Sticky Mess!

[Chris Stratton]

So our ballroom team had an end-of-year banquet tonight, and I made some chicken with soy sauce, honey, and ginger marinade. Unfortunately, on the way to campus a good portion of the sauce spilled on the cloth front passenger seat. Sugar. Grease. Dark soy-based ink. What could be more fun???

So, any ideas?

I don't really want to use a solvent based cleaner, since it might take weeks to get the car aired out.

I was thinking of repeatedly scrubbing the fabric with woolite or dishwashing soap and warm water. I have a wet-dry vac I could use to extract the wash water.

Or I could go rent a carpet steamer...

I could probably also take the seat out of the car to work on.

"Why yes, I'd be happy to give you a ride! Only you might want to sit in back..."

 

[cocodrilo]

YOW, Chris! Must be pretty aromatic in there, eh?

I'd go for the Woolite and warm water. If that doesn't work, I guess you'd better start shopping for seat covers!

 

[pygmalion]

My Mom swears by Zout, the laundry stain remover. And now I do too. It removes even old stains. It's usually used in the washing machine, but it even works using a rag and water from a pail. And if that doesn't work, there are always desperate measures -- Oxyclean. It doesn't actually remove the stain, it oxidizes the heck out of it so you can't see the stain. Same ultimate effect, right?

I'd probably go with soap and water first, though. May as well start simple, right? :wink:

 

[Chris Stratton]

Well I scrubbed it with some antibacterial hand soap, in hopes of inhibiting the decay of whatever fraction of the suspended grease I can't remove. Then vacumed out as much of the soapy water as I could and repeated a few times. We'll have to see what it's like when dry.

The foam of the seat is exposed on the underside, so the possibility of removing the seat from the car and running gallons of warm water through it when a few days of sunny weather are predicted will be my reserve if the existing measures fail.

 

[pygmalion]

Good luck. In a similar situation, I spiiled some peanut butter soup broth in the back of my car. It took me repeated attempts to get the stuff out. Soap and water did work eventually. The spill was on the floor, so I didn't have the option of removing anything,unfortunately. What a mess! It took weeks for my car to stop smelling like peanut butter and ginger sauce. :shock: Ew!

 

[Chris Stratton]

Actually, the passenger seat now looks enough cleaner than the driver's that I'm tempted to repeate the process on that side... only without the sauce pre-treatment.

Unfortunately the seat is still soapy to the touch... if tomorrow is also a nice day I'll do repeated rinse/vacum cycles to get out more of the soap.

 

[SDsalsaguy]

Actually, the passenger seat now looks enough cleaner than the driver's that I'm tempted to repeate the process on that side... only without the sauce pre-treatment.

:lol: