hi folks,

i thought i would share this with you..

my recaro chairs were in a bad way. filthy, mildew, spilt sagging cushions, sagging cloth borken botslers etc.. you've see it before..


now, they are as good as new.

this is what i did, i hope some of find it useful..

i did post this in another thread, but it deserves a topic of it's own..

firstly, i did the driver seat with autoglym clean all. it came up not bad, but not brilliant and no matter how much i scrubbed it and re-applyed the clean all, dirt kept coming through.

bit of a wasted effort and bad idea- i'll explain why in a moment..

instead of scrubbing the passenger seat in vain, i removed both front chairs from the car and stripped them apart. i removed all the cloth from both chairs and put them in the bath filled with warm water and washing powder and hand washed them.



you will not believe the dirt that came out them! the water was black and had to be changed twice. all the dirt came out them after a good soak scub and rinse..they hung to dry and now look like new.

with the seats stripped, it was a good opertunity to repair the split cushions and bolsters. a visit to hobycraft shop for thin sheets of foam and sheets of cotton wadding, staple gun and spray on glue.. i was able to re-cover/wrap the back cushions with wadding as they were badly worn, i repaired the spilt base cushions and recovered them with a fine sheet of foam, repaired the damaged bolsters with the fine sheets of foam after filling the cracks etc..

this brings me onto the two resons why it it NOT a good idea to wet VAX or scub your chairs.

scrubbing them with a wet cloth and cleaning products damages and wears the foam underneath- i can see the wear marks i left after stripping them. understand the chairs are despratley dirty with decades of filth and dust and dampness. you may think you have cleaned the surface cloth but what you have done is wet the filthy foam below which will now seep dirty water back into your cloth as it dries.

when you strip the seat you will understand.. the foam underneath is covered in mould and filth too. as the foam wears away in time with the movement of the cloth above, the dirty particles colate in clumps under the cloth- near immpossible to remove without taking the chairs apart. if you try to clean them from the surface they will only get dirty again very quickly as the dirt is still there.

best get them out the car, take them to bits- all you need is a screw driver and small pair of pliers, each chair takes and hour to dismanlte and an hour to build again. the cloth comes off and goes back on pretty easily and the cushions and bolsters will be like new again with NO sagging and firm cushions. a full days work but worth it!

still work in progress, last thing i need to do is wrap and fix the cloth around the back cushion as staples dont do it. for this, i'll need to get a long shoe lace and tie them up like a training shoe to chaive the grip and tighness required. originally the cloth had splayed out staples fixing them to the cushion but this is not possible without some sort of machine. tiing them up with a lace will do the job nicely. but thats for another day.. i have taken many pics, some are below, but many more can be viewed here...


































the result- new seats. firm cushions like new, no sagging material- get this- you can sit on the chair, get up, and there is NO creases ion the fabric- just like new.





sorry for bad lighting- its late..

many self explanatory pics can be viewed here!