NikkyG

Has anyone ever cleaned their headliner?

I've always loved to detail my cars and I'm pretty good at it if I say so myself but I've always been extra **** about the headliner because of their delicate nature. I've only ever extensively cleaned a headliner on a 07 Chevy Suburban that had an extra robust synthetic headliner. I used fresh cloth diluted laundry detergent and massaged out the stains. Then to avoid makeing watermarks I laid paper towels over the wet areas and used a blow drier on low to wick the moisture from the headliner to the paper towel. It worked like a damn charm and came out mint.

My dog got God knows what on on the side of my headliner in the truck of my 05 Allroad 4.2 (silver/grey headliner). It's not terrible but it's not pretty either and I'd really like it gone. The work on the suburban was when the car was maybe 5 years old so still newish. My concern is that the age of the car and adhesive might make it extra fragile when heated of dampened. I've spoken to a few local shops about just tackling the blemeshes in the trunk and I've come to learn a few things...

Most of the shops won't touch headliners because of liability issues if the tear or snag. Other seem confident that newer cars (~10 years or newer) use much better adhesives and sagging is just not an issue. Some shops said they would try to spot clean it with a mild degreaser (which I could do myself) and others said they would use a wet steamer but a dry steamer that only uses vapor and doesn't soak the material or penetrate as deeply. This is what I had questions about. Has anyone used a dried or wet steam cleaner on the headliner, if so how did it turn out? I don't think I could be confined to use a wet stemer but the vapor steamer sound promising. Any ideas?

Northwestern

Can you post a picture or two of the stain -

I have a mess of dogs that are in and out of my Allroad - I let most things go that are behind the driver seat. It can get fairly dirty let's say.

Post a picture of the spot and we can have a better idea of the problem.

I've tired many things but normally a low acid cleaner with something to dry it before it sets - I sometimes use a vacuum along with the cleaner to pull moister out as well.

Good luck