Cleaning Original Seats - Advice and Opinions Sought

[cobolman]

I recently bought a 1960 Austin Seven. It's remarkably original and my preference is to keep it that way. One thing I'm struggling with though, is the seats.

They're in great condition in that there are no rips or tears. But they're really manky. See below where I've pushed down at the back of the seat squab to show the colour of the original grey fleck vs. the colour of the seats now:

Dirty Seat Back.jpg

I've tried pretty much everything I can think of to get the seats clean. The Spanish Red on the seats, and the piping, come up really well. But the grey fleck seems to elude any attempt at getting it really clean. It always maintains a yellow tinge, like a smokers nicotine nightmare.

Thus far, I've settled on Bilt Hamber APC which I spray on and agitate and then apply a new show brush on. This gets almost all the dirt off. I then use the APC again and add Baking Soda. This really helps too, except on the yellow tinge.

Here's the seat after I've spent an hour or so on it:

Cleaned Seat.jpg

If anyone has any ideas at all on what can remove that yellow tinge, I'd be very grateful. As my missus says: "We know it's clean but it just looks gopping"

Thanks in advance for any tips.

[Classic1]

YouTube post from shed racing one of his very entertaining post was on cleaning seats hope this helps
Alan

[imack]

G101 from Autosmart, available on ebay.

[snoopy64]

Sugar soap, swarfega for the extra grubby bits

But plenty of proprietary cleaners out there

[cobolman]

YouTube post from shed racing one of his very entertaining post was on cleaning seats hope this helps
Alan

Thanks Alan - Great channel! I'll give the G101 a go.

[cobolman]

G101 from Autosmart, available on ebay.

Buying some now

Thanks!

[cobolman]

Sugar soap, swarfega for the extra grubby bits

But plenty of proprietary cleaners out there

Hi Kevin

There certainly are a lot of cleaners! I've tried (on totally unusable trim):

Magic Eraser
Bilt Hamber All Purpose Cleaner
Cutting Compound
Headlight Restoring Cream
White Spirits
Methylated Spirits
Baking Soda
Auto Glym Products (Various)
Colourlock Heavy Leather Cleaner
...
To name but a few.

Nothing has touched the yellow tinge so far.

Sugar Soap sounds quite industrial and is usually used for stripping wallpaper glue, I think? (Then again I've tried white spirits and methylated spirits so, why not?)

Surprised to read about swarfega. I'm imagining that it's brilliant for oil based stains but unsure about the yellow tinge. Still, nothing beats a quick experiment.

Thanks for your thoughts Kevin.

[snoopy64]

We used sugar soap on the headlining of our car and it worked very well indeed…

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

Totally awesome is a citrus orange based cleaner available on amazon, I've used on carpet, tile, flooring all kinds of things... it's cheap and effective.

I'd test on an unseen area first?

[gs.davies]

I also saw the G101 that Ivan used on his fleck seats and will be getting some to revive the fleck and red rear bench for LFF.

The yellowing is probably a response to years and years of UV light which has caused the pigments to take on a yellow tinge. Unlikely that this is going to come off without stripping a few 'layers' of the material off. On old Fender guitars, this yellowing of the nitrocellulose lacquer is very desirable and it's something that a lot of folk seek to emulate on replicas and refinishes. Not sure it's quite as desirable on vehicle trim though!

[rolesyboy]

G101 is absolutely brilliant stuff. Never seen anything as impressive at cleaning vinyl etc in my life.
Watch your hands though. Looks harmless like fairy liquid but it lightly strips your skin away equally effectively. Would recommend waterproof gloves.

[S33blo]

Recently did the same to a set of Mk1 seats,

IMG_5005.jpeg

IMG_5004.jpeg

C446B3AA-259D-452A-A928-1CFA41E2210C.jpeg

I used a magic sponge with kitchen surface cleaner.
Then some pink stuff cleaner and some vinyl cleaner.
Seems to have done a decent job but still a little yellow, not as bad as yours. I’ll await the verdict of G101 before ordering any.

[cobolman]

I've now had a chance to try G101 on my seats. Unfortunately, it made no difference whatsoever. Good news is that the Bilt Hamber All Purpose Cleaner clearly did an admirable job in the first place.

I was showing the car to my Son In Law today. He's been a Mini fan for years (as has his Mum). He's firmly of the opinion that the yellow tinge is caused by UV light and I think he's probably right.

He reminded me that if we wanted to bring a 1980's computer back from the dreaded 'yellow tinge', we'd use hydrogen peroxide and (ironically) UV light. The question is: Can this be translated to work on car seats?

We're going to test the theory and I'll let you know how we get on.

[swifty]

Just a thought , have you tried snow foam . The type of foam that get sprayed onto dirty vans and such before leaving for 5 minutes then power washing off …. Shirley

[rolesyboy]

I guess if the actual make up of the seat material has changed because of UV light then no amount of cleaning will revive that side of things.

The Hydrogen peroxide UV light thing sounds interesting

[cobolman]

I guess if the actual make up of the seat material has changed because of UV light then no amount of cleaning will revive that side of things.

Exactly so.

The Hydrogen peroxide UV light thing sounds interesting

Indeed. I'm going to try a test panel this week. I'm looking to assess three things mainly:

1. Does it remove the yellow tinge?
2. How long does the application work?
3. Are there any negative effects?

I hope to answer question 1 this coming week.

[Tim]

I was trying to clean a couple of greasy black stains off the headlining in my Traveller. Nothing seemed to shift it, so I tried a wipe of Methyl ethyl Ketone (PVC pipe solvent) and if came right off. The problem is, its a really aggressive solvent and will soften the vinyl. Too much of it and it will be permanently damaged.

That said, you could try a tiny dab on an area that won't matter, using a clean white rag. If the yellow staining is something that has permeated into the vinyl and stained it, it will show on the cloth. If it is discolouring of the base vinly it probably won't help. Don't use it on the pattern though. I reckon it would take the grey fleck off for sure.

MEK i not good for skin, but as it will pass through gloves, you may need to get inventive.

Tim

[cobolman]

For those following this thread:

The best thing I found for cleaning the seats was Bilt Hamber All Purpose Cleaner. Worth noting that it's cheaper than some of the other stuff I tried too. The 'Spanish Red' sections of trim came up really well and, after applying some 'AutoGlym Vinyl and Rubber Care', was ready for use. I wish the entire seats were this colour as they're otherwise sound. Before and After shown below:

2024-01-13_12-17-41.jpg

The grey fleck material, I'm afraid, just doesn't come up well. Although the APC gets it clean, nothing I've tried can get rid of the yellow tinge. I even tried a hydrogen peroxide paste that works well in correcting yellowed plastics on old computers. It did have an effect - just not the one I wanted. It made the test sample even more faded and yellow. See below:

2024-01-13_12-11-28.jpg

The green bounded section shows what the grey fleck should look like. The yellow bounded section shows the result of the hydrogen peroxide paste treatment.

So, it looks like Newton Commercial will get some custom from me after all

[Polarsilver]

looking for something similar and came up with " Sulphamic Acid " water soluble.. to remove rust spots & limescale etc & it does not eat plastic so Rexine seat covers should be ok .. not too sure about human eyes & skin .. a small pot cost about £8. .. maybe a cheaper option than donating to Jonny Newton