[crepello]

Decided to cheer myself up by doing a thorough clean on my 1991 seat. I knew a frame weld had gone anyway, making it feel a bit like sitting on a jelly, so I reckoned on a complete stripdown. This was fun. There's a surprising amount of engineering in a seat.

So I have a pile of mouldings - all scrubbed with Swarfega and sponged off. The frames - I closed up one of the slide rails to make it less sloppy, and I'll take the lower frame to my friendly local welder tomorrow. The "cloth" covers - these are wicked in their own way. The cloth is generally 3-ply, the middle ply being a plastic foam (polyurethane?), which is decomposing to sticky dust. It's removable round the edges, but not when, erm, hemmed in. Some of the internal hold-down pockets have worn through too, which means I'll have to swap spanners for sewing needles for a few evenings.

I was about to chuck the covers in the bath to soak in detergent, when someone said "Suppose they shrink?" "Why don't you take them to the dry cleaners' instead?" Yebbut, the dry cleaning fluid might upset what remains of the foam even more.

Can anyone advise a sure-fire way of cleaning these covers without damage? And I guess we'll all have to face up to decomposing foam. What'll we do about it?

Cheers,

[Smithy]

I clean my seats using carpet shampoo and a vax. Come up a treat.

[mattw]

The best thing ive ever used it BIO BRISK:
A specialist biological cleaner and deodouriser. Bio Brisk digests soiling such as grease, oil, protein, fat, etc. Ideal for fabrics or carpets. Safely and effectively removes biological soilings and odours including milk, animal smells, blood, urine and vomit. Very effective against nicotine. Its from autosmart. Its not cheap but its always worked for me.