How to get oil out of carpet? Options

[Zephyr]

I always keep a quart of oil in my car just in case... Sometime over the last couple of days the top to that sucker worked it's way loose and the whole quart is in my floorboard behind the driver's seat. Luckily the floormat took most of the beating. It's a good thing I have black carpet...

I've blotted as much as I can, but there is still the matter of oil inside the very fabric of the carpet. How does one get rid of all this crap?

Anyone have any suggestions? Anybody know how to get the carpet out of the car to be cleaned, or what type of business would be able to take care of this situation?

[AudioFreak]

Resolve and a steam cleaner. It's gonna take some work. Also make sure it didn't soak into the padding under the carpet.

[Zephyr]

Well, I started pulling on panels until things came off, and eventually I was able to get the seat out and the carpet up off of the floor. It had soaked all the way through the carpet and insulation and was puddled on the metal.

The carpet was one continuous piece over the hump behind the console, so I just cut it there to keep from removing all of the carpet in the whole car. I also cut a huge chunk of the carpet out that had the oil on it, but it's all under the driver's seat, so it won't be obvious or anything.

Luckily the insulation under the carpet came off in one chunk, as it was attatched by some adhesive backing that peeled off like a sticker, and I was able to scrub and hose off the piece of carpet on the driveway. I read somewhere that Dawn dishwashing detergent is used on animals caught in oil slicks, so I used that and a whole lot of elbow grease. Since the carpet is molded to fit the inside of the car, everything will sit back in place without being too obvious things were messed with. What doesn't match right back up, I'll suture with some black thread of some sort. Sewing up carpet can't be much harder than sewing up leather, which I've done before.

Just thought I'd let people know I got it all taken care of incase anybody actually looked at this thread.

Peace.

This post has been edited by Zephyr: Jun 24, 2003 - 4:09 PM