CoachBuilt Prams

Hi All,

Got caught again, just bought a Silver Cross Trident Twin on ebay and low and behold when it arrived today its not as good as described, hole on the outside of the hood in the fabric, smells yukky, dirty and the hood lining is torn in more places than i was aware. 

h well will I ever learn!!!, i need to start cleaning it first as i cant possibly put our two foster babies in it. I was going to hose it but my husband suggested steaming it clean? thought that might not be such a good idea, forgot to say hoods are also faded again not stated.

Can anyone offer any advise?

Thank you in adavance

Julie

Oh no,  Julie,  what  a pain  for  you.   I   would  also be  wary of  using   a steamer on   it,   but  maybe  you  could  try    doing  a  bit of  the   bottom of the  body,    so that  it if  did  make  a  mess  of the  fabric    it woudn't  be  seen  maybe?         Apart  from that   the  only  thing  I can  think of  to   tell  you   to  do is  use   dome    warm  water   with  a   bit of  washing up   liquid  or maybe  some  soap  flakes  if  you have   any  in   and   scrub  it  all over   using  a    nail  brush, that's   what  I  use.   Nothing  too hard   anyway.   You can  give  it  a   real  good  clean,    the  hood up  and  the  apron  in place  and then   use  the  hosepipe  to     rinse it  off.    Try  not   to   get  the inside  too   wet  because  that   would  wet  any  padding  in  between  the   lining  and outer,  don't  know  if  there is  any   or  not on  those.   I'd  clean the  lining  with   a  cream  cleanser  like  Cif  and a   nylon  pan  scourer and  then  wipe it  away,   again,  so it  doesn't  get  too  wet.  Dry   it  with the  hood  up  and t he  apron in  place.

Cream  clanser  and  the  nylon   pan  scourer  is  brilliant  to  clean   chrome  with  too,    and  the  tyres.  The only  thing  I wouldn't  use it  on   is    any paint  work on  a pram.   I never  ever   use   wire  wool  on  chrome  either.

If it is the outside of the body it should be waterproof fabric, I would be tempted to use a good quality carpet shampoo and give it a good scrub, then carefully rinse it all off with the hosepipe on a slow trickle, this approach worked for my hood which I thought was badly faded, it came up like new! just be careful not to get water inside the pram! Good luck.

I am selling a special hood and apron shampoo on ebay.  This product

works well on cloth prams and pushchairs etc. 

slowmo at January 5, 2012 at 8:12 AM

If it is the outside of the body it should be waterproof fabric, I would be tempted to use a good quality carpet shampoo and give it a good scrub, then carefully rinse it all off with the hosepipe on a slow trickle, this approach worked for my hood which I thought was badly faded, it came up like new! just be careful not to get water inside the pram! Good luck.

Hi, my daughter has just bought a Silver Cross Optima(!) from a car boot. The fabric had obviously been washed and did not look too bad although it does not look as if the apron was on at the time as it does not fit and is split at the top, presumably when they tried to put it on afterwards? However, the metal on the sides where it goes down to the nuts for the canopy is rusted and marked and has marked the fabric where it touches. any idea how we can clean that up without making the fabric worse? Also how do you get the middle of the wheels clean of rust please? rame is in excellent condition and soft detachable body/carrycot in grey corduroy has been identified as an Optima but I have never heard of them although i did have the large coachbuilts when my chidlren were younger. Look forward to hearing from someone

The   'middle'  of the  wheels, I  think  you must  mean  the   pram  hubs,    can only    be  cleaned  by    getting    your   fingers   really  sore   as  they  try   to   get  between  those  flipping   spokes,   they   hurt   like    mad!      I  use   an old washing up    sponge   with  the  green  nylon    scourers  on  one  side  and  I     use  the    cream  with   the   green   scourer  to  get     all  around  the  wheels   in  between  the  spokes   and into  the  hub.  You can  try  an old  toothbrush  they can  sometimes  be  useful   for  getting  in  the  nooks  and  crannies.   The  same things  will  really  clean  up  your  tyres   too.   When you have  done,   polish   it  up   and  a  nice   soft  cloth  and  you will  be  amazed  at the  difference.

The  same  method    will get  rid of  the rust  off  your  canopy  but  I  don't  know  how  to  get  rid of  the   rust marks  on your  canopy  cover,    I have  heard  that  lemon   juice   can  do it  but  have  no idea   how  to  use it,  sorry. 

For  a  normal  pram  apron   I would  usually  suggest  that  you  wet  the  apron fabric  and   it  would normally   soften   enough   for it   to  be stretched  back onto  you pram  but  I'm  sorry  to  say  that  I    don't  somehow  think  it  would work with   corduroy  unfortunately.   If there  is  no way  that  you can  use  the apron   again  then  you  could  try it,  you  wouldn't  have  lost much,  but   please   don't  try it   if  there  is  any   chance of the apron   maybe   being of  any use  to  you  at  some  point,  I     would hate  to be  the person   who   told  you the  wrong  thing  to  do  for  your pram.  Basically   I   don't  think  it  would  work  anyway,  but you  might  think  it  could  be  worth  a try.

Hope you have   a   happy  few  hours  scrubbing  your pram,  it is  amazing   what  a  sense of  satisfaction  you    can get  from  getting them  gleaming  again.