Svending advice needed

[jminer]

My ranger is in desperate need of an interior overhaul. We've ripped almost everything out and have found some structurally intact seats from the junk yard from a recent trip.

The issue is that they're from a 28 year old ranger and are filthy. They're the best set we found in the junk yard scrounging probably 50 rangers and explorers. They're in fine shape other than cosmetics.

They're actually way worse than they look in photos too. I spent an hour scrubbing on the drivers side last night with foam carpet and upholstery cleaner and it did make a notable difference on the drivers seat but it's still filthy. Also it still smells of the cleaner 18 hours later (it did rain so they might just not have dried yet).

After cleaning

Is there anything I can do that isn't buying a green machine steam cleaner? Frankly I have almost no use case for a carpet cleaner other than these seats.

The seats will probably get covers eventually anyway, but I'd like them less filthy under the covers. I am hunting for better seats too, I found a set of sweet red leather CR-V seats but they need entire bracket and mounting re-engineering to mount into the ranger so they'll get saved for later application.

Thanks in advance!

[MUSASHI66]

@jminer Rent it! Most grocery stores, Home Depot, Lowe’s , they all have carpet cleaners.

We bought one as we have carpet and dogs, and it did wonders for my Tundra when I cleaned them after my dad used it for 17 years without cleaning.

[ItalianJobR53]

@jminer give the seats to a cleaning shop so that they can steam clean em? I gave my Audi to be done the same and the seats are much cleaner than they used to be

[jminer]

@musashi66 said in Svending advice needed:

Rent it! Most grocery stores, Home Depot, Lowe’s , they all have carpet cleaners.

I've rented them before (10 years ago) when we had carpet but those didn't do upholstery well and we're basically just carpet cleaning machines. Do they do that now?

[AestheticsInMotion]

@jminer if you do go the rental route, just make sure you get a unit that heats the water up and actually produces steam. I learned the hard way that what is advertised as a steam cleaner may not in fact be a steam cleaner. Pretty huge difference in cleaning power.

[Chariotoflove]

@jminer
Like the others have said, the good news is that you can rent steam cleaners, and a Green Machine is pretty cheap. The bad news is that won't get out your stains that are bonded to the fabric.

[JeepOfTheseus]

@jminer I don’t have any suggestions for cleaning but I will say that, given that the ranger has smaller seats like my TJ, the seats out of a second gen Hyundai Tiburon are a good replacement for smaller seats. They’ve got a pretty good range of (manually operated) motion to fit just about anything. I had to fab a bracket out of metal stock but nothing requiring welding, just need a drill press. They would probably be a good fit if you wanted buckets.

Photo has some glare though but you get the idea. There’s a good bit of bolster on these though.

[MUSASHI66]

@jminer Look for the ones that have the fabric wand. Or buy a steam cleaner for like $150.

[notsomethingstructural]

@jminer I was pretty happy with scrubbing my upholstery with 50/50 P21s all purpose cleaner and water, but the stains weren’t truly out and eventually became visible again. I’m not sure if some sort of spray on top might have diminished their reappearance but it really felt like the P21s got them 99% of the way out

[jminer]

@italianjobr53 said in Svending advice needed:

@jminer give the seats to a cleaning shop so that they can steam clean em? I gave my Audi to be done the same and the seats are much cleaner than they used to be

I'm going to have to look into this. There are a bunch of upholstery shops around, I'll ask if any of them do deep cleaning.

[IJustWantMyZBack]

I have good experience with Tuff Stuff getting up years old stains. Saturate scrub vacuum.

[liam]

@jminer said in Svending advice needed:

@musashi66 said in Svending advice needed:

Rent it! Most grocery stores, Home Depot, Lowe’s , they all have carpet cleaners.

I've rented them before (10 years ago) when we had carpet but those didn't do upholstery well and we're basically just carpet cleaning machines. Do they do that now?

You have to make sure they have the hand unit - sometimes called the stair cleaner. Our HD also had one that was just for stairs and furniture.

[A Former User]

@jminer
As some have said, look at renting a cleaner from a store. I've had good results from a water based degreaser such as Bilt Hamber Surfex HD which can be watered down for use.
I just use that, a stiff nylon brush and wet'dry vacuum.
Liberally apply product, agitate into a foam and wet vacuum.