Alright, so this may just be a question with an obvious answer, but what is the best way to go about cleaning my stock seats? Carpet cleaner and some serious elbow grease? I have a bunch of stains from the years of wear and tear.

 

See my detail page, and look for the interior link.
http://pnw4runners.com/tando/wax/wax.htm

Tuff Stuff works awsome on carpets, seats, ect.

Now that I have Wet Okole's though, I use their cleaner on my seats.

 

ncsu,

i open all the doors including the hatch and the sunroof and i take anything resembling a paddle and beat the snot out of the seats. if you have allergies, wear a dust mask. you won't believe the amount of dust/dirt that comes out of the seats!

after getting the majority of the dust out of the seats, i use a foaming cleaner like tuff stuff (like corey suggested) and work/clean it with CLEAN towels or old white t-shirt rags. make sure you work that stuff in or else it wont work as well.

spray with scotchguard the next day to protect your hard work.

bob

 

There's a write up on using cloth soaked with Oxi-Clean. You press a soaked cloth on with an iron, remove and then it evaporates. Steam works too if you have a smaller carpet steamer vac type jobbie.

Before I bought my 86, the seats were incredibly clean. A year later they disintegrated. Sombody used something REALLY strong and they ripped a little every time. After two years they were literally shredded.

 

I got to agree with the steam cleaning method if they're really dirty. You can go to places like Home Depot and rent a steam carpet cleaner for 24 hours. They have a small attachment piece that is perfect for doing a car's interior. I used one when I buried my old Explorer in mud and flooded the inside. Worked wonders. All the mud stains lifted right off everything.

 

I forgot to mention the steam cleaner.
I have a small Bissell or Sears, can not remember which it is, and I used it the following weekend after I bought my 4Runner.

It worked great for getting the cloth seats and carpets cleaned, and got rid of the "big dog" smell which the previous owners canine had left in my rig.