This episode of Adventures in Detailing will tackle an issue that we find coming up in the Wahiawa area quite a bit; Red Dirt turning our carpeting & seats an ugly, dirty brown. So what can we do about it? First of all, try some preventative measures:

• buy some rubber or plastic floor mats. A 4pack of generic mats can often be purchased at a big box retailer for less than
  5. Many of these have deep enough ridges, you could even spill an entire can of soda in them without overflowing into your carpeting.
• consider fabric guarding your carpeting. Although, all the fabric protectants I've read information on seem to be made more specifically to guard against stains from beverage or food spills, I'm sure it couldn't hurt.
• if you have fabric seats, consider purchasing protective seat covers.

"It's too late! I'm in the military, I've been in the field & I've got family coming to visit. What do I do?" Here are some of your options:

• Easiest: take your vehicle to your friendly neighborhood Auto Detailer. Do you mind if I shamelessly plug Auto Detail Aces here?
• Most expensive option: Get your vehicle reupholstered. If money is not an option, you can't beat the results of a newly upholstered vehicle...unless you just shell out & replace the whole thing!

• Do it yourself option. Depending on the amount of red dirt you have in your vehicle & how long it's been there you will need a few things & could use a few others:
  • hot water extractor? nice if you have one, too expensive to get just for this purpose. You might as well get your vehicle reupholstered!
  • carpet cleaner or all-purpose cleaner. You can probably get away with a gallon of Clean-all^tm or Safety Clean^tm, distributed by Auto Chem Systems, or RedHot^tm from Auto Magic. All of these products should be diluted significantly (probably about 10% solution & 90% water to 5% solution & 95% water). check the directions for the particular product you have purchased) with water, so you will have plenty to finish your entire interior & then some. Failure to dilute your product correctly could result in a stain of a different type. You should probably test in an inconspicuous area first.
  • spray bottle
  • shop vacuum or wet/dry vacuum. If you have anything more than just a little surface dirt, this is going to be a necessity.
  • pressure washer. Not a necessity, but if you have one it can make things a whole lot better for your removable mats. I would recommend probably about an 1800psi model. You can probably go up to about 2100psi or so, but you'll have to be careful to keep the end far enough away to not damage your material. I have seen threads start to pop up to the surface from the misapplication of a strong pressure washer. Always use a fan tip or an orbital tip, never a pin point one.
  • carpet brush. A fairly stiff nylon brush usually works quite well.
  • a bunch of clean terri cloths. Some people like to put them through the wash once to get rid of the extra fuzz.

"So I've got my stuff, now what do I do?"

• if you have just a really light surface stain, spray the area a couple of times, scrub quickly with the brush, wipe with your clean terri & voila, it could be as easy as that.
• if your stain is a little more deep set, try this instead:
  • spray enough into the stain to saturate the area
  • scrub vigorously. You should get some brown foam coming up from the area.
  • use the shop or wet/dry vac to suck up the excess foam. If you did not get one, use a terri cloth to wipe the foam away from the area. Fold the foam into the cloth or wipe it off into your yard (don't worry, it's biodegradable, though I would water the area afterwards, just to be sure)
  • repeat the first three steps until the foam is coming up completely white instead of dirty brown. Vacuum the area as dry as you can & wipe over with your folded terri cloth (the cleaner the better)

"I thought I got rid of the stain, but I came back a little later & it was brown again! How did that happen?" Unfortunately, underneath the fabric is a layer of foam or other material which is necessary if we want to be able to vacuum little bits of debris from your carpeting, or have something comfortable to sit on. If we have dirt in that foam layer, when the fabric above it dries, it sucks up that dirt & makes it look brown again. "Okaaay. So, what can I do about it?" If the stain is in a removable mat, take the mat out, place it on a firm flat surface where the run off will be caught by plants or grass, then pressure wash (or if you don't have one, use a garden hose, scrub, hose, repeat) it out. If you have dirt remaining in your removable carpet, you should see the runoff have a brown tinge. Continue pressure washing in strips from one end of the mat too the other until the runoff is as clear as possible. if your stain is not on a removable mat, or you failed to get all of the dirt out of your mat, try misting some cleaner into a clean terri, wipe lightly over the area you previously cleaned (after it dried & the dirt stain came back up). You might be able to get it looking better by just lightly cleaning  the surface & not getting the deeper areas wet at all. "I tried all that...& it does look better, but it's still there & I can't stand it. Is there anything else I can do?" There are a few other things you can try. You can purchase an aerosol carpet dye. Find one that is as close to a match as possible to your existing fabric color. Follow the directions. They will probably be something like this: Clean, let dry, spray on, work into the carpet with your brush. Spray some more. Let dry. The problem with this is that it is quite likely the next time you try and clean the area, you will take out the carpet dye as well. If it's still to unsightly for you to bare...sorry, looks like you're back to reupholstering again. Thank you for sitting through another episode of "Adventures in Detailing". If you have any questions that you would like us to visit here, please email us at gavin@autodetailaces.com with your question, please also mention a "question for Adventures in Detailing" in your email. If you have a more immediate question, please feel free to contact us directly.