A step by step guide to shampooing your neoprene seat covers the right way.
After camping the NC Outer Banks of NC for 5 days my truck was full of sand and had a watery smell to it (not the fresh ocean breeze kind, unfortunately). I decided it was time to deep clean my neoprene seat covers. Shampooing neoprene seat covers is a much deeper clean than spot cleaning with a surface cleaner (10:1 diluted simple green works great for that !).
Guide/Parts Compatibility:
This guide is applicable to any genuine neoprene seat covers (CoverKing, WetOkole, etc…). It should be, but may not be, compatible with replica neoprene.
Disclaimer:
Disclaimer: I am not an engineer and I am not responsible for any modifications you make to the vehicle as a result of this guide. Use at your own risk/discretion.
Obligatory not affiliated with these companies, I bought all of this myself, none of it was provided to me, etc…
Time Required:
- 1.0-2.0hrs
Complexity:
- 1/10
- Contributing Factors:
- Adding water to cab interior
Parts Needed:
- Gear Aid, Revivex, Wetsuit & Drysuit Shampoo
- Clean rag (or two)
Tools Used:
- Bissell Spot Cleaner (These things are incredibly versatile)
- 5 gal bucket
- Portable shop vac (I used a DeWalt DCV581H which uses DeWalt batteries or can be plugged into an outlet. Quite convenient)
- Box Fan (To help dry the cabin)
Step1: Clean and vacuum out truck
Pull out all the things that have accumulated in the cabin, including from the seatbacks, and vacuum absolutely everything. Leave the floor liners in because this process will spill/spray water on them (by accident, of course).
Step2: Mix wetsuit shampoo
Mix the wetsuit shampoo as per the manufacturers recommendation. The Gear Aid, Revivex, Wetsuit & Drysuit Shampoo I’m using calls for 2 capfulls/2gal of water. Do not put the shampoo in the Bissell SpotClean.
Step3: Scrub seats individually
Starting and ending with the drivers seat (it gets shampooed twice), scrub each seat with a rag. Here’s the order I went in:
- Driver’s seat
- Rear seat, drivers side + center (if applicable)
- Rear seat, passengers side
- Passenger seat
- Driver’s seat
Do not scrub all of the seats one right after each other; scrub one, move on to Steps 4 & 5, then return here.
Step4: Rinse and vacuum up shampoo #1
Use the Bissell Spot Cleaner to spray warm/hot water on the seat you just shampooed and vacuum it up. Do not worry about getting every molecule of water out with this first pass; lightly soak an area and quickly vacuum it up. The water will pool where the seat cushion meets the seat back so I recommend you periodically vacuum that up to prevent water from sitting there. You can, but don’t need to, change the seat position.
Step5: Rinse and vacuum up shampoo #2
This could be the last pass depending on how much shampoo is remaining in the Neoprene. The first pass of spraying with the Bissell Spot Clean will look something like this:
If the second pass looks clean, like this, only 2 passes are necessary:
If it still has shampoo residue, repeat a 3rd time. On the last pass I’ll spend some extra time pressing the wand over each area to pull as much out of it as possible. The suction is fairly good and it will remove almost all of the water (at least measured by the touch of my un-calibrated fingers).
Step6: Be disgusted by what you have removed
This is what came up from 5mo of use. Why yes, that is a lot of butt-water.
Step7: Air out cabin
I use a box fan in the backseat and leave the front doors open with my belt-driven drum fan blowing air through. Works pretty well. I park indoors at night so I’ll also leave the windows down.
If anyone has a better way of doing this, I’d love to hear about it. It is a very humid experience.
Lastly, this site contains affiliate links. It costs you nothing but I receive a small percentage if you purchase using the above links. I would greatly appreciate it if you would support the site using them, but if not I also understand. Thanks for reading, and may every landing be gear down !
