Cleaning Upholstery

What is the best cleaner for boat seats. What looks like bus shizer got on the bow seats and left a little yellow stain WTF!!! Any way do get that off? Does 303 protect your seats from staining?

Simple Green, White Lightning, Orange based cleaner, Oxi Clean with some warm water… all of these have cleaners will work. I think 303 helps condition the fabric so stains are easier to get out… Good luck… stains suck!

Clint-I have the same problem. Little yellowish stains. They won't come off. If you have any luck let me know what you used.

There is a typo - no bus but bug shizer

Soft Scrub works well. apply, scrub, rinse well. I know that sunscreen will permanently stain your vinyl.

This stuff didn't do so well on colored stains, but it did absolute wonders for ground in dirt/suntan lotion/and the general muck that gets on those that have accursed bright white vinyl like me.



My vinyl looked exactly like the picture on the bottle, dark, dirty and nasty and now looks like brand new.

I used a nail brush to really get in all the grain/stitches and a LOT of clean towels.

I highly reccommend this product.

Use simple green. Spray it on, let it set for a few minutes, scrub it with a wet, soft scrub brush. Wipe dry. If the little yellow stains are still there, let the cushion sit out in the bright sun for a day. Be sure to use 303 after using the simple green.

I just did the exact same thing as Jay said about three weeks ago to my boat. It looks awesome

If you use Simple Green, be careful and be sure to condition the vinyl afterwards. With all of my new boat paperwork, my mfgr included a list of products not to use on the vinyl and suggested a list of 4 things that could be used. Simple Green was on the "do not use" list. I'll have to go back and see exactly what they do suggest. I have always had excellent results with 3M products.

303 ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL THE WAY

Be careful with Simple Green and such. I know that Correct Craft recommends using Fantastik to clean their upolstery. Then 303 afterwards and you'll have new looking upolstery for a long time.

Chris
No Slip Gator Grip
www.wakejunky.com

ummm this is not the best idea but it will totally work. use kaboom. its a porceline tile and grout cleaner. spray on then use a scotch brite pad to lightly scrub. THis will turn your upolstery back to bright white then use 303 or a low gloss armarol to uv coat and protect. Kaboom is sold at target by the makers of oxiclean ps use a glove or a tooth brush the sh8t will eat your hands the next day.

I picked up that Starbright yesterday. That is really good stuff. Really whitened/cleaned up my seats - which were already clean. The Starbright seems to get that "ground in" dirt that others don't. We usually use 303.

Thanks for the recommendation.

orange 409 works good with a soft brush

I use orange blast and a soft scrub brush. The scrub brush is the key because it gets into the pores of the vinyl and the orange blast is recommended for use on soft vinyl.

One other trick that I learned from a friend that ownes a detail shop is to use an air compressor and air nozzel. once you scrub the seams with what ever cleaner you use, take a towel and spray air into it. You will see tons of old dirt come out of the seams, this works all over not just in the seams. You will see a huge improvement over just scrubbing and in the process it dries it as you clean.

Simple Green will harden vinyl, and in some cases it will actually crack it if it dries out too much. I used it once on my boat and it really did dry it out a lot more than I ever expected. I wouldn't reccomend it.

The StarBrite cleaner I posted above will not dry out your vinyl. It actually conditions it and makes it softer besides being a really great cleaner.

I rarely hype a product unless it is really incredible...this is one of those cases. I thought my vinyl was dead beyond any cleaning and this made it look and feel like new.

This stuff is not really all that harsh either, I'm not really sure whats in it that makes it get out grease and dirt so well...but it works great even watered down a bit.

I will re-iterate though, its not really going to do much for a flat out stain. For that you are going to need some type of bleaching action, weather that be from the sun, lemon juice, oxy clean, or a chlorinated cleaner.

btw 303 is a great product, I use it, but it is a protectant more than a cleaner.



(Message edited by big_poppa_pump on June 10, 2003)

Is OxiClean safe to use?

If your vinyl is not that dirty and you want to keep it fresh, check out this high end leather and vinyl conditioner.
http://www.leatherique.com/products.htm

Its leather oriented but benefits vinyl as well

I'm surprised I didn't see anyone mention 3M vinyl cleaner. I've been very happy with it. Though I haven't actually tried 303, I would recommend giving this product a try.

I have these yellow stains too. I don't know what the heck it is? But the 3M vinyl cleaner doesn't get it out even after 3 soakings and a scrub brush. Any ideas? Could this be sun block? Does sun block really stain? i thought block was ok ...it's the suntan lotion that you need to ban from the boat???? Input please!

303 all the way

where can you buy 303?

Go to their Web-Site, you can buy 303 for about the third of the price of retial. You get a gallon and a full pint "spray Bottle" for around $55 compared to $15 -$17 a pint at a retail shop.

http://www.303products.com/main.php

I used Simple Green and it did NOT clean the vinyl at all - I later used Fantastik and it cleaned most stains (not all). Tried simple green on the hull and rub rail with the same results. Simple Green did not clean my boat at all.

303 makes a new cleaner product too. I ordered some and just waiting for it to arrive. If it is as good at cleaning as the 303 Protectant is at protecting, it should be some great stuff.