Interior Car Care

Interior Car Care

Interior Car Care

Interior Car Care

Making sure the exterior look sits best usually dominates our attention when it comes to getting our vehicles clean and looking their best - the idea is the outside is what other people see but it is the interior where we, as drivers and as passengers, spend most of our time so it makes sense that we get this up to the same exacting standards as the exterior.

Serious car enthusiasts will actually say that the interior detailing is more important to them than the exterior work, but it also presents certain challenges as there are different types of materials and surfaces as well as a much more complicated area to clean compared to simple body panels and paintwork with the odd metal or plastic furniture.

You can split the surfaces in the car interior into two broad categories; the areas such as the dashboard which are hard and usually made of vinyl, and the soft surfaces such as cloth seats and carpets. Your detailing will need to take this into account so let's get started.

Firstly, remove the car seats if you are able so you can work on the interior and collect a lot of the debris that accumulates under and around them. You need a good vacuum cleaner to be able to get at the dirt which becomes trapped in the carpets and various areas around the interior - a Shop Vac or a powerful home vacuum are required so just forget about the small, low power vacuums which plug into the cigarette lighter - they just don't have the power.

Remove all the mats before you do this and clean them separately and make sure you vacuum all over the interior including the hard vinyl surfaces. A good stiff brush is also a very useful piece of equipment at this point as you can use that to dislodge stubborn dirt as well as get at the places your hose attachments may not be able to reach easily.

Next you have the hard surfaces to clean and there are plenty of products available on the market to use for this but make sure you follow the maker's instructions. A microfiber towel is also a good buy at this time too as after you've one of these you are never going back to a cotton towel or one of your old T-shirts.

Floor mats are pretty straight forward - turn your hose on them full blast and clean them when you wash the car as part of that job. Usually this will remove all of the dirt and grime but you can also get at stubborn traces by using a carpet cleaner and a stiff brush. Avoid using an additional dressing on the mat which goes on the driver's side - the problem is that this may cause slippage and this is not to be advised if you suddenly need to hit the brakes in a driving situation.

Now you are ready to turn your attentions to the carpets and for this we recommend a high quality foam cleaner which you apply to the carpet and to the cloth upholstery. This is where vacuuming is important as you need to get most of the loose dirt up before you apply this type of product which will then be free to act on the actual fibers of the upholstery and carpet. After you apply the foam, work it in to the fabric with the brush and collect the waste product up with a cloth or even better a wet and dry vacuum. If you encounter more serious marks and stains, you can usually tackle these with specialist stain removers but always test these products beforehand because they may cause discoloration or worsen the staining - use a piece of the cloth which is not in plain sight for this.

Ryan Draving is the VP of Empire Covers, a leading provider of car covers, boat covers, motorcycle covers, and other vehicle covers. Empire Covers can be found online at: EmpireCovers.com.

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