Cleaning Alcantara Door Panels (Take II Part II)

[Alex Kowalski]

[...resumed...]

In the morning, the results were really spectacular.  The panel dried perfectly 
and the color and touch of the fabric were restored to almost-new condition.  
There was still a little bit of a stain, right near the top double-stitched seam 
in the panel, where presumably the PO had rested his/her elbow.  The area I 
sprayed the spot remover on looked great, so I tried it on this area -- and was 
able to remove virtually all traces of that stain.  I blotted the area again 
with a damp sponge and some cool water, let it dry for another few minutes, and voila!

Now, it's not perfect -- the fabric still shows some abrasive wear, which simply 
cannot be undone.  But it is clean, and the grimy dirt is no longer in evidence.  
If I really wanted to get obsessive, I would use one of those motorized lint 
clippers very gently on the surface of the fabric.  

I decided to try this since it looks like I might be spending the money I had 
budgeted for alacantara reupholstery for transmission repairs.  And the results 
were good enough that I might just nix the idea entirely -- I can live with a 
little sign of use, but the dirt really bothered me, because the fabric is a 
light cream beige and it was really an eyesore, at least to me.

So, before you write off those alacantara inserts on your door panels, take the 
panels off and try cleaning them.  Worked for me!

And of course, the car drives MUCH, MUCH better now that the door panel is 
clean. ;-)

Cheers,
Alex Kowalski
'87 5KCSTQ

Why this didn't make it into the digest before I apologized for misspelling the word Alcantara is a mystery to me.