable interior person and take their advice.

If they're good, they're busy and don't need the work nor do they have time to do it. They know what works and what doesn't work. Another option is getting in touch with one of the local car dealers who takes cars in, dolls them up, and puts them on the lot to resell. I'm sure they too know the tricks of the trade to get their interiors looking good at a reasonable cost in a short time.

One of the things that I didn't see you mention was the seat material. Is it cloth? vinyl? leather?

Depending on what the material is, will strongly dictate what you should or shouldn't use.

[Guest JDHolmes]

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses. You've provided some very good suggestions. The materials is the original cloth, two tone. It's never been restored, changed or cut up. There are no rips or tears. The only real issue is that in passenger rear seat corner, there are moisture stains, not from leaks but from??? similar to what someone said in a post.

Also, the seats could use a good cleaning. They are not vibrant and you can just tell that they're dirty though there are no obvious dirt stains other than that mentioned above. The door panels, on the other hand, are rags and will be redone by me in original material from SMS.