Lightman

Hey guys, I have been spending all day detailing the inside of my truck and thought I'd share my process and results with the forum as I haven't seen much in the way of carpet/mat cleaning threads. I am a detailing enthusiast with tons of detail products and equipment, but this is something most people can do on a reasonable budget. I regret not taking any before pictures, but the truck was pretty dirty after 3 years of use-80k miles, most of which included having a 120lb rottweiler in the back seat, and plenty of dirt from general use and ATV riding/camping. I also treated my wet okole seat covers to a similar cleaning process.

Here is a short breakdown of my process, and then I'll explain more about the steps:
-remove all items
-remove seat covers
-vacuum extremely thoroughly with shopvac
-clean/condition leather
-pretreat carpet with enzymatic spot cleaner
-shampoo/brush carpet with solution
-steam/extract carpet with machine
-air dry

1. I'm assuming removing all items and vacuuming really well does not need to be covered or explained any further, but I can't stress enough to vacuum with a strong shopvac or the likes to get all sediment out. Be sure to move the seats all the way forward and back Clean/Condition the leather with whatever products you prefer, however avoid those containing petroleum distillates, they can cause the color to bleed out of seat covers and eventually stain your seats.

2. Many carpet specific spot/stain cleaners are available, the best out there is Folex. Since I had a dog in the truck so long though and had a little bit of wet dog/mildewy type smell from the dog and wet life jackets/wetsuits (jetskiing) in the cab, I opted to use Bissel's enzymatic spot cleaner/pretreat solution that is specifically for pets or odors. I sprayed it over the entire surface of the carpet, not fully saturating the carpet but getting complete coverage. Using my hands I wiped the surface of the carpet back and forth a bit to make sure the pretreater was uniformly spread. I let this sit 3-5 minutes to clean any spots/stains and for the enzymes to do their work.

3. While the pretreat was soaking in the carpet, I made up my bucket of carpet cleaning solution. You can use whatever you like, however I found this works really well. In a standard car wash bucket mix all purpose cleaner or a citrus cleaner 10:1, along with one scoop of oxy-clean, with hot water. Using my hands to cup a bit of the solution, I would slowly wet (not soak/saturate!) sections of carpet, and then work them gently back and forth with a medium-firm plastic bristled brush. I made sure the solution was worked into the carpet, and agitated well. Do this for all the carpet, be sure to move the seats all the way forward and back to get that carpet too.

4. Here's where the fun starts Go to target or your local big box store, or purchase online a Bissel Little Green Powerheat machine. Be careful because I think wal-mart sells the non heated version which is not as good, it's called the little green cleaning machine or something similar. I got mine at target for $89. While the rest of my detailing arsenal is professional level tool and product wise, for my small amount of use, and the few other cars I detail, I can get by just fine with this unit compared to spending $1500 on a professional level extractor. The suction is decent, but you can easily go over the carpet again with a wet/dry shop vac to get it dryer. The bissel works really well for the price and is great for a home enthusiast. Basically this device has two tanks, a clean and dirty water tank, along with a vacuum. You fill the clean side with hot water, and turn on the machine/vacuum. Flip the heater switch on as well, and it will light up when it's hot enough. When the heater lites up, pull the trigger and spray some water on the ground unti it's really hot/steaming (around 200F). Now go to the carpet and spray maybe two lines worth of steaming water and then vacuum over those two lines 2-3 times each sucking up all the water you just sprayed. Repeat for the whole carpet. You will need to spray the thing for a few seconds to get hot water out of the end before you hit the carpet with it each time, because the water that sits in the tube while you're vacuuming cools off. The steaming hot water loosens any remaining dirt, solution, or pretreater and the vacuum sucks it up. There is a clear tip at the end so you can see the dirty water/solution being sucked up. Try not to saturate the carpet too much, but be sure to give it a decent spray or two till you get clean water coming up. I'll include a few pics of the device and the carpet results.

Little Green Proheat




Check out how dirty the water was it extracted!



Here is the carpet after these steps






I hope this helps you guys out, for those that were wondering the best way to tackle cleaning your carpets/mats and getting rid of any smells you might have. The whole deal will cost you $100 or so, and then you'll have the machine to do any other vehicles or the truck again down the road. I'm really happy with the results.

DWG05

Wow! Truck looks brand new. Thanks for the advice and the time you took to write it all out.

jam1on1

what also works is scrub and bubbles it takes stains like crazy

Lightman

Thanks DWG, and glad to help out the forum for those this helps. I certainly have learned a lot here over the years.

Jam1on1, that may work well for doing it by hand, but it's a good idea to avoid anything that foams/creates bubbles when using a hot carpet cleaner, the hot steaming water will make so many bubbles/so much foam you'll think you're at a frat party

coobie

Good write up lightman,Thanks.coobie

BigBlue

Looks great bud. Coming from a man who cleans carpets for a living (I've done several vehicles) that looks almost as good as I could have gotten them. They did come out looking great though. It's amazing how much dirt is actually in the carpet that you don't see isn't it?

Another thing that works well for cleaning up spots is windex believe it or not. The carpet is nothing more than plastic with no backing to it so a little windex and some paper towels will take most spots out really easily. Like lightman said though, you definately don't wanna use anything that suds real heavily cause it's an absolute nightmare to get out and most of the time it will leave a residue that will cause the stain to come back that much quicker.

Lightman

Thx BigBlue. As I mentioned, this equipment is great for the weekend warrior or home enthusiast, it's not professional carpet equipment like I'm sure you have. Most of those extractor machines start around $1000-1500 and do have better heat and suction, but it just doesn't make sense economically unless you were going to do it for a living.

For the record, there are zero dirt or stain spots in the carpet. When bigblue said they looked ALMOST as good I had to check the pics out again, lol. The second pic of the passenger seat carpet looks like on the hump between the seats that it's discolored however that's just the light/shadows. Honestly the carpet is and has always been covered by my catch all xtreme mats, which pretty much leave almost zero carpet exposed..again as bigblue said, it's amazing how much will come out of carpet that doesn't look that bad!

I will also comment that I did my wet okole seat covers with a combo of neoprene/wetsuit shampoo and then used the hot water extractor on them, and the water was equally brown. All of the spots came out of them, and they look and smell very fresh now! As you can see, after 80k the leather still looks brand new under the wet okoles..they have done a good job.

jpfishmaster

Right on! I've ben using the same Bissell for years and it really does a great job. It can actually become addicting, once you've transferred the nasty back to new. Plus, the truck smells new again!

Lightman

I agree jpfishmaster, when I opened the door to the truck this morning after being closed up all night, it smelled so fresh and clean.

4x4not

Or you could just have vinyl flooring like me and just use a scrub brush and water when it gets muddy

stickbow

yea no kidding wish i had vinyl floors had them once in a 01 ctd, sure was easy to clean. I will have vinyl in my next truck..... a long time from now

BAJA MAN

Nice job Lightman! Very good write up. May have to get one of those little Bissel machines. Where can you find the Folex products? I have seen them around, just can't remember where.

BigBlue

I think you left a 0 off of those price quotes on the cost on one of the professional machines.

Those little things do a great job for little jobs like the inside of your truck. I need to redo mine again. It's so nice to open the door of a fresh smelling truck that looks brand spanking new. You just feel good about yourself everytime you get into it.

Lightman

Thanks BajaMan, glad to help. Folex can be bought at Lowe's and most other big box stores.

BigBlue - I was referring to most compact/mobile extractors, that professional detailers would use like a durr-maid, not something like you might have to do full carpets in houses etc.. Again you're certainly right about opening the door to a fresh/new smelling truck, it's great. For the occasional spot/stain and auto use, the LGPH is a great machine. It did equally well cleaning my wet okole seat covers, the water was the same color as above.

Peterbilt

Ah, I see your shampoo machine also has a turbo

Pete