Headliner Mildew

[Dave Laing s/v WindSong]

What I really like about my '86 h-23 is the carpet headliner. It beats the starkness of white fiberglass. Has anyone had any success in removing mildew stains from the material? What did you use and how did you prevent the cloth from being bleached out?Thanks for your help.Dave Laing

 

[Steve O.]

clean it

I once had Stanley Steemer clean mine when the boat was in dry dock, and it came out great. But they have to have access to water and electric to do it. You can also shampoo it yourself and use a wet vac to suck out the moisture, but in warm climates that might cause more mildew unless you can dry it quickly.

 

[Guy]

Headliner (Monkey Fur)

I have a h26 and I used diluted bleach in a hand held spray bottle, as I sprayed I also scrubed with a stiff bristle brush, I got no drips and it air dried pretty fast ( watch out for the fumes )

 

[Ward Niffenegger]

Stain Removal of mildew and teak oil/water damage

I had EXCELLENT luck removing most all the stains from my badly soiled headliner ....... BUT!!! the way I did it could be dangerous.I used acetone and clean rags. I had a respirator, a ventilation fan and protective gloves etc. By soaking the headliner with acetone and using clean rags to gently scrub the stains, I was able to get it back to like new condition.On some test spots I learned:Don't use a stiff bristle brush as this will "fuzz" the nap of the headliner and ruin itDon't use slow drying solvents as they seemed to spread the stains more than removing them.Finish the job with a quality carpet cleaner of your choice.the Nap of this headliner fuzzes very easy. It is not really carpet and is not loops like carpet So if you get too carried away scrubbing it you could end up with a fuzzy looking mess.This is what I learned (the hard way) on test spots in places that didn't show. Some of those test spots are pretty ugly.Good LuckWard

 

[Gary]

Carpet Cleaner

I had excellent results using an off the shelf auto foam carpet cleaner and a soft bristle brush.