Morris Minor Owners Club

hi there, i wanted to clean some vinyl seat covers tomorrow and i didn't want to wait for fleabay, i wanted to get some pre paint wipes and i don't want to pay fortunes, i spotted these, what would be the best out of these?

one of the list is a hand cleaner and cleans paint off tools, but i spotted a sugar soap whites, i know that sugar soap is a mild abrasive, so that might be better? i dont' want to use thinners but i want to use something that will clean and revitalise sun faded vinyl! here's the link, what ones out of these would be suitable? also i bet some silvo/brasso on a cloth would do the same thing as these or another mild abrasive such as cif?

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st ... paint+wipe


PS i can't find decosol vinyl cleaner anywhere, any places that do it?
PPS do you guys rate liquid metal?

unfortunately nothing ( to the best of my knowledge ) will revitalise sun faded vinyl.

do not use cellulose thinners it will melt the vinyl and you will lose the grain..

the best thing i find is vanish bar here is a link to an earlier discussion..

http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... an#p259573

hi charlie, i might grab a bar of vanish too and try that as well. i was going to prepaint wipe then jet spray them before any serious damaged occurred. i will report back on how good this is in practise! i figure i will try on a spare test panel.

I've used flash or washing poweder in a bucket with water % a scrubbing brush to get grime out of the grain

dare say shower gel would work as well

There used to be (maybe still is ?) special paint for vinyl seats. I seem to remember someone having great success with that ?

\Mr Muscle works well on a really damp cloth/nail brush. Try any product first somewhere where it won't show to make sure it doesn't take the colour out

dp wrote:I've used flash or washing poweder in a bucket with water % a scrubbing brush to get grime out of the grain

Same here used a cube of aerial with a soft nail brush, taking care not to over wet the vinyl and then dry straight off with a clean dry towel. The seats came up like new, or as good as.

Try a Vanish soap bar, you will be amazed.

can't seem to get the vanish soap bar but i have the spray equivalent, should be the same stuff. there's this oxy stuff that's double the price at 3.50 and it has some sort of bleaching agent in it, seems stronger. will try the vanish first, i have pre paint wipe, will try it all on a spare piece that i have. i have concentrated sugar soap, i also have some good ol' white spirit thinner that i can dilute down with water and use as a last resort, then jet wash it off with a hose.

come to think of it tho, with the red vinyl, is it white vinyl underneath the colour? if so, then no scrubbing will bring the red back and it will need painting.

ah yes, come to think of it, if i can't clean them up with what i have, in the folder of receipts and stuff, there's a reciept for vinyl paint. i might give them a call and see if they're still trading. two of the seat backs are strongly sun faded and might benefit from a paint up.

i think the vanish spray won out of the paint wipes and the concentrated sugar soap. less elbow grease needed and really cleaned up the grime. then i jet sprayed the vanish soap off my test door card. however, there's a sickly vanish smell on the vinyl but i expect that will fade in time.

i was inspecting the back seat backs and they're very sun faded, but i am starting to like the way it looks, like an aged painting, i might just clean the grime off the whole seat set and then decide.

The only vinyl paint i can think of is vinylkote..

http://www.kolorbond.co.uk/otherproducts.htm

there may well be others

I've not tried these products, but the supplier has been around for a long time:

http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-118-vin ... ation.aspx

I re-made all the trim panels in the Midget for not much more than the cost of one spray can, iirc.

Kevin

i see that the vinyl prep stuff is clear liquid and is thinners based. i might just thin down some white spirit and try that, i really don't know if there's any nice red vinyl beneath the sun fade but i guess i will find out!

If it's sun faded - it's gone. You could always try red shoe polish - but don't blame me if you get it on your clothes!

xpress wrote:i see that the vinyl prep stuff is clear liquid and is thinners based. i might just thin down some white spirit and try that, i really don't know if there's any nice red vinyl beneath the sun fade but i guess i will find out!

Which vinyl prep stuff is that, that's "thinners based"? And what would you thin down white spirit with? If your enthusiasm exceeds your feel for the chemistry, you might just find that what's underneath the sun-faded pink vinyl is some seat foam, covered in a stick mess.

Kevin

Name of product:
Vinyl Primer

Description:
250ml. Spirit based soloution that primes the surface and removes any previous old or artificial coatings. It is essential that these are removed first for a good permanent result from the vinyl paint. Vinyl primer is fairly potent so please use sparingly.

todays update, managed to have a go at the seat backs on the back seat, nearest to the window, bmc is right, they are indeed too far gone, i like the faded red and pink character of most of the cars interior but this is too faded and i might look into pushing a bit of colour back into this area.

also, tried vinegar on the front seats, really didn't work nearly as good as vanish, vanish is the winner right now, and i haven't tried anything thinners or white spirit based since i am starting to agree with bmc that if it's sun faded that's the pigment gone!

xpress wrote:Name of product:
Vinyl Primer Description: 250ml. Spirit based soloution

"Spirit" usually means an alcohol-related substance, unless qualified with another word, as in "white spirit" or "petroleum spirit".
"Thinners", to most people in a car context, implies cellulose thinners, a rather more vicious solvent.

xpress wrote: i am starting to agree with bmc

comes to many folks, sooner or later. He does seem to have the irritating habit of being right (except about coils )

Kevin