My 85 300TD was found in a field. The carpets are very dirty and have grease stains and smell terrible. The car is actually in very good condition.

A good soaking with carpet cleaning soap & pressure wash or steam clean should remove most/all dirt & grease.

I Use..
 

Blue Coral Carpet & Upholstery cleaner (Blue Can), it's the best I have found.

I would recommend steam-cleaning.

My personel favorite is Turbo rug and carpet shampoo by Electrolux. This can be purchased from a local Electrolux store, if none available try their 800 number (800)243-9078.

Funny you should mention that
 

Greetings,

Funny you should mention this as I just did my carpets and mats yesterday. You have to trust me on this one, because I've used this stuff on several vehicles with great success. I used a pressure washing solution called engine degreaser made be Campbell Hausfeld, sold in a gallon jug by Wal-Mart in their automotive section. I removed the carpets, sprayed the degreaser on the carpet using a spray bottle let it sit on carpet about 10 minutes, ran a scrub brush over the real oily sections then actually used a low pressure washer on the carpet to rinse it. You can probably use a hose sprayer if you like. The grease or oil just comes to the surface and it does no harm to the carpet color and contains no petroleum products that would leave a oily residue. The carpets look like new. For less than $6.00 you can do all your carpets and your engine as well. Please ensure you either let your mats dry completely before reinstalling them, or to speed the process I used the wet vac to absorb most of the water out of the carpet, and air dried it overnight. Worked like a charm and haven't found anything else that will actually get all the dirt and oil out of a carpet, most still leave a faint stain, this stuff won't.

Just my .03 worth,

Charles

[Edited by can-do on 03-14-2001 at 09:10 PM]

Can we bring our MBs and the carpets over to your place, Charles?

Promise to include a 6-pack for us. :D

A six Pack won't do
 

Greetings,

Sure, bring them over and we'll line them up and get them all cleaned at once. Please bring a case, not because it's going to take that much time, but swapping diesel stories might.

Charles

You could use those expensive products, but I find for most shampooing, landry detergent works great diluted in warm water, using a scrub brush and vauum cleaner. I like ERA the best and a jug will clean a fleet of cars. One cap full to a gallon of water and change the water frequently. For really tough stains a degreaser is inorder, like Castrol Super Clean, Mr Clean, or any other house hold cleaner. Once scrubbed and vacuumed, give them a good rinsing with the garden hose or in the sink, to remove all the dirt and soap. Using specialty auto cleaners is just more expensive, not better. I used work at a car dealership and cleaned cars for a living, used all the industrial products, and still prefer this method. (plus it is kind on the lungs and hands)
Greg

The laundry detergent is great in that it has brighteners in it which will help, however, for truly filthy carpets, you can escalate with Simple Green used in various concentrations and for really bad cases, add TSP to the detergent. For carpets that can't be removed from the car and for seats, nothing beats a strong wet-dry vacuum and lots of water following the soap and scrubbing. I've encountered seats that have been soaked with stuff like orange juice and had them come truly clean by putting in and sucking out about 15 gallons of water. Be sure to throughly dry everything with sun and fans or it will smell of mold. If mold is the basic problem, vinegar in the rinse water will kill it without bleaching the carpet.