Vehicle interiors of daily driven vehicles tend to get pretty dirty over time (if you have kids change dirty to filthy lol). Salt stains, spills, scuffs, debris etc. all build up and periodically its a good idea to give that interior a good "deep clean". This article is a comprehensive top to bottom guide on how to make even the filthiest vehicle interior look new again!
Understanding that not everyone has a complete arsenal of detailing tools available this article will cover various methods to complete specific cleaning tasks no matter what equipment you have available to you. Although this article is geared mainly towards the DIYer we have also included some tips and methods for professional detailers as well.
Read on to learn everything you need to know to perform a complete interior detail on your vehicle!
What you need:
Chemicals
There are several ways to approach what cleaning chemicals you will need. If detailing just one vehicle you may want to just stick with smaller size task specific chemicals for each part of the vehicle IE: Get a carpet/upholstery cleaner for that area & get an interior cleaner for your vinyl etc. Below are some of the most popular products for heavy duty cleaning:
For cleaning of vinyl components (dash, console, door panels etc.) you need a good interior cleaner. Any of the following are great interior use cleaners. Most interior cleaners (or all purpose cleaners) are suitable for cleaning leather. If you have very soiled or delicate leather use a dedicated leather cleaner. Check out leather cleaners HERE. NOTE: The chemicals below are powerful cleaners designed to clean soiled surfaces during a full deep cleaning. If you are looking for maintenance cleaners (light duty cleaning) check out Interior Detailers HERE
If you are cleaning multiple vehicles (or just want to minimize the number of products you need) look at getting a good all purpose cleaner. All purpose cleaners are just how they sound... you can use them on multiple surfaces. An all-purpose cleaner can be used on almost any surface of your interior except glass. Most all purpose cleaners can be diluted allowing you to mix different dilutions for different areas of the interior. For example you may need a strong dilution to remove carpet stains and a lighter dilution for cleaning your vinyl.
You will also need a good quality glass cleaner. Cleaning glass is one of the more difficult tasks (those dreaded streaks) so do not cheap out on your glass cleaner/towels. Avoid using ammonia based glass cleaners. Not only are the chemicals in these cleaners harsh you can actually damage your car interior if you inadvertently spray onto your dash or trim. When ammonia comes in contact with the vinyl around your windows or spills onto leather seats, it can cause the material to break down or crack. Definitely never use an ammonia based product on tinted windows. The ammonia can cause permanent damage to the tint. Also, do not use a ceramic glass cleaner on interior glass. Ceramic glass cleaners have water repellent properties & are for exterior glass use only. Below are some of the most popular automotive glass cleaners....
Once your cleaning is completed its a very good idea to apply a protective dressing to your vinyl/plastic surfaces. Dressings contain UV blockers that protect vinyl surfaces from UV rays that can dry out vinyl & rubber. Dressings are available in low sheen and high gloss so whether you want no shine or a high shine there is a product for you. Some dressings (such as CarPro Perl) can be diluted with water to achieve the level of gloss you desire. If you are looking for extra durability from your dressing check out either Gtechniq Matte Dash or Gyeon Preserve. Both these products are vinyl coatings as opposed to just a dressing and will last 6 months + under normal conditions.
Professional Detailers:
If you are starting a detailing business you will want to purchase your chemicals in larger bulk sizes to minimize your product costs. Many detailers new to the industry tend to over complicate what they need from a chemical standpoint when it comes to interior detailing. You only need 3 or 4 chemicals to do a complete interior detail.
Glass cleaner
Carpet cleaner/Interior Cleaner. For interior cleaners you can either get a dedicated carpet cleaner and interior cleaner or just get a bulk size all-purpose cleaner that you can water down to the strength you need for specific tasks.
Dressing. If you are pro detailer get a water based (emulsion) dressing in bulk. Water based dressings can be diluted with water. The more water you add the less shiny the dressing becomes. This way you can provide your customers with a choice on how shiny they want their interior to look. Also emulsion dressings work great as a tire shine or engine dressing!
Tools required
Vacuum A wet dry vacuum is preferable (essential if you are a pro detailer) however you can certainly clean your carpets without one (this will be explained later).
Cleaning Towels For this task you do not need expensive towels. This is where the cheap microfibers you can get at Costco come in handy. Depending on how dirty your vehicle is you will need about 5 -10 of these towels. Get them HERE
Glass Cleaning Towel For cleaning glass you want a high quality glass specific microfiber towel. Do not use the same towels that you use for general cleaning on glass. They will leave streaks. Check out our huge selection of glass towels HERE
Note: If you have a sloped back glass or tight area where your windshield meets the dash the Glass Master Pro is a great glass cleaning tool to have and is an essential tool for all professional detailers. The Glass Master Pro is a 14½" wand with a triangular cleaning head. The head pivots on the end of the wand in order to clean sloping windshields or back glass. The wedge-shaped head fits perfectly into the corners of the windshield or back window so you can reach every speck of dust. Get yours HERE
Carpet/Upholstery Brush These brushes are inexpensive and are used with your cleaning chemicals to agitate the carpet during cleaning. Get one HERE
Dash/Vent Cleaning Brush This brush is used to remove dust & debris from tight areas such as vents, radio buttons etc. Pro Tip: If you deal with a lot of vehicles with dried liquid in the cup holders take a dash brush like shown here & cut off about 1/2 of the bristles. This makes the bristles a lot firmer. This then makes the brush a great tool to get into the corners of the cup holder. Get them HERE
Dressing Applicator. This is used to apply your dressing to your vinyl. Get them HERE
The Cleaning Process:
Step 1: Remove & Clean Mats
Mats tend to be one of the dirtiest components of a vehicle and often cannot be cleaned without getting them quite wet. Shampooing the mats first will give them more time to dry as you detail the rest of the car. Wet the mats first with your pressure washer or garden hose then apply your cleaner and scrub with your carpet brush. If you have bad stains allow the cleaner to dwell for several minutes before scrubbing to allow the cleaner to work on the stain. Rinse your mats thoroughly and if possible hang them to dry. If you cannot hang them and you have a warm sunny day leave them to dry in the sun.
Pro Tip: If you are working in a detail shop get some mat hangers as shown. Scrub your mats first then hang them on the hangers and rinse with your pressure washer as they are hanging, rinsing from top to bottom.
Rubber Mats
Clean your rubber mats with your interior cleaner, rinse and wipe dry. Getting rubber mats (particularly as they age) looking "new" again can be a challenge. Many people like to apply their dash dressing to their mats to freshen them up. This should be avoided! Many interior dressings on the market will make the mats slippery which can be a safety hazard! If you want a dressing for rubber mats the best product we have found is Koch Chemie's Gummifix. Gummifix is non-slippery & is formulated specifically for rubber mats.
Step 2: Vaccum
Remove any loose debris & vacuum your carpets. If you have access to an air compressor use it to air purge loose debris from under/between seats. This will make your vacuuming much easier. If you do not have an air compressor the Fur EEL Sidewinder Crevice Tool is great product to have in your arsenal of detailing tools. This crevice tool is fully bendable and is great for vacuuming tight spots (between seats, under pedals, getting dead bugs out of the rear shelf etc.)
Pro Tip: When removing items from a customer's vehicle remove any items from open compartments (on door panels etc.) put in plastic bag and put in trunk for safe keeping. Check center console & glove box. If items have been removed clean them but if the glove box is full do not remove these items and bypass cleaning there. This prevents the customer accusing you of losing something important they had in the glove box if you empty it.
Step 3: Clean Headliner
Most headliners are attached using adhesives so you do not want to overly saturate the headliner. Its totally fine to spray your cleaner directly onto specific stains just dont get the whole headliner soaked. To clean the area in it's entirety spray a liberal amount of your cleaner onto one of your towels and scrub your headliner with the towel.
Pro Tip: If you a professional detailer (or just love car detailing) a Tornador cleaning gun is a great tool! Tornador guns use compressed air (you will need an air compressor) to mist cleaning chemicals onto the headliner, door panels, dash & even carpets. Tornador guns speed up your cleaning time quite a bit as they evenly apply cleaners to the surface. You then just need to wipe and you are done. Because the product mists from the gun you also will use less cleaning products!
Step 4: Shampoo Carpets
You want to clean your carpets/upholstery before cleaning your vinyl because depending on how dirty your carpets are there is good likelihood that you will splash cleaner onto vinyl areas as you are scrubbing.
Method One: You have a wet/dry vacuum
Mix your cleaner in a bucket and scrub your carpets and/or upholstery seats. Once finished use your wet/dry vacuum to suck up any excess water/chemical
Note on upholstery: If you have bad stains on your upholstery (such as a drink spill) the liquid may have sunk below the fabric into the foam. If this has occurred you may find that once the upholstery dries the stain from the foam may wick back up into the fabric making the stain "reappear". If this occurs do not shampoo the stain again just liberally spray your cleaner onto a towel and scrub the stain until it disappears.
Method 2: No wet dry vacuum
If you do not have a wet dry vacuum (no method to remove excess water) then you want to clean your carpets without getting them too wet. To do this first spray any bad stains with your cleaner and scrub them with your carpet brush. For the remainder of the carpet/upholstery seats spray a liberal amount of cleaner onto a towel and scrub those areas with the towel (similar to headliner cleaning). Once you are finished scrubbing take a dry towel & soak up as much liquid as you can with the towel.
Pro Tip: If you a professional detailer you should consider getting a carpet/upholstery extractor. Carpet extractors work in the same way home carpet cleaner work. They spray a chemical water mixture onto your carpet (many quality extractors are available that spray heated water) then the chemicals are immediately sucked back into the tank of the extractor.
Note on Salt Removal:
Although there are some salt removal products on the market the reality is nothing works as good to remove salt as plain old water. If the salt stains are very thick and crusted on the carpet use a screwdriver to break away as much of the salt as you can. Then take a wet towel and lay it over the salt stains to help dissolve as much salt as you can before starting your carpet shampoo
Pro Tip: If you are a professional detailer you may run into a good number of vehicles that have severe salt buildup. The fastest way to remove heavy salt is with your pressure washer and wet/dry vacuum. Have your wet dry vacuum at the ready. Turn it on and just lay it on the floor of the section of the car you are working on. Then take your pressure washer and give the salt a quick blast of water (1 or 2 seconds) them immediately suck up the water with your vacuum. Repeat as needed until all the salt is gone. This may sound like a radical approach (using a pressure washer inside a car) but if you are cautious and keep sucking out the excess water every few seconds it is a very fast easy way to remove heavy salt and reality is when you are done the carpet will not be any wetter than it gets during shampooing.
Pet Hair Removal
Pet hair removal can be a very tedious time consuming process. If you have a lot of pet hair you can be there for hours trying to get the hair out. The hair becomes intertwined with the carpet fibers and just running the vacuum over them will not remove them. You will need a special tool to extract the hair. There are several great products on the market that you can use by hand or that attach to your vacuum to extract pet hair. Note: if you are dealing with very short pet hair consider getting a Speedy Stone. Sometimes its hard for pet hair brushes to grab onto shorter hairs whereas the pet stone will.
Pro Tip: Often pet hair removal alone can take as long as the the whole detail. Make sure you add an extra charge in these instances.
Step 6: Clean Vinyl
Clean your vinyl (dash, door panels etc.) with your desired cleaner. You can spray your cleaner directly onto the surface and then wipe with a towel or spray the cleaner on the towel first. If spraying directly onto the surface avoid spraying a lot of cleaner directly onto buttons, switches, navigation screens etc. Use your dash/vent brush to clean tight areas you cannot access with just your towel. Once the cleaning is finished do not yet apply your dressing. Apply your dressing after you clean the glass to avoid overspray of glass cleaner onto a freshly dressed dashboard
Tip: If your door panels have heel scuff marks they can be a real headache to get off with just a towel and cleaner. To remove scuff marks a very inexpensive easy to use product is a "Scuff Away" pad. Use one of these with your cleaner & the scuff marks will come right off!
Step 7: Clean Glass
Clean your windows in the shade. The sun heats up the glass which dries the cleaning solution before you can remove it, leaving behind streaks and marks.
Use a glass specific microfiber towel. Microfiber is soft to the touch but has excellent properties to scrub away any dirt while absorbing the glass cleaner. It is better than newspaper which leaves ink residue all over your hands and car interior, and better than paper towels that shred easily, meaning you use more of them. To avoid cross contamination of products (that may leave a residue on the glass) dedicate towel(s) that you only use for glass cleaning.
Spray onto the towel as opposed to directly onto the glass. Use an up and down vertical then horizontal cleaning action as opposed to a circular motion. This will leave fewer streaks. The best method is to use 2 towels. Use one for the actual cleaning (the wet towel) and one dry towel for buffing any residue from the glass after your cleaner dries. Barring having 2 towels available try to keep one wet side and one dry side. Griot's actually has a very high quality glass towel that is dual sided (one fluffy side for the cleaner & a smoother pile side for the buffing stage).
Tip: For cleaning side glass roll your window down about 1/2 way. Often the top edge of your glass (where it meets the rubber glass) can be quite dirty and cannot be cleaned with the window fully up. After you clean this top edge then roll your window fully up and clean the rest of the glass.
Step 8: Dress Vinyl Rubber
Now that everything is clean it is time to apply your dressing. Apply a liberal amount of your dressing onto a microfiber applicator pad. Have a dry microfiber towel handy. Work in sections at a time. Once you have applied the dressing take your towel and lightly wipe the dressing. This will blend everything in and prevents leaving streaks once the dressing dries.
Step 9: Clean Doorjambs
At this point your interior is clean! Now that you don't need to be getting in and out of the vehicle anymore a nice final touch is opening all the doors and give the door jambs a good wipe down. Another nice touch is to apply a dressing to your door seals. You can use the same dressing as you used on the interior but a better product for this is Sonax Rubber Protectant. It is specifically formulated for door seals. Not only does it dress the rubber it also has protectants in it that will prevent the gaskets from drying and cracking.
Your interior detail is now complete! Do not put mats back into the vehicle until the carpets are dry.
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