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HALL OF<br />
STAINS<br />
Stain<br />
Horror<br />
Stories<br />
In honor of Halloween, here are some of our<br />
best “Stain Horror Stories” from past issues of<br />
Auto Detailing News. If you have a story<br />
you would like to share, please visit<br />
ProDetailerForum.com and tell us all about it.<br />
TOO MUCH<br />
SOUP<br />
FOR YOU!<br />
THE DETAILER: ToFarGone<br />
(username on AutoCareForum.com)<br />
THE VICTIM:<br />
Five gallons of clam soup and a minivan.<br />
THE HORROR STORY:<br />
No lid was on the soup and the van was<br />
going 65 mph on the highway. Another<br />
car starts to pull out in front of them<br />
and they mash the brakes. All 5 gallons<br />
were evenly distributed from the back to<br />
the front of the van. I would imagine we<br />
stood there looking [at the mess] mystified,<br />
as though we were watching a wreck<br />
happen in slow motion. This was something<br />
you would hear about in a story that<br />
someone was joking about looooong after<br />
the fact. Not funny at the time.<br />
THE REMOVAL PROCESS:<br />
It wasn't so much a stain as it was the<br />
smell. The weather was turning warm<br />
quick and we were under the gun. We are<br />
in Iowa so 90 degree heat with 85% humidity<br />
is more the norm. Luckily it was<br />
confined mostly to the cargo area. On<br />
any plastic, vinyl, or leather we used the<br />
appropriate Car-Brite products through a<br />
Tornador with a microfiber wipe down.<br />
The carpet: As soon as we could closed<br />
our mouths after the initial shock, we<br />
brought it right in and hit it with carpet<br />
cleaning solution and extracted as though<br />
our lives depended on it. I didn't want to<br />
extract alone (with no spray) because I<br />
didn't want ANY of it to dry even a little--<br />
milk and seafood had me scared. After<br />
getting the bulk of it mopped up we went<br />
back with more cleaning solution and a<br />
brush on my porter cable DA buffer. Extract,<br />
re-wet, brush...half a dozen times.<br />
Then we pulled the carpet and cleaned<br />
the metal on the floor pan just in case.<br />
THE OUTCOME:<br />
Turned out great but the temperature<br />
went up two days later and the smell was<br />
back. We had done most everything we<br />
could do so we turned to a home remedy.<br />
We covered the cargo area carpet with<br />
baking soda and wet it until it was almost<br />
a paste. There was enough moisture that<br />
it couldn't blow away, and we kept it that<br />
way for a few hours.<br />
8 | AUTO DETAILING NEWS | VOL. 8, NO. 3 • FALL <strong>2023</strong>
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