The Two
straps I used for this thread are original Jt racing (retro)
straps owned, and lent to me for this thread by paintballerguy13.
BEFORE PICS...My camera is kinda crappy when it comes to capturing bright colors, the
straps look much more faded than they are, when I get them back to paintballerguy13 he will take some higher resolution and I will put them in.
#1.Soak the strap under cold water to loosen up the paint. I use cold water, some people use hot and they say it lifts the paint and dirt better, I'm not sure if it does its up to you.
#2. Ring it out and soak it with a liquid form of pretreater like spray and wash, or coat it with stain stick. Then let it soak.
#3. Once its soaked, spray it down with some more preteater and strech the strap out by locking one end in the lid of the washing machine and pull with one hand and then rub the treater down into it like so....
Once you do that on both sides of the strap you will see the paint and grime start to ooze out of it.
Then before the paint goo has a chance to soak back in, rinse and wring the strap out under running water.
Then once the pretreat and finger scrub has been done, they look like this...
#4. Once again soak it down with the liquid pretreat, and then sprinkle powdered detergent ( or liquid if thats all you have) onto the
straps and rub it in with your fingers and add spray n wash or liquid detergent to make a thick paste on the strap.
#5. Then once again, lock the strap in the washer lid and stretch it out, and begin lightly scrubbing the strap with a soft bristled fingernaile brush or tooth brush.
Once this is done the
straps will be curling quite a bit, but don't worry, we'll fix that later.
#6. Rinse the
straps out under running water to flush all the soap and dirt and paint out from your paste.
#7. Soak the
straps overnight in a cold water and soap bath, and use something to hold them underwater so they don't float to the top and thereby defeat the purpose...
#8. Next morning or night or at least 6 hours later, take them out of the soak and throw then in the wash alone so you don't run colors, and in cold water and NO soap, there still enough soaked into the strap.
They should look like this now...
Now that their
clean they need to be uncurled.
Heres how to do that.
Lightly with your fingers dampen the
straps with HOT water.
Now fold the
straps in half long ways, against the curling! Then place them in the middle of a thick heavy book. Make sure the book isn't important because the water from the strap will be absorbed into the paper.
Now putting them in the book you need to have them folded against the curls longways and place them in the binding of the book and carefully shut it, making sure you don't let them lay in it curled. It needs to be pressed flat down into the binding so in wraps up into the shape of a v against the curling.
Then place the book under your bed for at least 5 hours. Overnight is better.
Then the next morning take the strap out, it should have a kink longways down the middle of it. Lay it in the book face down and flat, not folded and place it back under the bed for at least another five hours.
When your done it should look like this!
For just a light cleaning after a day of play with splatter and crap on the strap, just the pretreating method and then throw it in the wash, warm water, gentle cycle.
Or do as i do and just remove the lense from the frame and throw the frame w/ ears and strap and bottom in the wash all with your other gear. You need to have pants and a shirt in there so the frame and bottom doesn't bang around on the sides of the washer.
Hope this helps.
L8r, -Matrix.
. You should start a strap cleaning service
