How to Shampoo Your Car's Carpeting

Detailing the carpet of your vehicle is not hard, but it takes hard work. With cleaning tools and products almost every home has, you can give the floor of your car the make over it deserves in a couple of hours.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 3" x 5" handled, plastic bristled scrub brush
• Hair shampoo or degreaser
• 4 large cleaning cloths
• 1 plastic spray bottle
• Water
• 2 gallon bucket
• Wet/dry vacuum with attachments
• Crescent wrench

1. Disconnect the negative cable from your car's battery with the crescent wrench. You cannot get a shock from this because you are disconnecting a negative current. This action will prevent a loss of juice from the battery by having the car doors open while you are cleaning. It also insures that automatic locking does not occur without your knowledge.

2. Fill your bucket half full of water. Dilute your degreaser/shampoo; one part shampoo to three parts water. You may need to refill your bucket and plastic bottle several times.

3. Remove the floor mats. Thoroughly vacuum the seats of your car and then the flooring. Use the narrow-angled end attachment. If the carpet is wet, it does not matter. Cleaning the seats first insures a better detail of your carpet, otherwise gravity and your movements will constantly move dust and dirt off the seats onto the floor.

4. Take your scrub brush and bucket of water, and set it within a foot of the car door. Take your spray bottle mixture, set it to the spray function. Evenly spray a small section of nondescript carpet. If the carpet color does not bleed or bleach, then spray one quarter of the area to be cleaned.

5. Dip the scrub brush into your bucket of water to get it saturated. Bring your scrub brush to the area you have wetted with shampoo and scrub briskly in an even motion. Repeat the dipping and scrubbing. You should be creating a dirty amount of water and brown foam. This foam is what lifts out the stains and sediment that are embedded in your carpet fibers. Your bucket of water will turn brown as you repeat the process. Refill it as needed with fresh water.

6. Swiftly remove the dirty foam and water with the vacuum and the same attachment as before. Use the same smooth motion you exercised when using the scrub brush. There should be a few small rocks that seem to constantly reappear. These are still being lifted from the depths of the fibers.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until the pebbles no longer exhume, the foam is only white and your bucket of water does not become discolored. For heavy stains from caffeine or oil-based spills, you will have to repeat the entire shampooing process many times, but extra shampoo spray on those areas makes it go faster.

8. Take a cleaning cloth and gently rub the entire area you have just cleaned. Remove as much wetness as possible. If the cloth becomes severely discolored, there is more to be lifted from the carpet. If it comes back pretty clean, you are done with that area.

9. Leave all of the car doors open while you go to the next area to clean. You need them open for air flow and ventilation. Repeat Steps 4 through 8 until you are satisfied.

10. Let your car sit with doors open at least two hours. The best results would be to leave it over night. If you must use the vehicle after two hours, replace the mats with a clean cloth beneath each. Remove cloths from beneath mats after twelve hours.

11. Carefully reattach the negative cable. You may need to reset clocks and radio station memories as well. If you feel that the carpeting is still damp the next day, make sure to leave your windows open slightly whenever it is parked.

Tips & Warnings

• Sometimes smaller scrub brushes can get those hard to reach stains more easily.
• Allowing your carpeting to dry completely insures the quality and cleanness of the carpet. Wet carpeting retains new stains more readily.
• Some degreasers do not have a pleasant odor. Make sure whatever shampoo or degreaser you use gives off a fragrance that you will not mind having in your vehicle for months at a time.
• Many auto dealerships use a carpet spray to cover-up stains in used vehicles that they are trying to sell. If yours is not a single-owner vehicle, you may witness signs of this when you are in the throes of your scrubbing.