Ok, so now that the winter is over and the plows aren't dumping salt all over, it's time to really clean my truck. How do I get the dried salt build up out of my carpet, is there a good cleaner or will I need to use something more serious?

Thanks,

 

steam cleaner vac things those little green mechines thats what i use every year

 

Cool, my dad just picked one of those up!

 

I'd recommend a steam-cleaner also. I steam-cleaned my carpet when I had it out to install the Second-Skin. It was a lot dirtier than it looked!

 

After I got all the suds out with the clean water, I went back and did the entire truck again(seats/carpet) with just water and omg, the bucket still kept filling up with brown water. lmao

 

I just got new sport buckets from a junk yard, They are Tan and I had a problem with dirt coming out of the seats after several steam cleaning tries. I took the factory seats covers off the seat and put them in the washing machine, Used cold water on a gentle cycle with Tide. Did it twice, let them air-dry overnite and then re-installed them. A lot of work but I will tell you the seats look like brand new

 

Any steam cleaner that has the hand-held attachment - that is what you need. And from expeience, I highly recommend the use of hot water - one it gets put through the machine and squirted onto the carpet, it cools off alot so no worries about damage from the heat - by the time it hits the carpet, it will be much cooler than what it was coming straight out fo the faucet.

I owned a '97 Cherokee for about 1 yr - when I bought it, it had a lot of the salt grime in it - using the steam cleaner made the carpet look new for the most part. My tips would include:

1) Plan to do it with the few following days being great, sunny weather - you will want to be able to leave the windows down etc to let it dry out well.

2) I have had the best results using the cleaning/soap/detergent solution once or twice, then using just clear water 2-3 times more. It seems that the detergent solution loosens things up, but using just straight water really lets the vacuum suck the filth out better.

3) Go over it many times with just the vacuum part after you've use the detergent and then the water - you want to try as hard as possible to get as much moisture out as you can with the vacuum. Take your time, overlap your passes, and go over it a lot to get all the liquid out. This may be the most time consuming part - even when you think you've got it all, go over it again - this step makes the drying process go much faster.

 

Just do what I do, take ti to the Polish shop once a year and pay $100 they steam clean your carpet, buff the paint, detail everything and make it look better that it did new. It is my spring ritual.

~HJ