On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 01:15:51 +0000 (UTC), tsangc@mie.utoronto.ca (Calum
Tsang) wrote:

>
>Hi folks,
>
>I live up here in sunny Toronto, Canada and I found my 03 Accord has a lot
>of salt residue in both the vehicle carpet and the floor mats that came
>standard on my model. This is spill over from my rubber Pant Saver mats.
>
>Is there a good way to clean off the salt residue? I'm trying to wash the
>floor mats under the tap right now, but I have no idea how to deal with
>the crusty salt residue in the carpets I can't remove. Any Canadian
>owners have any ideas?

What the salt will do to your floor mats is trivial in comparison to
what it will do to your floor!

Since the car probably has only one or two winters on it, now's the
time to investigate. You can wet the carpet down with dilute vinegar
solution and then suction it dry with a shop-vac, repeating the
process several times, or get a commercial steam cleaner to do the
job.

The best way however is to pull the seats and remove the carpet for a
look at the floorboards. This is a lot of work and probably won't
appeal to you if you plan on trading the car in a few years. But if
you plan to keep it for very long, pull the carpets and paint the
floor with POR-15. www.por-15.com

If you don't, in about 5 years you'll be driving like Fred Flintstone,
with your feet through holes in the floorboards!

Been there... done that!