Rep Power: 309

i just got some si seats off a good 7thgen member here, the only problem is theres a few small minor stains and its got a light scent of something mixed with basement mildew smell. its not bad at all and you can only smell if if you put your nose to it, (yes im weird enough to do this.... possibly quite frequently lol)
so is there anything at pep boys or autozone that takes out stains really really good without fading or damaging the suede on the seat and will it get rid of the odor? i want these things to look like new.
also ive got the upholstery off half way so if i got it completely off is it worth it? (meaning is there something i could put with it in a washer machine or something, or would it shrink?)

 
Rep Power: 276

Try some oxyclean. Test it on a small spot first, especially the suede, to see if its ok. That will remove probably any stain you have. As for the smell, you need to either soap them up or use febreeze until it goes away.

 
Rep Power: 0

If it is indeed mildew, cleaning the seat cover is not going to do a heck of a lot of good if mildew has started to grow inside the seats, you will want to nip it in the bud and fast, or before you know it you will have to replace the padding in the seats. And only way to check is to open one of them up. At the very least, expose the insides of the seats to WARM DRY circulating air. Because if there in mildew and or mold on the foam padding, it's ALSO on the back side of the leather, so cleaning the surface will only make it smell pretty for a short time. And if there are mildew spots on the backing of the leather that are showing through, they will only get worse if/as the spots get bigger.

So a ONE time ONLY time treatment, is going to mean finding the the true cause of the smell.

 
Rep Power: 0

i 2nd the oxi-clean. that will remove the stains, but TEST IT FIRST.

also, try maybe some baking soda (best deodrizer), and a water solution, let it saturate in there for a bit and then vaccum out. TEST THIS OUT FIRST as well.

 
Rep Power: 309

well its not mildew in the seat, ive taken it apart already, but its just the smell of a mildewy damp basement in the fabric.

 
Rep Power: 0

That's a good thing. If you wanna make sure it's not going to shrink you can have the seat covers dry cleaned (coin op dry cleaning will be cheaper than having a dry cleaner do them), and they should shrink. But do check to make sure they can be dry cleaned.

You'd want to clean the fabric all the way through anyway since you can remove them. That will give the seats time to air out while their being cleaned. Then you can treat them any way you like once their fully cleaned.

This is what we did with a friend's leather dragon (6 foot dragon), that was in a flooded basement. Opened him up, removed it's stuffing, washed the suede and leather hide in a dry cleaning washing machine, then restuffed it with fresh stuffing. No more funky dragon.