Suede Cleaning - What to use to remove brake dust?

[Sicarius123]

Oh yes this might sound *** and stupid, but my friend bought a pair of immaculate red suede Recaro SR3 reclinable seats for his GTR Skyline, then when he returned a couple of days later to pick them up the guy had removed his wheels straight before removing the seat, so there are black smudge marks on them from the brake dust.



Nobody locally seems to have any idea how to clean suede, if they were cloth seats we`d steam clean them but don`t think that would work too well with suede.



Any help with what type of products to use and methods would be greatly appreciated. These are awesome seats and we`d like to bring them back to their former glory.



Thanks heaps.



Dan.

[imported_Grouse]

Is it suede or anclantara? Suede is a leather anclantara is man made and can be cleaned reasonably aggressively. I prefere doing both the same way i would sue Search for grouse and suede cleaning.

[Sicarius123]

I honestly don`t know which it is? Is there an easy way to tell?



Dan.

[imported_hadboosttroy]

My guess is alcantara. I know the old recaro srd`s were, so I am guessing these are the same. Check out the recaro website and see if you can find out.

[Sicarius123]

Well their aftermarket stuff is Suede, but I have a strong hunch these are OEM from a JDM Type R integra so that would be alacantra.



Dan.

[imported_hadboosttroy]

Well their aftermarket stuff is Suede, but I have a strong hunch these are OEM from a JDM Type R integra so that would be alacantra.



Dan.





you can still get aftermarket seats which are alcantara from recaro. If you have pictures you could post it would help.

[imported_DC2R]

There Alacantra, all type R`s have alacantra. Hope there not stolen, these get stolen out of type r`s left and right here. I personally know of 4 friends who have had theres stolen.



But anyways Alacantra

[Sicarius123]

There Alacantra, all type R`s have alacantra. Hope there not stolen, these get stolen out of type r`s left and right here. I personally know of 4 friends who have had theres stolen.



But anyways Alacantra

Nah the guy they came from buys all his stuff off Yahoo Japan. So many good bits coming from wrecks over there.



So how do you go about cleaning Alacantra? Is it as fidly as cleaning suede?



Dan.

[imported_hadboosttroy]

Nah the guy they came from buys all his stuff off Yahoo Japan. So many good bits coming from wrecks over there.



So how do you go about cleaning Alacantra? Is it as fidly as cleaning suede?



Dan.





I think Grouse has postings on this. And if I remember correctly, cleaning alcantara is NOT as bad as suede. You can be a bit more "agressive" with it.

[Sicarius123]

So would you be able to steam clean alacantra? Since I`m seeing this as the easiest way to get this crap off.



Dan.

[imported_DC2R]

I have heard of people steam cleaning it, but to date I have not found a good way to clean it.

[imported_Grouse]

hot water extraction with a mild 7.5-9 ph detergent, then rinse with a mild 5.5-7 rinse agent.

[Sicarius123]

Turns out they were Suede and not Alacantra.



Ended up giving them to a detailer mate of mine and paying AU$30 a seat to have them cleaned. Came up looking brand spanking new.



Also decided it is impossible to take pictures of suede with my crappy digicam and have it look good :p



Dan.