DIY: make your dirty old seats look new! (almost)
wagodizzle
Council Member and EDM expert
so, since most of us drive 17+ year old cars, as such, your interior cloth and such turns nasty and dirty. most likely 90% of us have torn drivers seats, and mostly those of us with the blue interior haha (for some reason it seems blue tears more.)
sooooo to make all that good, first of all you need the following:
-mommy that loves you
-cloth of choice
-washer and dryer
-laundry detergent
so, when i got my wagon the drivers seat was torn up and looked worse then my shop towels. (this seat wasnt the original, the original was nice and clean but the guy who sold it to me kept that seat without telling me, anyways long story...)
here is my original seat i saw from the Ad of my car way back when-
after i got the car i bought some upholstery cleaner at Auto Zone or whatever and that didnt do much... then i got my moms mini-carpet cleaner and anyways, that took some dirty and grime off but STILL it was brown. oh well, meanwhile my lovely mother sewed up the tears and holes with some plaid clothe like so.
note, this is the seat AFTER 2 different cleans...
also the headrests were swapped out for ugly dirty ones as well. as you can sorta see.
well, later on i ran into a junkyard wagon and took the drivers seat which was considerably cleaner then mine. but it had a tear in the bottom cushion. well, i went with it for a while... then i was bored after winter break started, so i took the old dirty bottom cushion and removed the fabric part from the foam. its quite tricky, just take your time.
i then stuck it in the wash machine and washed it.. TWICE.
came out like so =D it the dirty brown seat now looks better then all the other seats, crazy!! when i get my lazy ass up, i may just wash all the rest of the seats like this
for the headrests, i filled up the kitchen sink with warm water and detergent, then i massaged the headrests in there a few times will they came out nice and clean. the water afterwards was so disgusting... its not even funny :shock:
enjoy...
sooooo to make all that good, first of all you need the following:
-mommy that loves you
-cloth of choice
-washer and dryer
-laundry detergent
so, when i got my wagon the drivers seat was torn up and looked worse then my shop towels. (this seat wasnt the original, the original was nice and clean but the guy who sold it to me kept that seat without telling me, anyways long story...)
here is my original seat i saw from the Ad of my car way back when-
after i got the car i bought some upholstery cleaner at Auto Zone or whatever and that didnt do much... then i got my moms mini-carpet cleaner and anyways, that took some dirty and grime off but STILL it was brown. oh well, meanwhile my lovely mother sewed up the tears and holes with some plaid clothe like so.
note, this is the seat AFTER 2 different cleans...also the headrests were swapped out for ugly dirty ones as well. as you can sorta see.
well, later on i ran into a junkyard wagon and took the drivers seat which was considerably cleaner then mine. but it had a tear in the bottom cushion. well, i went with it for a while... then i was bored after winter break started, so i took the old dirty bottom cushion and removed the fabric part from the foam. its quite tricky, just take your time.
i then stuck it in the wash machine and washed it.. TWICE.
came out like so =D it the dirty brown seat now looks better then all the other seats, crazy!! when i get my lazy ass up, i may just wash all the rest of the seats like this
for the headrests, i filled up the kitchen sink with warm water and detergent, then i massaged the headrests in there a few times will they came out nice and clean. the water afterwards was so disgusting... its not even funny :shock:enjoy...
Comments
But now I am going to have to try this whole fabric washing thing out..
Looks good!
So Now I will end up with a set of CLEAN OEM Seats... Frickin SWEET!
max 1800psi/120bar etc high pressure cleaners ...
and yeah, were are the diy pictures
great info dizz, thnx
yeah um, very carefully
from there, start cutting all the little metal clips that basically hold the fabric to the foam. work your way towards the center of the seat... again, carefully. once they are all cut the fabric will just come off. now there will be like three metal bars that go across the bottom along the cushion. remove these as well (so you can put the fabric in the washer).
do so haha.
installing the fabric back involves getting new clips, or just some thick fence wire like i did and making your own "clips." just put stuff back... blah blah, but yeah just take your time. it'll take a few hours start to finish (including the wash).
for rear seat back, i dont really know. i didnt do that yet haha.
but check out this link, its pretty good
http://fourthgenhatch.net/seatreupholster.html
I'll bet it wouldn't be too hard to make a pattern from an old, ripped-up seat. Then I could install anything I wanted...
Anybody ever tried to put the fabric from and 88-89 passenger seat on to a 90-91 driver's seat?
They look about the same but of course there is that auto/manual belt thing happening. Sometime in the coming weeks I'll be looking into attempting this if somebody hasn't already determined it doesn't work.
throwing it in the washwachine did wonders compared with the shampooer
im pretty sure my dryer would have done some damage lol
We use Agent Orange, hot water and a plastic scrub brush with two people. One scrubs (me) and the little woman runs the vac so the foam doesn't soak up to much soap.
It takes a while. often ten or more passes on an area including flooding the seats with a hose a bunch of times at the end to make sure the detergent is all out of the fabric and foam.
The seats need to air dry for a few days anyway but they get really clean.
Be careful about shredding and fuzzing the fabric. Be sure to remove the filter from the vacuum so the water doesn't ruin it.
An extra hose or three allows the machine to be placed farther away where it won't make you deaf.
Once the seat(s) are dry, iron on patches work well for holes - denim/bluejean material is our favorite for the blue interiors - there are different shades, some more faded out.
We tried taking the fabric off one seat and much prefer just pulling the seat and flooding it in the driveway to the complete removal of the fabric method.
A big shop vac is the best tool on earth...
We also 'flood clean' the carpets and suck them out after rinsing with the hose many times over, using Agent Orange there too.
The first time she thought the carpets were worn out... It was just sticky dirt like a spilled soda that had 'locked the carpet fibers' in solid dirt for years - comes out looking brand new.
Be careful squirting the hose inside the car. Floors are designed to be soaked, the under dash area and seat belt wires are not supposed to get dunked.
Also, real Windex is the best cleaner - stain remover we've tried so far. Seems to be ammonia but not too strong. I'd be wary of using ammonia on the seats, don't know if it would melt the foam.
Dave
Mark
same here. I just picked up some near perfect OEM seat fabrics and would like to see how you guys have done it.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10157&hilit=Simplyhonda%27s
Basically just get a good pair of wire cutters, start on the bottom front of the seat pan and start cutting off all the rings you see. Once you start peeling back the fabric, you'll find more. Cut them all and the seat covers will come off. Not too bad, just takes time.
we even stripped out the whole carpet and scrubbed them down too. it was a very long day but worth it.