Carpet Cleaning

[kroberts]

I've got my most of my interior removed and I need to clean the carpet. A guy at work said I should remove it and wash it at the car wash (?). He said he did it to a carpet set once and it worked just fine. I'm a little worried about the pressure. I want to remove the carpet anyway so I can check the pan. I was going to clean it while removed anyway. Anyone ever wash a carpet with the 3000psi car-wash blaster before?

kr

[Jand3rson]

You'll be fine, I know a lot of people who have pressure washed their carpets, works great. I would still get a steam cleaner/shampooer and do it afterwards.

[ivo316]

Use a weak solution of diswashing detergent, dawn worked great for me..;)

[Stu]

I've got my carpet out of my car and hanging out to dry right now. I pulled it out on Friday, cleaned it with diluted Purple Stuff (10:1) and a brush, then hosed it off (A pressure washer would probably work better here). I'm going to give it 3 days of drying before putting it back in. Oddly enough, I found a rust spot forming where my right heel sits in front of the gas pedal--so I went ahead and sanded and sealed that while the carpet was out.

[VWGolfDriv3r]

Remove it from the car, spray it very very liberally with Shout cleaner, scrub it with a stiff brush and very hot water, spray it again with more shout, scrub with a sponge, pressure wash. If you can get it up against a wall or somehow off the floor so the water can drain that's best, you'll get a lot of dirty water. That's how we did it at a detail shop

[george graves]

I used diluted super clean and a garden hose on a warm sunny day. Dried in 24 hours - no problems.

Be careful moving it around when it soaked with water, or you'll rip the carpet.

[atomic]

doesn't the carpet go completely under, all the way to the firewall, of the heat/ac unit ? If so it would seem to be a PITA to remove since the dash has to come out to get the climate system out. Just wondering ?? If so you and depending on how dirty the carpet is you might want to rent a carpet cleaner and go at it that way. If you do end up taking it out you can pressure wash it but be very careful if you do move it after it is wet as it will tear easily !!

[kroberts]

My car's PO changed the interior from black to natur (dammit) he did a very good job of cutting the carpet. I wish my car had a black interior, I wanted to paint it bright yellow. Removal will be easy.

kr

[atomic]

My car's PO changed the interior from black to natur (dammit) he did a very good job of cutting the carpet. I wish my car had a black interior, I wanted to paint it bright yellow. Removal will be easy.

kr

Oh well if the PO has already changed the carpet over to a different color in the car it would be alot easier to just yank it out and pressure clean it. Just be careful when moving the carpet after the cleaning as they will tear very easily. Or try to source you the anthrazit(dark grey) carpet and clean and install it instead.....cleaning the carpet I would do any spot cleaning and prescrub with a nylon brush and then lighty soak the entire carpet with your cleaner and pressure wash. Simple green diluted would do a perfect job but just make sure that you rinse all the soap out of the carpet or the residue will tend to attract dirt and make it get dirty quicker....

[Stu]

It is quite a bit easier to remove the carpet if it's already been swapped out during its life. I changed mine from black to tan a few years ago (now I wish I woulda kept the gray carpet!). The only real modifications you have to make is cutting around the heater core and snipping around the steering shaft.

Aside from that; pulling the carpet is a snap. Mine looks 10x better now after a good scrubbing, I'll take pics when I can.

[fast1eddy]

I used some Turtlewax Oxy Power Out carpet cleaner and my carpets turned out great. I thought i would have to change the carpet or at least steam clean it but it turned out great using that stuff. No need to remove carpet.:)

[AndrewBird]

There is no black carpet in e30's. Only gray. Your's must have been REALLY dirty.

I like this stuff:



I usually spray it on, scrub it REALLY well, then vacuum it out before it dries with a shop vac. I've gotten out some NASTY stains before with it.

Granted, it is more work and time then pressure washing it, but if you're worried about tearing up the carpet...

[kroberts]

Cleaned my carpet yesterday. Mixed up a big bucket of water and some Purple Power type stuff at probably a 10:1 ratio and scrubed it in really well. The shit that came out of the carpet could have gagged a maggot. 20 years of spilled coffee and soda. The soap suds were caramel colored! funny, it didn't look that dirty. I let it sit for about 10 minutes then washed the hell out of it with my pressure washer. My driveway is slightly inclined so everything drained pretty well. Then I flooded the carpet with a hose, let it drain again, and vacuumed it with my shop vac.

It's a little thread-bare in places, and there are 3 or 4 cigarette burns, but all in all I'm stoked. I'm going to let it dry for a couple days. I was also pleased to note that there is zero rust on my floorpan.

kr