oil in carpet

[69houdini]

a friend of mine has a 1967 RS/SS and while doing some work did not properly tighten the copper tubing to the oil pressure gauge thus oil soaked into his carpet. Question is what is the best way to get that oil out of his carpet without ruining or fading any fibers in the carpet? Thanks.

[camaronut]

Not worth the time.  For what a new carpet costs, I'd just replace it.
After spending money on cleaners, and trying to get it out of the carpet......too much time....too much trouble
Plus, you'll never get the oily smell out.

[lakeholme]

I've used Dawn dish washing liquid on all kinds of oliy stains. (It is relatively mild, especially if you dilute it, and should not fade the carpet.  You might want to do a test spot first.)  It breaks down the oil so you can blot it out with paper towels.  Then clean it with a good carpet cleaner.  If it is a lot of oil or well dried, it might take several cleanings.

[69pace]

If you must keep the carpet use a "Little Green Machine" unit with dawn dish-washing soap diluted, but the rug will always smell like oil if it is original jute backing and you do not rip that out and replace it. Jute can not be cleaned.

As said replacement carpet sets are cheap and some are great quality. Original jute backing is also available. Some folk use dynamat or other types of sound and heat deadeners

Also consider converting the mechanical gauge oil line to an electronic sender unit to avoid this situation.

[bertfam]

The oil will be there forever, no matter what he does, so carpet replacement is the only way to go.

However, at the same time, make sure he gets rid of that copper line and goes with the original nylon line. that's why it leaked in the first place. Copper has a much greater crush specification than nylon, and you really have to torque the fittings to get it to seal correctly. Not sure if "crush specification" is the correct terminology, but you get the idea.

Plus, copper is subject to cracking and breaking with age, so go with what the factory went with. Nylon.

Ed

[69houdini]

thanks for the help, I will relay this info to him

[77thor]

Hmmmm... I hope he has black carpeting.

[sixt9x33rs]

I assume the carpet is black? If not maybe you have to replace it and it really depends on the condition of the carpet and the quality of the car. BUT speaking from experience my 69 Z had some oil in the carpet on the passenger side. I soaked the carpet in water with oxyclean. I did this several times for several hours and have had great results. My motivation was that my car had mint original carpet and the car only had 35K original miles.

[69houdini]

Oxyclean is a good thought, I'll pass it on, Thanks