Taking the carpets out

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

One of the jobs I have earmarked for when the sun shines (which may mean sometime in 2020 or thenabouts) is to remove the carpets from my S2 and clean them. However I've never taken the carpets out before so have no idea of how to do it. How are they held in? Hidden clips somewhere, or glue? Once out, how hard are they to refit? Is there anything to watch out for when removing and replacing them?

My general plan would be to take the carpets out, give them a really good scrub with some washing soda crystals dissolved in warm water and a stiff scrubbing brush, rinse them off with a jetwasher and leave them out in the sun to dry. They are cream (linen) carpets and looking grubby, and my experience of car interiors is that when scrubbed then a HUGE amount of dirt comes out of them. Are there better ways of cleaning the carpets which I should be considering?

Thanks,


Oli.

 

[944 man]

Watch out for the vertical rear piece under the rear squab, being glued to a material flap joined to the squab. 944 carpets will come out easily, but a 968s will never come out.

 

[andy watson]

Like your optimism Oli, enough and long sunny days to dry totally saturated carpets, have you considered Chemdry seems a good idea and you can buy products to D.I.Y.

Just a thought, and you would only have to remove your seats.

Be interesting to see how much it would be for them to do a car!

 

[zcacogp]

Andy,

No, never heard of them before but I googled them after your post and found their website, with this statement on it:

"The secret to our drier, healthier carpet and upholstery cleans is the power of effervescent carbonating cleaning bubbles in our patented cleaning solution we call The Natural®.

The Natural® combines safe, non-toxic ingredients copied from Mother Nature which penetrate deep into the fabrics of your upholstery, lifting dirt particles and allergies to the surface for easy extraction, rather than forcing them back down into the fabric."

I closed the browser immediately and dug out my trusty bag of Soda Crystals instead ... []


Oli.

P.S. My experience of drying heavy upholstery and carpets is that if you hang them over something (something strong as they are weighty when wet) then most of the water drips out of the lowest point, and they can dry very quickly in warm sunshine. Yes, I know that requires warm sunshine which is a rare commodity these days but a couple of hours should be enough ...

ETA: Thanks for the tip about the vertical bit at the back Simon. I changed the rear seats - from cloth to leatherette - a while back so am assuming that things aren't too well stuck down back there. It may be worth taking the squab out anyway tho' - it's an easy job, IIRC.

 

[Sam Mugg]

Hi Oli. I have heard you shouldn't take carpets out to wash because they can go out of shape,don't know if that's true. I used Auto Glym interior shampoo and a roll of kitchen paper on my cream carpets and couldn't believe how well they came up.

 

[Eldavo]

Just dye them black - simples!

#noneedtothankme

 

[zcacogp]

ORIGINAL: Eldavo

Just dye them black - simples!

#noneedtothankme

Erm, yes. Here's a plan before I do so; if I upload some photos of the inside of my car, do you think Edd could be persuaded to do some photoshop magic to show what it would look like with white rather than black carpets? I could then decide whether I like the look of it or not before buying the box of dylon ...


Oli.

 

[944 man]

Ive steam cleaned linen 944 carpets with great success and they retain their shape provided that you dont heat them up then bend them out of shape before leaving them to cool like that.

 

[422hp944]

My carpets are also linen/cream and had to resort to using neat bleach on a scrub brush to get them back to a pretty immaculate condition considering they had well 200k miles of use ground into them. That was 9 yrs ago when i first got her and the bleach has had no adverse effect at all....carpets still look great!

John Daly.

 

[Ex Skyline]

ORIGINAL: andy watson

Like your optimism Oli, enough and long sunny days to dry totally saturated carpets, have you considered Chemdry seems a good idea and you can buy products to D.I.Y.

Just a thought, and you would only have to remove your seats.

Be interesting to see how much it would be for them to do a car!

Oi.....I thought you were in Turkey!! []

 

[zcacogp]

John, thanks. Worth bearing in mind.


Oli.

 

[colin944]

You need to pull the seats ( all of them) , seat belts and the center console out in order to get the carpet out .Its glued in and goes back in easily enough.Also a good time to get into the inner sill with the rust inhibitor.