Cleaning Moldy Upholstery

Is this just slip on covers or the actual seat? If it's a slip on cover you could try turning them inside out and use a commercial mold killing product to kill the spores living in the foam. Then buy some dye and redye the covers.

If it's actually seats the best solution would be to replace the seat foam and clean the fabric. The mold is growing inside the seat and other than soaking the seat in something like clorox to kill the mold you won't stop it from coming back. Although this sounds difficult the seats probably will come apart rather easily. Most will have a series of hidden fasteners under the seat. Remove them and the material slips off. Then you replace the foam, paint the seat frames, lube the adjusters and such and put them back together.

auto-related I'll give it a try. I have a couple of old first-gen Honda Preludes I've been poking away at restoring, they are in rough shape to say the least but I tend to take pity on lost causes. My specific question concerns the upholstery. I had a third first-gen Prelude that I junked for parts, I salvaged lots of good upholstery from it but the problem is that it was quite moldy. I washed it all with detergent and hot water, it helped the smell but the mold stains were still present. What's worse, after the seat covers had been sitting a few months (what can I say, I take my time) the mold smell started to come back. It isn't bad, but it's enough to bother my allergies and this is unacceptable. The problem is that these seat covers consist of not only fabric but a thin layer of foam and another backing material, all stitched together. Separating and re-stitching the three would take tons of time and I would rather not have to do that if possible.

come back? I know there are lots of stronger cleaning agents out there but I thought I'd get some advice first. BTW these covers are half fabric and half vinyl, which may be another consideration.

It's not all that hard to sew new covers using yours as a pattern. Bleach kills mold but beyond that I would not leave the blooming seat covers inside my home, shop or vehicle while considering what to do.

You can kill mold with soap and hot water, but you don't kill the mold spores that way. As soon as it gets damp again, the spores sprout and then you have mold.

Lysol spray seems to be a mold-killing agent in an alcohol solution. The alcohol gets it where it needs to go, and mold-killer is left behind. When spores sprout again, they don't get very far. But the key to the stuff is getting it into where it needs to go, and that means the backing and maybe even the foam, and keeping it there.

I am told that extreme cold can also kill mold spores, but it's going to take a lot of dry ice to do the job for you.

Cleaning agents won't help, they will kill the mold but really nothing can be done to eliminate the spores. You need a mildewcide in there, so that the spores can't turn back into huge amounts of mold again.

--scott

You might have to soak everything. Vinegar, odoban, will kill mold. I have not had luck getting rid of stains with oxyclean, but will also kill mold and odor. Might have to try a little bleach for the stains.

Greg

The only cleaner that smelled good was westleys cleaner, and they don't make it now.

Greg

. You need a mildewcide in there, so that

I wonder if fungicide would do? I have some concentrated stuff I used to use in a greenhouse, for preventing fungus from forming and killing plants. These seat covers are very light-colored (tan), so hopefully bleach will not have much effect on the colors.