Interior wall fabris stains

[peterdinunzio]

Interior wall fabric stains

Hello Again Hunter Owners;

I've been busy cleaning and polishing my recently purchased 1987 Hunter 23 Wing Keel, and for its age, it's been restoring nicely without any major projects. I'll be restoring the cushions with new upholstery, resealed the interior woodwork with lemon oil which has also refreshed the wood and looks nice for its age.

One problem I could use some advice on; there are several brown stains on the interior hull fabric, which is a light cream color, original for sure. I have a small Bissell "Little Green Machine" which is basically just a miniature carpet cleaning device and has worked well so far for the fabric in the front cabin.

Can anyone suggest a good formula for removing those darker brown stains on the fabric? So far I'm using a detergent with Borax mix, but maybe there's a better formula I haven't considered. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Thanks
Peter

 

[Ed Schenck]

The best option is to replace the "carpet". I haven't done it yet but many of my friends have. On my '79 those stains are "rust" I think. In quotes because I don't know if you can call drips from stainless toerail bolts rust. But that is where my stains originate. There are several photo projects in "Hunter Owner Mods" for various models showing how the carpet was replaced. Some use wood, others an easily cleaned fabric similar to your car's roof liner.

 

[digby sailor]

lestoil

best cleaner that will work is lestoil and hot water with a scrub brush....it works

 

[peterdinunzio]

The best option is to replace the "carpet". I haven't done it yet but many of my friends have. On my '79 those stains are "rust" I think. In quotes because I don't know if you can call drips from stainless toerail bolts rust. But that is where my stains originate. There are several photo projects in "Hunter Owner Mods" for various models showing how the carpet was replaced. Some use wood, others an easily cleaned fabric similar to your car's roof liner.

I wonder if the stains are perhaps the adhesive glue and moisture seepage and runoff.....I agree it seems unlikely to actually be rust. Whatever it is, I'm going to try really hard to find the right formula to hopefully remove them, but thanks for the insight that others have done it and the fabric can be replaced , even though it sounds a bit daunting. Thanks. Peter

 

[peterdinunzio]

Re: lestoil

I have the Lestoil and will try that next. Thanks. (I hope it's that easy!)

 

[Manny]

I've had pretty good success with clorox clean up and one of the little bissels to suck up the cleaner. The clorox stuff has bleach but doesn't seem to affect the color of the interior carpet but not sure how it would do with fabric. You could test in an inconspicuous spot first if you wanted to try it.

Manny

 

[peterdinunzio]

I have the Clorox cleanup which I've used in the bilge and storage areas for messy mildew cleanups. I was a bit hesitant to try it on the fabric due to the fear of bleaching, but if the Lestoil doesn't do the job, I'll be a bit more emboldened to try the Clorox, in an inconspicuous spot first. Thanks.

 

[TheCaptainJames]

Water leak stains on our 1998 Hunter 260 created stains that we weren't able to remove. Brushing raised the fibres giving the hull liner a "hairy' look. The old hull liner came off easily and in one piece. The new was attached with contact cement. Miami Corp. has 3 colors of hull liner and they'll mail you samples. Silver, cream & tan. The cream is pictured and is almost white. Below are before & after photos.

 

[TheCaptainJames]

Hull Liner Samples

The hull liner we ordered was the cream colored one on the right hand side of the card but the actual hull liner looked almost white like the silvery one on the left. we may redo the hull liner again with the tan color on the bottom.

 

[RobertG-NJ]

Fabric Liner

Sounds familiar

I am also refurbishing a 1988 H23 that is in basically good condition but the liner was an obstacle in finding leaks. It was always damp after rains as it wicks moisture readily like a sponge and obscured the real sources, which leads me to suggest the stains are possibly from the "tea" color leached from the ply core from leaks at the chain plates, jib fairleads or stanchions, none of which originally had the fastener holes through the core isolated by epoxy as is recomended in many books.

I ripped mine off to facilitate finding leaks (in all the named places), adding new wiring and new hardware. I decided to just sand the remaining fuzz and contact cement and I plan to glass and paint it.

 

[Bobbi Ullinger]

The brown stains on the hull liner in our 23.5 were, I believe, mildew. 1 part clorox with about 5 parts water in a spray bottle worked great. I figured that even if it bleached out the color of the liner, it would not look as bad as the mildew, much less the health hazards of the mildew. But any discoloration is hardly noticable.