NACvicSi

Ok so the previous owner has all kinds of wires run under the carpet of my EM1 and I have no idea what he has going where. I'm going to just take out all the seats and carpet and straighten this mess out.

My question is can I clean the carpet outside of the car or will it loose it's shape? I plan to just hit it with some simple green, brush, water hose, and shop vac.

fryman

I once had a coolant leak via the heater core and it got all over my carpet and wouldn't dry up so I just took it out and scrubbed it with some dish soap and a brush,let it dry in the sun and it didn't loose its shape at all.

NACvicSi

Sounds good man. It's going to be a nice hot sunny day tomorrow so I plan on getting up early and scrubbing it with simple green, hitting it with the hose, and then vac it. Then let the sun do the rest over the day.

I have everything out now and it looks horrible. I have never seen such a mess. Looks like most of the day tomorrow will be used scrubbing interior parts and fixing wiring.

rehaf

You can use a good degreaser and a pressure washer if you really want to get it clean. Our detail dept. at work cleans cloth seats and carpet this way, it's really effective. Just don't hold the nozzle right on the material and you should be fine.

ej1love

u shouldnt have to worry much about it losing its shape there, bro...

NACvicSi

Yeah I wasn't sure how sturdy the stuff was as I hadn't pulled it out yet. I just had everything removed and ready for it to be pulled out. It seems pretty tough stuff, so hopefully tomorrow my carpet will be a lot cleaner. It would be a lot easier if our carpet cleaner didn't break (or excuse me, if we didn't loan it to someone and it came back broke)

ej1love

lol, GL with the clean...

AphexMatt

I was doing this no more then 2 mins. ago taking a break now.
Tips from what I learned today:
Lay the carpet out flat wet it down and soap it up.
I scrubbed it while it was on my deck with a somewhat stiff plastic brush from the dollar store.
To rinse hang it over a railing or bench and rinse from the top down. Watch the dirty water fall and scrub as you rinse to get the deeply ingrained dirt out.
I used laundry detergent and 409 together my first run and still have some stains next thing I will try is some Oxy stuff.

It just started to rain as I typed this... extra rinse cycle I guess.

ej1love

ha!

Jackal6042

The factory carpet and typically all vehicle specific carpet is molded to the shape of the car. Simply cleaning it will not cause it to shrink or distort in any way so you can't install it again. You are 100% fine in doing so.

thumper64

BILLY MAYS HERE!!

NACvicSi

Well I got it cleaned and you wouldn't believe the dirt that came out of it. I used simple green with a 2.5:1 ratio that I soaked the carpet down with. Let it sit about 5 min, then rinsed. Poured on some Gain detergent and scrubbed it in with a brush. It had mounds and mounds of brown foam haha. Sprayed it off real good and it's been drying for about 10 hrs and still not dry. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

Weifast

My carpet in my 2000 hatch was littered with coffee stains all over the place. We're talking covering the entire front area of the carpet. I took the carpet out, washed it with some detergent and...holy crap it looks new now...so I'm assuming since you used simple green, should turn out even cleaner. Good luck.

AphexMatt

I would like to see pics of your progress if possible NACivicSi, my carpet still has some discoloration I don't know if it will come out or not.

NACvicSi

No pictures of it done yet. Waiting for it to dry before the final verdict. Here are some before pictures though. Keep in mind this is how the car was when I purchased it. I'm slowly tinkering fixing things as I go.

ej1love

not too dirty

NACvicSi

Too dirty for my liking. Who's the chick in your avatar?

ej1love

i hear ya, glad mines is clean... my ole lady.

NACvicSi

Nice man, looks pretty banging from what you can see in that little square lol. I'm usually pretty **** about keeping the inside of my cars clean. If my fenders weren't dented in I would probably be washing it every other day. Oh well, one step at a time.

ej1love

thx... future plans after the cleaning?

NACvicSi

Rewire all the speakers to run from amp, run the amp wiring for dual amps, two 12" subs in a custom box, component speaker set for up front, and a new climate control bezel.

Then the fun part begins, the outside. I have to replace both fenders (already have replacements, just need to be painted so painting whole car).

At that point I have to make a decision to fix for me:
Getting new aftermarket struts as the car has Tein lowering springs on stock shocks and a new set of rims to go on it since the 17"s on it are too big for my taste and one is bent a tad.

Or fix to sell and put toward an S2k:
New OEM replacement struts, OEM springs, OEM style exhaust, some sort of OEM or close type wheel.

I'm on the fence on keeping it or not. I plan to purchase an S2k either way, but not sure if I am keeping this one for a DD or selling it and just buying a cheap EG for a daily.

NACvicSi

Well here is the finished result:





Everything in and vacuumed.

ej1love

clean, lol

red ej

damn that looks brand new good job and if i had the money id sell a civic for an s2000 in a heartbeat

fryman

good job it looks great