Lazy guide to cleaning Recaro's- Woolite does it work?

Ricky11

Active Member
Messages
83
So on Facebook the other day the stats showed the forum is getting less and less views and use, so Iv decided to do a little how to on cleaning seats.

Right so my Recaro's were pristine when I got them from Torque GT and throughout my ownership they have dirt all on the bolsters and have a grease marks at the top of the seats where iv been working on my car where I accidentally touched the seats whilst getting into my car... They look awful and need a clean but I'm super lazy to wet vacuum them so the next thing is woolite.

Now ill put my hands up I'm pretty lazy when it comes to cleaning and when looking at other peoples car on the forum I'm abit embarrassed and let the side down :xdisguest:

So these are my seats currently, the drivers side has taken the most punishment and is really bad at the bottom of the bolsters as seen in the images.






Passenger side, not too bad just the mark at the top of the seat.





So, Woolite does it work? Lazy edition :xgrin:

Things you need:
Woolite- From tescos on offer when I bought it £3
Spray bottle- Went to B&M £1
Cloth
Bucket




So theres no real set amount of woolite to put into a bottle when mixing it with water so I put 100ml and filled the rest up to the 900ml mark on the bottle.

***EDIT- During use I put more solution in so around 250ml if were to do this again***



Afterwards filled up the bucket with water and using a cloth dipping it into the water, started to rub it into the seats to get them damp.





Once both seats are damp, used the spray bottle and begun spraying it onto the seats multiple of times working it in with my hands. Initially using a new cloth to rub the woolite into the seats, but the cloth kept coming out of my hands so I used my hands to rub the woolite into the seats.
This part is where you can get you inner Car Cleaning Guru and massage the seats working the woolite solution into the dirtiest parts of the seats. I was spraying the worst spots 8,9,10 times to take all the dirt off.



After both seats were rubbed into, a new cloth was worked into the seats to almost rub off the woolite but work it into the seats as well. Only done 5mins on each seat nothing major.

Once all done and the seats still damp, the car was turned on and left idling with the heaters on full blast for 20mins to dry the seats. My seats were still damp so I actually left it running for another 40mins whilst I was doing something els but check on them every 10mins or so.

This was the result:









Passenger side:





So in the end the woolite has actually taken a good chunk of the dirt out of the seats, okay its not brands spanking new but for a 1h job you can do at your house costing £4 its actually done pretty well id say, much improved from before! Its hard to see in the images but it looks 100 times better in person.

The dirt mark at the top of the seats are gone, the black dirt on the bolsters are gone. :xgrin:

When the pictures were taken it was still in its drying phase as you can see in the images theres still some dark water spots.

The things I would do differently next time:
1) Use more solution in the bottle around 250-300ml

2) On the middle of the seats in the corrugated section turn the novel so it sprays a mist rather than a single jet as this has gone deep into the fabric and requires a lot of time to dry.

3) I would repeat this again the next day to bring more of the colour out.

Hope this was interesting to some it was quite an easy job and looks great, it also smells great overtime I get it in now so thats a bonus xthumbup
 

bmargey

Member
Messages
40
Great guide, cheers. Although my black recaros hide most of the filth, this will save spending money on some premium/specialised detailing products.
 

Ricky11

Active Member
Messages
83
bmargey said:
Great guide, cheers. Although my black recaros hide most of the filth, this will save spending money on some premium/specialised detailing products.
Thanks!

I think its done well for £4 hasn't broke the bank, give it a try on your black Recaro's it might surprise you like it did with me.
 

wocka

Advanced Member
Messages
1,088
Great write up mate!!

I‘ve used woolite on mine also, really impressed with the results




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

CaLi

Vtec Yoooooooo
Messages
1,851
thank you for the guide, very much appreciated :)

My drivers seat is shocking from my black work trousers so this post has inspired me to get pull my finger out and get it done on a day off soon
 

Ricky11

Active Member
Messages
83
CaLi said:
thank you for the guide, very much appreciated :)

My drivers seat is shocking from my black work trousers so this post has inspired me to get pull my finger out and get it done on a day off soon
Thanks! :xgrin:
 
Top