Cleaning your Recaro's

[squiddles]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

BEFORE AND AFTERS DOWN THE BOTTOM KIDS!

Aim:
To get those Recaro's nice and new looking!

Required:
1x 12mm socket
1x Bottle of Woolite (Click here to buy, as far as I know the only Aussie importer, they also sell Dr Pepper nomnomnom)
1x Bucket
1x Vacuum Cleaner
2x Cloths
1x Empty spray bottle
1x Can of Dr Pepper (Optional)

Steps:

1. Mix up a concoction of 6 parts Woolite and 1 part water into your empty spray bottle. Give it a good shake to get the jucies flowing.

Your magical Recaro cleaning potion should look something like this:



2. Open can of Dr Pepper (Optional)

3. Remove the seats from your Integra/Civic/NSX/Car with stolen Recaros. There are 4x 12mm bolts holding in each seat at the end of each rail, they are pretty simple to remove. BE CAREFUL WHEN REMOVING THE SEATS TO DISCONNECT THE WIRING FOR THE SEATBELT BUZZER

4. Vacuum as much dirt as possible out of your seats, we don't want to be rubbing any surface dirt into the fabric. Getting new Alcantara would be near on impossible, especially if your a lucky boy/girl and have yellow Recaro's like meee. Make sure you get into all the nook and crannies, leave no dirt behind.

5. Grab a bucket and fill it up with luke warm water, make sure it is not too hot or cold, don't want to ruin your Recaros! Wipe down the seats with a cloth and water only, try and get any left over dirt out. Do each section at a time, so one bolster, then another and so on, changing buckets every section.

Water should look like this:



Be careful not to rub any slight tears, rips or other damaged areas. Dab them lightly, or wipe them down along the grain as not to agitate the tears.

6. Grab your premade solution of Woolite, cloth number 2 and water and repeat the process, but being very very liberal in your application of Woolite. You should start to see the results pretty quickly. Lather up each area, get it in all nice and deep like, then wipe off with water and cloth number 1. Repeat process untill entire seat is done. Don't worry if the whole seat now looks dirty, its the water playing tricks on your mind.

7. Repeat step 5, but go crazy with the water, you want to get all the Woolite out of the seat, otherwise it will leave it sticky and smelling like a clothes line. Go over the areas that were really dirty because you most likely sprayed a whole boatload of Woolite into it otherwise when it dries it will look darker than other areas.

8. Whack your set up infront of a fan to help it dry, or leave it outside undercover. Don't use a heater or the sun as you don't want to bake any stains you might have missed into the fabric.

The end result whilst drying should look like:




9. Once the seat is dry, bolt your seat back into your spaceship and bask in the glory that is a clean Recaro!

Disregard a few of the darker patches, I had to goto work the next morning so I put the seat back in a little damp.



Some extra photos:

SEAT BEFORE WASHING:




SEAT AFTER WASHING:





Other comments I'm using Woolite because it is what Alcantara recommend to use on their fabric. Seeing these seats are generally worth more than most other parts of the car, and are no longer in production, I would only use what is recommended. If you love your car, don't be shit and use some crap that might ruin your seats. Also, Dr Pepper is the bomb, if you do get it, make sure you get the Imperial Sugar one, not the high fructose corn syrup.

Also let me know if I have forgotten something, I'm pretty tired atm.

[tiksie]

Nice rare recaros!@

[androo]

Looks sick! Nice work mate

[frambo]

Ohh I remember this car on carsales
Not long ago... Nice write up dude...

[SuperJDM.]

god damn i just made an account to order some drinks from USA FOODs and they are RUDE!

Good DIY man i really need to try and clean mine one day.

[vtecing]

I used some meguires alcohol wipes and rubbed gently on my black sr3s and it worked wonders.

[munkaii]

Woolies steam cleaner with upholstery attachment as well

[Alvis]

Excellent post! +1 rep come on guys

[r3ckless]

Still waiting for a free AND sunny weekend.

Could u use a steam cleaner instead of bucket 1 for more effective results?

[202690]

where can i pick up some woolite? usafoods out of stock..

[[daan]]

Just go to Woolies mate, I bought something called 'Softly' did an awesome job of restoring my Sportline recaros....

[202690]

cheers for that dan!