Coffee stain defeated my steamer

[OCD Detailing]

My Daimer Kleenjet 300 had it's first defeat this weekend. I am curious if there is anything else I can do to get this stain out of a customers car?

It's coffee that he let sit for a month or so. I used Folex and the steamer first, then tried other chemicals we have and nothing seemed to work. I am not sure if I failed or if some stains just won't come out. Any ideas?

Thank you.

Before

After

 

[Audios S6]

That was BAD! To me that's not just coffee - that's coffee, dirt and possibly mold.

Firstly, if someone tried cleaning it before you they may have used something that set the stain and no amount of amazing tools and chemicals will get it out completely.

Second, coffee is a tannin stain so an acidic solution will aid in removal. Meguiars fiber rinse and tannin stain would be a good bet. Otherwise citric acid or even lemon juice, I would personally avoid lemon juice.

Third, if that is mold, then it has likely stained as well, and a protein stain remover may help. Meguiars protein stain remover would be an obvious choice. Other options would be a pet urine remover from the pet store. A third option would be a peroxide solution available at pretty much any drug store or walmart/target.

Fourth, Use steam to help boost the cleaning power of the above chemicals.

Fifth, use a carpet spotter and test for color fastness

sixth, use APC to remove anything that is actually dirt

seventh, rinse with meguiars fiber rinse or citric acid.

If you've already tried all of the above and come up short, then I cannot help you further and you have my sympathy.

 

[OCD Detailing]

That was BAD! To me that's not just coffee - that's coffee, dirt and possibly mold.

Firstly, if someone tried cleaning it before you they may have used something that set the stain and no amount of amazing tools and chemicals will get it out completely.

Second, coffee is a tannin stain so an acidic solution will aid in removal. Meguiars fiber rinse and tannin stain would be a good bet. Otherwise citric acid or even lemon juice, I would personally avoid lemon juice.

Third, if that is mold, then it has likely stained as well, and a protein stain remover may help. Meguiars protein stain remover would be an obvious choice. Other options would be a pet urine remover from the pet store. A third option would be a peroxide solution available at pretty much any drug store or walmart/target.

Fourth, Use steam to help boost the cleaning power of the above chemicals.

Fifth, use a carpet spotter and test for color fastness

sixth, use APC to remove anything that is actually dirt

seventh, rinse with meguiars fiber rinse or citric acid.

If you've already tried all of the above and come up short, then I cannot help you further and you have my sympathy.

Thank you, only one of your suggestions we used was APC. We will have to look into getting the other items. The job is done and paid for. I almost felt bad charging full price but he ended up tipping us 20$ for the effort. I told him if I find something that might work I can stop by when I am doing other cars in his area and try it again.

Sucked having to walk away from that looking the way it did but I guess there is only so much you can do when a person spills something and lets it sit there for so long.

 

[VP Mark]

That doesn't look like a 1 month old single stain. That looks like years of abuse and neglect. Sometimes people are not really truthful about where/how seats got looking like that because they are embarassed.

 

[allenk4]

APC may have actually set the stain

 

[OCD Detailing]

APC may have actually set the stain

Yea I read that. But it was the last thing I used. I tried Folex for about 20 min and the steamer. I am going to buy the Megs Tannin and the protein remover like suggested to see how it works.

He is getting rid of the car soon just wanted it to look better for trade in value. It's only a couple year old Subaru. Everything else on it is pretty clean.

It might have been on the seat more than a month. I don't recall the exact time frame other than a long time.

On a side note, Would a hot water extractor do anything the steamer can't? Not sure if we should have one of those as well.

Thanks for the quick responses. I should have asked first. The steamer has just been flawless so far I didn't think it would be a problem for it.

 

[hilld]

Have him buy a new seat cover from the dealer, might be cheaper than you having to spend hours and hours trying to get the stain out and not succeed. Some things are just not worth it, especially cleaning up after pigs.

 

[expdetailing]

If you rely on a good steamer for clean-up, try having an in-expensive extractor (bissell little green) for those time when you need a flood of water to rinse away as much as possible.
As you know already, stains exist well below the actual surface stain. I can't applaud my extractor enough when it comes to deep extraction. Literally, I can pull-out stains I know are coming from inches below the surface.

 

[CarolinasFinestDetailing]

OCD Detailing, I recommend you watch the interior cleaning class that Jason rose from Meguiar`s did at Detail Fest. Its a vast wealth of knowledge, and changed how I clean interiors honestly. Its available on YouTube.

 

[KMdef9]

On a side note, Would a hot water extractor do anything the steamer can't? Not sure if we should have one of those as well.

Maybe others who have used both can chime in with more experience, but from my limited exposure it seems a water extractor is better at completely removing deep stains, and a steamer will be better at surface stains. Since this stain is deep, an extractor could still help, as there may still be below the surface stains there. But, I don't think it will help with the surface and you'll need to try the products recommended by the guys above.

 

[HateSwirls]

Main reason I just ordered a DP Cleaning Gun.
Have my steamer and the cleaning gun will give me a better chance in removing such stains:dblthumb2:

 

[cardaddy]

OCD Detailing, I recommend you watch the interior cleaning class that Jason rose from Meguiar`s did at Detail Fest. Its a vast wealth of knowledge, and changed how I clean interiors honestly. Its available on YouTube.

:iagree::dblthumb2::iagree:

 

[Pureshine]

First off seats that bad and not knowing what stains really are. You need to use the least aggressive approach first or you can set the stains. With that kind os seat I would've extracted first and then steamed to get surface stains out. I only use Folex cause 95% the time it will never set any stains from my experience over the past 10 years of using it. I will say one thing I hate cloth seats!!!!!!