I want to power wash my seats.

Question now is, What in the CRAP have you been doing in your truck?

 

You might just wanna drive that bad boy down the boat ramp for an hour or two. Let it soak.

 

Jesus, I thought MY seats were gnar. I am obviously more OCD than I imagined.

Driver's side needs replacing. Passenger side might be okay but holy hell that would really mess with me if it looked like that when I bought it.

Is there a smell? I feel like there might be a smell, too. I'm glad we can't smell stuff through the internet.

Get some covers from WalMart and hide that at the very least.

 

Look at my first post in here, it's my dad's truck and I'm planning on buying it from him. There's no smell, those are 11 years of being a work truck, coffee stains and french fries on the floors. I love that part of my dad, he goes and buys a $30k plus locked truck and uses the shit out of it from day one, desert pinstripes and all. He hasn't waxed it once, he just maintains the mechanics perfectly and uses the truck like he stole it. I wouldn't want a pansy ass dad who bought the truck and babied the hell out of it, I will show you one of the outside too, the man didn't buy it to keep it new he bought it with the mentality of a carpenter buying a nail gun, to use the hell out of it.

 

Nothing wrong with abusing a truck, that's the point of a vehicle with a hauling capability. I abuse my truck too. Hauled tons of stuff from house to house with it, 1500-2000 lb loads of dirt, gravel, pavers etc while remodeling the back yard, and much more. But good grief, I take the 10 seconds to dust off before hopping in! If its bad, I throw down a towel.

Also nothing wrong with babying it and protecting a 30k investment. Then there's many of us who abuse it, but still manage to take care of it. That's the real goal in my book: get all of its use and still take good care of it.

 

If you used a car like a truck I would call it abuse, if you use a truck like a truck it's just using it. Also, hard to call any vehicle at least a new one (sans something like an F40) an "investment", it's a liability no matter how you cut it unless you're really working the tax angle. The truck is fine, it's dirty, runs perfectly but it's just like buying an RV with hail damage for half the price, still get all of the function without the cost.

From my perspective, I prefer buying things like this because I can make them new again. Sure beats dealing with 22" chrome rims and the smell of years of "Ocean Breeze" air freshener saturating the entire thing.

 

If you're that sensitive to chemicals, then how are you planning to "clean" the seats with the pressure washer? Using just water?

I agree with the majority here: use a steam cleaner/extractor. Not only will it remove the dirt stains, but it will kill anything that's currently living in there without using any chemicals (especially things you may have gone "nose-blind" to). It just seems like health/sanitation is pretty important to you.

 

I pulled the covers off (since there's that hole that to address anyway) and I'm thankful for that idea coming from this thread for sure. I'm going to soak and wash the covers and if I can since they look the same swap the drivers side foam to the other side so it's on the inside of the seat. I will patch the hole, fill in the area of foam that's missing and button everything back together.

On the chemical front, people have really forgotten how to live without these things. Vinegar, baking soda, jojoba, some 7gen soap all go a long way without the chemical exposure. Those are the things I tend to use from gun cleaning (and lube with the jojoba) to degreasing or anything else.

 

Seat bottom removed, not a hard job by any means but I'm not looking forward to trying to put it back together. Also, the lumbar wires in the back of the seat that sort of tension are broken, anybody have a good hack for that? PS I covered the seat so the foam isn't exposed to any UV while I have it apart, UV kills that stuff in short time here.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Connectors-A...17&sr=8-1&keywords=wire+rope+crimp+connectors

Get some wire the same size and replace them.

 

I think you are misunderstanding what an investment is

 

Couldn't agree more. Vinegar and baking soda are stupid-simple to use, and are just as effective as 75% of the cleaning products out there.

Sounds like you've got a plan, so I'll wait for the final pics! Best of luck!

 

lol poor choice of words, I should say "nothing wrong with protecting a 30k purchase/expense"

yes poor choice of words on "investment," should say 30k "expense" or "purchase." I do like how you say that though, for a car its abuse, for a truck its regular use. My point still stands that there's nothing wrong with babying/protecting your purchase

As for that last part, I prefer Hawaiian Breeze by Glade, but to each their own

 

PS if you have a laundry steamer (like for ironing clothes) run it through the seat foam while the covers are off. It will re-expand the compressed portions of the foam to factory dimensions pretty well. If you don't have one, they're super cheap.

 

If those don't do the job Borax usually does.

 

Thank you all for the wit, humor, feedback, info, thoughts, criticisms and so on. A decade plus ago I was all over ih8mud and it was mostly a bunch of like minded older dudes (or at least we are now) who had to make most of the things we wanted because there were no other options. Last night I was actually shocked they had a radio mount for this thing on Amazon and a harness to use the factory sub and amp, a couple clicks and $180 later and I have a nice navigation head unit with a pretty plug and play install, that's insane to me as it wouldn't have been that easy before. This is a younger crowd it seems with different needs and resources and information and products available which is awesome, now I need to get into the 2010s with my thinking.

Also, I'm doing a fairly big build, a DIY camper from an enclosed trailer, a full solar system, ac unit, fridge conversion, a lot of stuff that's taking more thought and energy than I actually have. Many of these things need to be made to work, hard start kit on the window AC, converting the freezer to a fridge, building a roof rack, finding fire retardant free polyiso insulation, and on and on with a quickly approaching June 5th deadline. So while I like doing things the right way I'm also trying to find a balance of diminishing returns and not going too far down that road in search of perfection.

Anyway, thank you all for your help.

 

Doing that would probably make putting the covers back on a serious pain in the ass. I'd try that after they are back on to make it nice and cushy. In fact, that's not a bad idea in general just to clean the seats in a regular truck.

OP: It's cool, man. You got your truck from your dad and it's used. Doesn't mean you can't give him shit about cleaning up the spilled coffee! If he's like my old man, it will be a fun discussion to talk shit to each other over a beer.
My dad's 71, I'm 39. We've shared lots of beer together and that's the type of relationship we have.

Congrats on getting the "new" to you truck. It should see a different life with you as an owner and if you build it up your dad should be interested in seeing how his work rig evolves into an EAF beast