Cleaning a major wax spill - Urgent help needed please!!

[Belle Beauty]

I've just discovered my wax pot on it's side in the boot of the car!! Wax has spilt everywhere, everything is stuck together and I fear my wax pot is beyond salvage. :sad:

More importantly, there is a big pool of set wax in the corner of the boot on the carpet and wall of the boot. Has anyone got any really good tips for how I can clean it??

I really need to sort this out before my husband sees it or there may be a bit more than wax spilt....

 

[Melk]

You could try ice to harden it then bash with something to break up and vacume out. Wouldn't get it all but most what's left you could heat with hairdryer and blot with couch roll. Or iron over couch roll, we do this to get wax out of towels. Does the carpet remove from boot if so would do this out of car.

 

[KirstieLou]

I've just discovered my wax pot on it's side in the boot of the car!! Wax has spilt everywhere, everything is stuck together and I fear my wax pot is beyond salvage. :sad:

More importantly, there is a big pool of set wax in the corner of the boot on the carpet and wall of the boot. Has anyone got any really good tips for how I can clean it??

I really need to sort this out before my husband sees it or there may be a bit more than wax spilt....

I was told baking paper and tea towel iron over it x

 

[Adamantine]

I spilt candle wax all over my carpet (not quite the same thing but similar principle) and I used my iron on the coldest setting, no steam, and sheets of paper to melt the wax and absorb it. Clean sheet/side each time so as not to transfer the wax back and it worked amazing! Wouldn't know it ever happened. I scraped off the excess first.

 

[Belle Beauty]

Thanks, I hadn't thought of ironing over paper. I'm just about to scrape off the excess and was going to try using a hairdryer, but the ironing trick may be better.

The carpet doesn't come out, so I'm just going to have to do my best. Typically, it's right in the corner where there are loads of nooks and crannies in the plastic trim. I am never going to get it all out!

 

[Jack Dunn]

I would get an extension lead and plug in a hair dryer and see if you can start to get it to melt a bit and then you are going to have to use wax strips and get as much rubbed off as you can.. It will work fine on the plastic area of the sides of the car and the wax heater not sure how the carpet will fair out.. When you get most of it lifted I would pour some wax equioment cleaner on the carpet and rub it in using paper strips to see if it will break it all down..
Make yourself a cup of coffee first its probably going take a bit of time!!

 

[Adamantine]

Thanks, I hadn't thought of ironing over paper. I'm just about to scrape off the excess and was going to try using a hairdryer, but the ironing trick may be better.

The carpet doesn't come out, so I'm just going to have to do my best. Typically, it's right in the corner where there are loads of nooks and crannies in the plastic trim. I am never going to get it all out!

If its in the corner the iron would be perfect to get I there.

 

[Belle Beauty]

I would get an extension lead and plug in a hair dryer and see if you can start to get it to melt a bit and then you are going to have to use wax strips and get as much rubbed off as you can.. It will work fine on the plastic area of the sides of the car and the wax heater not sure how the carpet will fair out.. When you get most of it lifted I would pour some wax equioment cleaner on the carpet and rub it in using paper strips to see if it will break it all down..
Make yourself a cup of coffee first its probably going take a bit of time!!

Thanks Jack, that's pretty much what I did!

 

[Belle Beauty]

I'm happy to report that the car is almost perfectly wax free!!

Fortunately, I always carry my wax pot inside a plastic basket, so that reduced the amount of wax in the car. Where the wax had spilt out, it was onto a magazine (oops, won't be reading that copy of professional beauty mag now!), so there wasn't that much wax on the carpet afterall.

Sadly, the wax was all over the inside of the basket, so that's in the bin now. And the mirror that was stuck in the wax decided to shatter as I tried to remove it, so that's also in the bin.

I now have the task of cleaning the wax heater itself. There is so much wax on the outside and it's worst around the thermostat control, so I don't know if it's going to work at all once it's cleaned. Oh well...

Thanks to everyone for your help. You have no idea how much I panicked when I saw it. So much so that I now have a headache and feel sick!! I think I need a brandy......

 

[Jack Dunn]

I think I need a brandy......

make it a double!!..

 

[Belle Beauty]

make it a double!!..

Well, if you insist!! :wink2: