Detailing - Vinyl

[keithh2oskier]

This is a great tutorial on an annual cleaning. Not something you need to do after every outing.

Supplies:

• Harbor Freight 6” DA Polisher (#69924)
• Grey Ultra Soft Upholstery Brush
• LA Totally Awesome (dollar store)
• 303 Protectant
• Bucket (warm water)
• Wash Mitt
• Towels

Process:
The vinyl on my boat was very dirty and had never really seen a deep clean in the 12 years by previous owner. I found this process on another site and have replicated it. Overall I am really pleased with the results.

To start with I washed my seats with just a soap and water mix to remove as much of the dirt and debris as I could.

1. Spray LA Totally Awesome on seats liberally. Let soak for 1-2 minutes.
2. Dip upholstery brush into warm water.
3. On a speed setting 5, I ran the DA across the vinyl in a slow movement in a cross-hatch pattern (left/right & up/down).
4. Take wash mitt and wipe seats clean.
5. Dry seats
6. Spray 303 protectant liberally.
7. Wipe clean.

Notes:
The LA Totally Awesome will dry out the vinyl so it’s really important to use 303 to keep it soft. It also will dry out your hands so gloves are good. You may need to dump the water on several occasions depending on how dirty it is.

Before:


After:

[ski4evr]

TA is amazing for cleaning everything!! I use it diluted differently for wheels and tires, vinyl, all sorts of stuff. The DA and upholstery brush is on my Christmas list. Thanks, been doing the same thing with a bristle brush, just lots of elbow too. Looks Great.

[Evening Shade]

Where did the upholstry brush come from? I tried to search for it on Harbor Freight's website, but couldn't find it.

[nukemustang]

http://www.amazon.com/Grey-Ultra-Sof.../dp/B0060NGE24

I got them off of autogeek during one of their "weekly" sales. http://www.autogeek.net/porter-cable-brushes.html

they screw into the PC 7424 in place of the polisher backing pad.

tim

[keithh2oskier]

Yep, I got the same one that Tim mentioned on amazon. For what its worth, I got two brushes and they screw into my HF DA polisher just the same as the Porter Cable 7424.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o08_s00

[Teddy57]

Thank you for this thread and method. I have been cleaning my boats for years and have never found a method that works as well or as easy as this. I substituted Star Brite Ultimate Citrus Cleaner for the LA Totally Awesome. The Harbor Freight machine did all the heavy lifting. My old seats backs look very close to my new factory vinyl seat bottoms.

[markj]

This goes back 5 years ago when I first learned about Totally Awesome. Thing is, I never knew just how bad my upholstery was until I tested a little area with it. My upholstery had gotten dirty, but it did so in a very uniform way over time-like the frog in the pot that gets boiled. I always stayed on top of it, but never did any deep cleaning on the level that TA is capable of. I just sprayed it on, waited 30 seconds and scrubed very lightly with a soft brush or rag. After that, I rinsed well, dried it and applied 303. Here are a few pics of before and after.

[markj]

[Teddy57]

Mark, the difference is amazing. My results were similar.

[markj]

Yeah the crazy thing was no one (especially me) knew it was even that dirty! Little by little, I got accustomed to a false sense of "clean." Kinda snuck up on me. After that wake up call, it was like having a new boat again. They could charge $30 for that stuff instead of $1 and I would pay it.

[CNYSS]

The TA, plus a coat of 303 after, made my 20 year old vinyl look brand new!

[Skidave]

I have to admit I got rather embarrassed about how BAD my vinyl was starting to look in certain places. Mainly my coaming pad on the port side was the worst. I believe my issue was from my kids and their suntan lotion. Even though I wipe my vinyl with a clean water saturated towel after every use, it just got to be nasty looking with strange stains. I used LA's Totally Awesome, but that was not lifting the stain (it was cleaning the vinyl). I ended up using Simple Green on the really bad areas. I used a small soft bristle brush that is about 1 inch wide by 3 inches long. Then using lots of 303 and massaging it into the vinyl. I had some spots where something left a color streak across some of my vinyl (I think it was my wife's toe nail polish). The only way to remove the streak was gently using a small amount of 91% rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip and carefully wiping the area. It will strip the vinyl of any dirt or oily grime and leave it super white. But it also dries it out worse than the other cleaners.

I have a feeling my bad areas will return when the sun hits them the rest of this season. But at least now I know how to tackle the issue. And, I will be more regular with my 303 use.

It was so bad, I didn't even want to take pictures of it...

[rlwagens]

Are you guys using straight TA when detailing or cutting it with water?


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[CNYSS]

I use it straight with no issues.

[markj]

Straight.