I was wondering what is out there now for cleaning spots and stains out of seats. I have the FX4 seats with the white squiggly lines in them and they are really starting to bother me. I have two spots on the passenger seat from throwing my nail guns on it and they leaked some oil, and then just a lot of dirt and concrete dust rubbed into them. I don't really want to take the covers off, but I'm sure I probably will have too. Any input on any cleaning products would be appreciated.

 

Oil is a ***** to get out.

I use an upholstery cleaner like this


Clean your arm rest and realize how much grime is really on it...lol

 

Yeah, I kind of figured it's not going to come out. I'll have to look into that bissel.

 

If you take them out you can pressure wash them. But it takes like a week to fully dry.

 

Simple green should work.

 

Its a hand cleaner like GOJO but no grit in it. Smells good too. Small dap on your finger and work it in and blot it up with some water from a spray bottle. Don't use any bristle type brush on the seat, you'll make a clean spot that will never go away! You also can soak the spots with Simple Green ( 1 part Simple Green to 3 parts water) and use a wet/vac and the spray bottle of water. Load up the spot with water and vacuum asap.

Good Luck... and remember the tools go in the tool box in truck bed...

 

Not to jack thread, I have the same seats.. They look crappy, and mine are kinda dirty. I tried steaming them with no luck...

 

here is what i did when i cleaned my old set

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...over-haul.html

harder the the machine deal but works a hell of a lot better

 

Try this. Its called Tuff Stuff. It worked great on my seat.
Before:


After:

 

I don't know how they got through R and D with that color selection for those seats. Ford has some quack thats colored blind and mixing up the upholstery patterns for trucks and travel bags. My arm rest filed my skin down on my fore arm and elbow. I used an old sleeve of a black sweatshirt to cover it and stopped the skin loss.

 

I tried Tuff Stuff along time ago for door panels. It seems to stay tacky for a while and collects dirt faster that way. Thats why I cut Simple Green so thin, I get it by the gallon and use it on just about anything plastic or cloth in my cars.
Thanks,

 

mines been fine ever since i cleaned it. when your seat turns white, you won't use simple green anymore lol

 

Thats why I dilute it, it also at full strength is tacky after it dry. If I use it on the seats I follow it with a water rinse. I have a carpet cleaner type machine form Oreck that has a attachment that sprays water and vacuums it up at the same time. You can really see how dirty your seat were in the waste water tank.
Thanks,

 

Thats why I dilute it, it also at full strength is tacky when it dries. I have a carpet cleaning machine from Oreck that has an attachment that sprays water and vacuums it up in the same motion. I use it when I do the seats, you really see how dirty they were by the color of the water in the waste tank,

Thanks,

 

yep. best way to clean them.

most spot cleaners or cleaners in a can just push the dirt further down. by pulling the covers off, you can rinse them out from the inside. i've worked on flood cars, cars people have been shot in, milk, pee, etc, and it's always worked wonders. a little laundry detergent and a little lysol will get them clean and smelling good again.

 

i used to do heavy duty mechanics, working at a frame repair shop, i would be under hiway trucks all day long... dirty job... i would have to change my coveralls every day, because they were so gross from the grease... i would hop in my mustang with the coveralls on to drive to mcdonalds all the time, my buddy usually hopped into the pass seat... they were both black when i quit that job... i didn't realize it was all the grease... i shampooed the pass seat with one of those coin operated shampoo machines at the car wash, worked AWESOME! made it look like new again!

 

This is what I did too, about a year ago, and it worked great on mine too. Not to mention made my truck smell nice again.

 

oh they have spray scents up here too! cheap, i'm a sucker for vanilla...

 

If I had an FX4 set of Bucket Seat you wouldn’t catch a Nail Gun on them.
Buy some Seat Covers after the Cleaning.

 

Pretty old thread but I'll throw in my 2 cents about cleaning the seats.

I get a ice cream pale of hot water and put a little bit of dish soap in it and use a scrub brush and do little sections of the seat at a time. You don't want to scrub to hard though but decently hard just so you don't soak the foam underneigh. After your done the section take your shop vac and vacuum the water and soap out. This works amazingly well and it's very cheap to do! And also leave the windows open a bit for the next day or 2 or else you will have damp seats!

 

That's actually a good idea, I would be worried about the soap build up (after a few times) wing a little sticky and holding dirt... Being that it's not rinsed out...

 

Well that's not a problem because you vacuum the seats almost dry, like you scrub the seats with the nozzle of the shop vac, also you wouldn't even put that much soap in. Just a couple drops and mix it around.

I've done it ever spring on all my cars for years and never had any problems. Other then if there's a bad stain that won't come out at all it makes the seats look like I just bought the car new.

 

Get some turtle wax interior cleaner that has bristles on the head already and some tuff stuff. use the turtle wax one first and get some elbow grease going. wipe it with a towl then tuff stuff and it works AMAZING it even got an oil stain out of my dads truck that had been there ever since i was little 10+ years

 

Best bet is to go to an auto parts store and get a can of car upholstery cleaner. It's a cleaner that's specially formulated for the materials used in cars. If you really want to get it clean you'll have to spend the extra few bucks for a brand like Armor-All.
Hope this will help you!!

 

I ended up taking it to a new carwash around here that had a *****in' upholstery cleaner. 5 minutes and they look like brand new again.