Rubbish & Vacuum
First step is always to collect all the debris and rubbish that seem to accumulate over the course of a week or two. If you have kids it is normally worse as they have a great ability to deposit all kinds of crap on and under the seats I simply go around the whole car (including the boot) with a plastic bag and gather up all the rubbish that cannot be vacuumed.
Then you need a good quality vacuum to do the whole interior including carpets, mats, seats and boot. Dont forget to move the front seats back and forwards to get right under them. Take all the mats out and hoover them separately. One little tip here for the mats. If you have a few stains on them from normal muck , then a good brush beforehand and a little bit of VANISH spray carpet cleaner can bring them up a treat. Leave to dry and then vacuum before placing back in the car.
* Little tip here : use the brush to brush off the debris on the seats onto the carpet and then vacuum *
Boring Job
Many people may be surprised to learn that I hate doing the interiors of cars...I always leave it until last and try putting it off until really needed as I find it so boring and tedious, however a clean and polished car is pretty pointless if the interior is still mucky so needs must !
Cleaning the interior is pretty straightforward, it doesn’t take much common sense to understand that a good hoover out, wipe down the plastic and clean the windows is all that is required. But saying that, there a few tips on how best to achieve cant go amiss. ( I shall use someone else's pictures to illustrate as I dont have any before and after shots of my interior)
Brushing off the debris Vacuuming the interior
What brush you use on your interior seats is dependent on your budget of course. There are literally dozens of different makes available on the High street and on-line. I favour the Meguiars Interior Brush as it is hard enough to bring up the nap of the fabric, yet soft enough to brush down interior plastics as well.
Many of the vacuums you use will have some form of upholstery attachment as well, either in the form of a brush head or nozzle. These are also adequate and are great for getting down the crevices between the seats and centre console and other hard to reach areas.
If your vacuum cleaner has a suitable soft brush attachment this can be used at this stage to carefully clean the vents in the dashboard, otherwise this can be done using a small detailing brush. If you have pets and a pet hair problem to remedy, a rubber bristle brush is ideal, and can be bought from most pet shops.
This is the brush I use for the vents and other small areas. Meguiars Slidelock Brush.
Again if budget dictates you cant shell out for something like this, then a good quality small tipped paintbrush will do just as well.
Interior vinyl and plastic
With the fabrics and carpets now clean, the next thing you should do is tackle the hard interior surfaces, i.e. the dashboard, instrument panel, centre console and door cards. If these areas are only dusty they can be cleaned and dressed in a single step using a good quality surface dressing, applied using a microfibre pad (apply the product to the pad and wipe over, rather than spraying the product all over your interior). I use Poorboys Natural Look Dressing
This is about £10 and apart from great at cleaning the vinyl etc, it gives a lovely smell as well. Wipe on and leave for a shine or if you prefer a matt look, wipe on and then immediately wipe off. I prefer the matt look as my interior vinyl is plasticky enough !!
Note: dont use any shiny or gloss products on the steering wheel as you do not want to lose any grip.
Glass
Quite simple this. Wipe on some product and wipe off . The trick is using the right product that takes the least amount of time and depending on how dirty the outside of the glass is from dirt and water spots. If your washing of the exterior leaves something to be desired and you have a lot of water spots, then you might be better off using something like Werkstatt Prime Strong. It deals with water spots with no problem at all and leaves a great finish
I use NXT glass cleaner with a microfibre to apply and another dry microfibre to wipe off. Dont forget the inside of the glass on the windscreen and rear window
Meguiars NXT Glass Cleaner Werkstatt Prime Strong Autoglym Fast Glass
Sills & Finish
The next step in the process is to clean and protect the door sills, which are often completely overlooked. If the door sills aren't particularly grubby they can be easily cleaned using an all purpose cleaner and a microfibre work towel - it is worth remembering to give the pedals a wipe over at the same time (using an old toothbrush helps if your pedals are heavily textured). If the sills are really grubby, they can be washed down using a microfibre wash mitt and a bucket of suds, and then dried using a heavyweight waffle weave microfibre towel. Once clean and dry, sills should be protected by applying a surface dressing to plastic surfaces and either wax or sealant protection to painted surfaces.
Cleaning & Dressing the sills Meguiars APC Meguiars Applicator Pads
If you would like to download all the information
contained in the INTERIOR & GLASS guide, simply click
on the link to the right. It is in PDF format.
Many thanks to Rich at Polished Bliss for use of his wording & Pictures
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