Cleaning Vinyl Seat Covers

pau1gray

pau1gray

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Plymouth
www.owlwise.co.uk
Made a bit of a cock up a few months back and left the white vinyl seat covers from our S23 in the garage stacked up on the floor. The floor is painted with a bituminous paint and this has now left itself all over the vinyl seats.
mnaged to get the what I thought was the worst of the paint off (the black stuff) but it has also left behind a yellow/brown residue which is refusing to shift.

I have tried:-
Mer Vinyl and PVC interior Cleaner (waste of time)
AutoGlym Vinyl cleaner (waste of time)
Auto Glym bug and Tar remover (removed black paint left the residue)
Vinegar.
Elbow Grease.
Lighter Fluid (in desperation...)
Swearing at it..........even gave it a good staring at in true Naval tradition....

Anybody know of anything else to try? Should I try thinners or will this just cause more tears?
 
I tried recently some Starbrite vinyl cleaner and polish (see
http://www.starbrite.com/productdetail.c...p;ProductSSCat=

To be honest I've never been very impressed with Starbrite products but this one does really work. Got my vinyl seats cleaner than they have ever been before and looking like new!

I don't know if it will remove bitumin stains though but worth a try as the Starbrite removed dirt and stains that nothing else I'd tried managed to do.

You could try thinners but I'd suggest as a last resort as it will almost certainly damage the vinyl.

nick
 
I tried Fairy Power Spray on recommendation from the fora, worked great.

Not sure how it will do with the tar residue.

P.S. Is this you in the middle of all the sticky things ?
CIMG0211.jpg



Mark
 
To extend the question further, anyone got any magic answers to get rid of a brown rust stain from white vinyl seats (my stainless steel canopy supports contained a hidden mild steel screw that dripped rusty water last winter) - have tried all the stuff that Paul mentioned, plus white spirit, household cleaners, meths, JIF/CIF, petrol, witchcraft, and hiring John Cleese to beat it with a birch twig.
 
have used bio laundry liquid mixed with a bit of weak bleach for some well-stubborn stains after a bird strike on white vinyl - reddish stain. Seemed to just reduce it somewhat, but woo hoo, a day later it'd vanished totally.
 
Try the little magic white sponges ,ive used them to great effect on our boat will remove most dirt and grime easily from seats,gelcoat etc also known as eradicator sponge on this site www.aglaze.com
tesco,aldi,lidl also do similar
 
Hmm. The famous. Mucky Farter International Boat Removing Elixiour. Works on Boats and Dinghies. But not very good on PVC ones. I cant understand, why what the [--word removed--] stuck to, has anything to do, with getting it off. But it does.
 
the magic sponges work wonders and i believe they truly are magic!

JML do some but quite expensive, Aldi offer exactly the same thing for about £2, a lot cheaper - nothing better for cleaning vinyl well IMO
 
A few answers.

Firstly - Yes landlocked pirate that was us in Lantic bay a few months ago - thanks for not zooming in further as everyone would have seen the mucky seats :-)

I've tried scrubbing with the magic sponges and yes they make the white - whiter but still no effect on the stain.

Think I'll try the fairy super dooper spray and see how we get on.
 
Use Magica rust remover on rust, works amazing, but get the spray, not the gel.

For the vinyl, Ribshine works well but if it's bitumen, maybe try WD-40. Failing that, I'd say you are looking at re-upholstering. I left a newly epoxyed bit of plywood on vinyl and when I lifted the epoxyed wood off, the vinyl had a yellow stain that has eventually lessened with sunlight.
 
In a similar vein, our vinyl has grot in the 'grain' (for want of a better word) that I just can't shift. Haydn's MFPBRE didn't work on it, Furry Power Spray didn't do it, some weird pink seaweed based gel from the swindlers didn't work, fender wipes and/or acetone cleans the surface but not the grain... I just went to a commercial cleaning place and he suggested Haydn's PBR was too mild! (bear in mind that neat, this stuff dissolves skin).

I am now the proud owner of a gallon of something so caustic it has two of those orange warning diamonds on it. I'll let you know how I get on with it...
 
Hold fire, you'll melt them!

You need 'Whizz Stain buster' for £1 from the indian chaps on the corner shop. Use in conjunction with the white jif eraser pads.
It will work and get rid of the grott quickly and easily!!! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Vinyl is petrochemical and so is paint, so I think you've probably chemically altered the vinyl and its there to stay. Having said than you've got nothing to lose so you may as well try increasingly nasty substances until the vinyl starts bubbling and smoking.

However, I have a much better idea, replace it. Recovering vinyl is cheap as chips if you go to the right place. Heck, get 'em all done so they match and look shiny and new. Mastertrim in Cannock will charge you about £50 for a new cover for an average sixed boat cushion, less if you have a few done. You can just post the old covers and they'll send you back new ones a few days later. There may well be other cheap places, but they're unlikely to be near the sea, because then they have to include Boat Added Tax of 300%.
 
Tarmackers always have a bucket full of diesel with them.

What has that got to do with this thread?

The tarmac (which is actually bitumen based) sticks to their shovels and they dip them in the diesel to break it down and clean their shovels.

Maybe petrol or diesel would get it off?
 
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