Re: How do you clean an original headliner?
Posted by Heather Moss On 2009/11/20 0:43:35
This has been my experience.
My car had been sitting in a shed unregistered for 18 years and one year we had an infestation of rats. By the time we discovered they were living in the car, they had made a mess.
Luckily the seats have leather covers so that wasn't a problem, but they had chewed holes in the headliner and stained it, they also made a mess on the back armrests.
Early in 2007 I wanted to clean this car up and register it again, my father had bought it in 1957 and it's a 39 Super 8 sedan.
The material was all the original wool and I really had no choice but to try and clean the rat piddle out of it by shampooing as I didn't want to drive it the way it was. The car wasn't registered at the time otherwise I would have driven it to town and had a professional carpet / upholstery cleaner do it for me.
I hired a small portable carpet shampoo machine from our local drycleaner; I put warm water in the tank and a liquid soap (wool mix). It worked brilliantly and didn't harm the wool.
I cleaned all the wool upholstery as well as the headliner.
Some stain's remained but at least it smelt fresh.
The cleaning head had a row of holes that squirted the soapy water out under pressure but then sucked it straight back in a vent directly behind the holes..
It didn't squirt the water through the wool and up onto the metal which I was afraid of when working on the roof. It seemed to draw all the moisture back immediately leaving the wool only slightly damp.
However , I don't know about rust, and if your material is darker it might end up looking patchy? Other people's suggestions might be better. I had no choice except to make a new headliner and I didn't have time for that. I don't worry about the rat holes anymore
I will try to include some photos taken before anything was cleaned on the car,
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My car had been sitting in a shed unregistered for 18 years and one year we had an infestation of rats. By the time we discovered they were living in the car, they had made a mess.
Luckily the seats have leather covers so that wasn't a problem, but they had chewed holes in the headliner and stained it, they also made a mess on the back armrests.
Early in 2007 I wanted to clean this car up and register it again, my father had bought it in 1957 and it's a 39 Super 8 sedan.
The material was all the original wool and I really had no choice but to try and clean the rat piddle out of it by shampooing as I didn't want to drive it the way it was. The car wasn't registered at the time otherwise I would have driven it to town and had a professional carpet / upholstery cleaner do it for me.
I hired a small portable carpet shampoo machine from our local drycleaner; I put warm water in the tank and a liquid soap (wool mix). It worked brilliantly and didn't harm the wool.
I cleaned all the wool upholstery as well as the headliner.
Some stain's remained but at least it smelt fresh.
The cleaning head had a row of holes that squirted the soapy water out under pressure but then sucked it straight back in a vent directly behind the holes..
It didn't squirt the water through the wool and up onto the metal which I was afraid of when working on the roof. It seemed to draw all the moisture back immediately leaving the wool only slightly damp.
However , I don't know about rust, and if your material is darker it might end up looking patchy? Other people's suggestions might be better. I had no choice except to make a new headliner and I didn't have time for that. I don't worry about the rat holes anymore
I will try to include some photos taken before anything was cleaned on the car,
Attach file:
(28.06 KB)
(31.58 KB)
(39.74 KB)
(26.30 KB)
(36.81 KB)
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