Who has a proven method for cleaning oil spots on an old boat carpet

[swbca]

So I have seen all the YouTube videos of guys cleaning their bass boat carpets. Many products were used in these videos but I don't know what really works. Last October I bought a 2004 Prostar 197TT . . The boat is almost like new except the carpet is original. The boat will be coming out of storage in a couple of weeks and I want to clean the light grey carpet that has several oil spots . . . if that's possible.

The bottom is better looking than the carpet

 

[Wish]

Fallowing ...grease from over head lift motor. ?

[oldjeep]

Simple green

[scuppers]

CRC Brake Kleen

[Brokenstack]

New Carpet

 

[swc5150]

Pro steam clean. Simple green and elbow grease are good home remedies, but a pro with pro equipment is your best bet.

[ALPJr]

I always had good results with warm water, Palmalive, and a soft scrubbing brush. Let it soak, a little gentle rubbing and rinse. The gray carpet in our 92 Prostar looked good as new when we sold in 2014.

[James]

Dawn dishwashing liquid has proven to be overwhelming the best detergent to remove oil... hands down.

[jjackkrash]

Dish soap and one of these on an DA orbital:

 

https://www.autogeek.net/hd-scrub-brush-.html

[foxriverat]

Wet stain with dawn and warm water. Cover spot with clean wet rag and iron rag with hot iron. It will draw stain up into rag. It might take a few times and a few rags. Plenty of videos on youtube using iron and different solutions. Iron is the key.

[2Valve]

Years ago in another life, I installed robotic storage/retrieval systems in Ford, GM factories. In some cases, we put them in offices and had to be careful when assembling with the grease, oil on the chains, etc.

 

When we did have a mishap, we used a bottle of Fantastik to remove the spots. We would soak the area and then use a paper towel to blot it and finally work the grease out of the carpet.

 

It always amazed me how well it worked.

[swbca]

@2Valve Fantastik ! ;) I will give it a try to see how it compares to DAWN, the stuff used on the wildlife after oil spills.

[chrislandy]

A tip I got from a carpet cleaner once was: Soak then blot, never rub- rubbing just makes it deeper engrained.

[TomH]

A hot water extractor sucked it right out of the carpet of our boat when we first bought it.

[Hallpass]

I'd vote dish soap as well. Though spot specific because it foams up so much. I worked several years auto shops and we use dishwashing soap, or Tide to clean up most oil spills, only occasionally resorting to harsher cleaners.

 

[markn]

Any dilemonine based solvent will work very well. It is basically citrus based solvent.

[AKShortline]

If none of those get it out completely, carburetor cleaner will. Just be careful.

[Moved2ski]

https://www.amazon.com/Bissell-Hard-Surface-Cleaner-39N7A-39N71/dp/B001EYHAGS

 

I used something like this. Worked great , but only lasted a few uses. Also a fan of Dawn, heat and time. If that didn’t work I would use a small amount of carburetor cleaner.

[DangerBoy]

If you can find a brake cleaner product that still contains a goodly amount of Perchloroethylene AKA Tetrachloroethylene also AKA Tetrachloroethene that will work well. Perch is the solvent dry cleaners use so it will work very well for getting oil staining out of most carpets or clothes or for taking a lot of different stains out of a lot of different textiles and fabrics for that matter. I have used it myself for taking oil and/or grease stains out of carpet and it worked great.

 

You used to be able to get brake cleaner that had a high Perch content but since it's a nasty pollutant in the environment (it's on the EPA list of priority pollutants), I believe they've had to either eliminate it from or greatly reduce the amount there can be in brake cleaner so it might now be hard to find a brake cleaner product with very much of it in it. If you happen to have an old spray can of Brake Cleaner from back in the day kicking around, you just might find that it has a high Perch content. If it does, don't use for parts cleaning. Save it for tricky/tough stain removal and be careful how you use it.

[LeonL]

Dawn is perhaps the best anti grease/oil product out there. I've used Scrubbing Bubbles successfully on various home carpet stains.

[ScottScott]

Gas to dilute it, then dish soap and pressure sprayer to remove. Test a spot with the gas 1st, but it should be ok.

[DangerBoy]

I guarantee Perc (Dry cleaning fluid/solvent) will work better than anything and it won't harm the carpet fibers. Just get some brake cleaner with a good amount of Perchloroethylene (or they may list it as Tetrachloroethylene or Tetrachloroethene in the ingredients) in it, spray it on a clean rag and then try it on a small part of your oil stain. You will see that It removes the stain very easily and with very little effort needed. There's a reason they use that compound for dry cleaning.

[skihacker]

Especially on small spots brake clean is the best,

[BlueSki]

A friend unknowingly had grease on his slalom ski case and I ended up with some in my boat carpet. I soaked the stain overnight with diluted Dawn and then used WD40 to blot it out. I rinsed it afterwards, of course. My son had some black grease or glue stain on his bedroom carpet, so I tested it there before using it in my boat. WD40 worked great in both spots. Add that to the list of solutions. 

[ToddL]

@BlueSki - during a recent trip to the Texas coast, some black tar ended up on one person's shoes and got all over the inside of the car.   I tried a few solutions, but no luck.   WD-40 was the only one that worked to cut it so that it could be blotted and vacuumed out.  I followed that with a traditional carpet cleaning product and it looks like new again.

[dave2ball]

I have been told brake fluid works well at breaking down oil.  

[BKistler]

I’ve had good luck using charcoal lighter fluid. 

[MDB1056]

Brake cleaner. 

[markn]

D-limonene.  It is a citrus based solvent that cleans any hydro-carbon deposit....and it smells wonderful.  I have even used Citrus Magic air freshener directly on oil spots.  

[BlueSki]

Brake cleaner was option two if WD40 did not work.