Worried about perforated seats

[DarrinR]

My wife's car has perforated black leather seats. Yesterday a friend was eating chocolate in the car and after I dropped him at home, I noticed that some chocolate had been compressed under his leg and melted into the perforations of the seat. Try as I might I have yet to be able to completely clean it away. Any suggestions? I'm especially concerned because my MX with white seats is arriving in 10 days. If this had happened with white seats and they aren't fully cleanable it would be a disaster!!!

 

[AnOutsider]

ugh.. looks like there's a space under the leather that it's trapped in. Can you warm it and possibly press it back out?

 

[L-P-G]

vacuum out what you can when the chocolate is dry, then with the vacuum still going try using a brush like this one to get what you can out of the perforations

Small InteriorBrush | AMMO NYC

if that doesn't get it all out use a foamy cleaner and that same brush to agitate what you can out of the perforations.

as a very last resort wrap a microfiber cloth around a steam wand and melt way the chocolate then let the mfc catch it.

 

[flar]

If there was more of the chocolate on the surface then it might have worked better to use ice in a baggy to freeze it and pull it up in one chunk. That's always the best way to start.

Then try tape. Wrap it sticky side out around a finger or two and stick it down nice and good (don't push the substance through, but make sure you get a nice seal) then pull straight up perpendicular to the surface.

Another idea is to get a dental pick at the local drug store and very carefully pick it out, being sure not to press it back into the leather. The trick is to get the first good chunk pulled out of the perforation using a scraping/picking motion, but once the perforation is not completely blocked you can get the pick past the rest of the plug and pull it up and out...

 

[flar]

Is there some kind of needlepoint needle that could go in one hole and poke up through the hole next to it?

 

[ohmman]

Do you have a powerful shop vac? I believe a shop vac with a crevice tool will do the job, if you cup your hand around the crevice tool and force it to get air from within the perforated seat. You may have to break the chocolate (if possible) to get it to come through.

I'm sorry you've lost a friend.

 

[DarrinR]

Do you have a powerful shop vac? I believe a shop vac with a crevice tool will do the job, if you cup your hand around the crevice tool and force it to get air from within the perforated seat. You may have to break the chocolate (if possible) to get it to come through.

I'm sorry you've lost a friend.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I tried a fabric steamer to soft the chocolate but it didn't work well and seemed to have an adverse effect on the leather. I eventually used a paper clip to gently push the chocolate through the holes. I'll take photos to show for comparison. In any event I've never had perforated leather seats before and I already hate them!

 

[loganintx]

There's not a lot of information in this video but it does address this topic. It just happened to be in my suggested videos list after I read this post.
Pretty sure Google is stalking me!

 

[L-P-G]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I tried a fabric steamer to soft the chocolate but it didn't work well and seemed to have an adverse effect on the leather. I eventually used a paper clip to gently push the chocolate through the holes. I'll take photos to show for comparison. In any event I've never had perforated leather seats before and I already hate them!

Well you did do the very last thing I mention to do as a very last resort first, and you just discovered why, melted choc. the video loganixtx posted showed the exact method I was suggesting. But on the good side now you know and more importantly you know not to let this guy back in your car

 

[ssq]

My wife's car has perforated black leather seats. Yesterday a friend was eating chocolate in the car and after I dropped him at home, I noticed that some chocolate had been compressed under his leg and melted into the perforations of the seat. Try as I might I have yet to be able to completely clean it away. Any suggestions? I'm especially concerned because my MX with white seats is arriving in 10 days. If this had happened with white seats and they aren't fully cleanable it would be a disaster!!!

This is why Elon did not recommend getting perforated seats with kids. I visualized something like this happening, and on white seats OMG it would drive me nuts!! As ohmman suggested, I do think this will come out with a shopvac after some steam treatment or dampening it with a sponge.