Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Aesthetics Interior Soda stains and their removal

I did a search and didn't find anything so pardon if this has been done to death. But

What is the best way to get rid of old soda stains on automotive interiors. The previous owner left quite a few of them in my tour incleuding some heavy stianing in the center console grooves.

I never drink or eat in my cars so dealing with bad stains is not something I'm used to.

I had to clean the same type of thing when I picked up my 2000 SVT.

I removed the center console and just washed that in the kitchen sink. That's the easy part.

For the carpet I used a Bissell steam cleaner and alot of elbow grease. It's alot of work but in the end, the carpet looks brand new.

Depending on how bad the carpet is you can just spot clean with some regular household carpet cleaner, brush and some towels.

simple green & a toothbrush...as far as the fabric goes, I just reupholstered mine w/ leather instead of dealing w/ it (it smells alot better too), it was soaked completely through the foam & starting to rust the wire frame. It looked like several two-liters exploded inside. I still have it coming out of my vents in the dash when it gets hot (I'm going to pull that apart soon).

I had a detail shop steam the carpets & clean the headliner while I had the seats out...best $75 I've spent on it.

The stains are all over the place , I was thinking of steam cleaning the car but wasnt shure if that was a safe choice.

Removing the center console doesn't look to hard I think some one wrote up a how to on the center console removal. I'll have to read up on it.

steam cleaning is good for the carpets (& seats if you don't get them too wet), but not the headliner...it's not a real good idea to use anything very wet on it.

Colored sodas, juices, red wine, coffee will dye your carpet. They can be faded, but in most cases are almost impossible to remove - especially stains that have set in.

Your standard automotive carpet/upholstery cleaner will help to a certain extent, especially for smaller spills.

For larger spills you may need to heavily saturate the stain with a product, agitate with a brush, let it soak for 5-10 minutes, and extract with an extractor or wet/dry vac. Repeat if desired.

Some things to try:
1:1 water:distilled white vineger
5:1 water:ammonia
hydrogen peroxide
Oxiclean

HTH

It's times like this I really kick myself for not taking pictures of before cleaning. I have the after pictures but then anyone can just say it was probably clean to begin with even though it was actually a mess.

I was told this little trick a while ago and it does work, sounds wierd but it works. Use brake cleaner, but DO NOT GET IT ON VINYL PARTS, IT WILL REMOVE THE PAINT! It doesn't hurt or stain the carpet though and when it removed the stain, it doesn't leave a ring, amazing. The smell is pretty strong so your going to want to clean the area, after it dries, with a good carpet cleaner and let dry with the windows down if its too strong for you. Good luck