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Interior cleaning

795 Views 24 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  SusanAndrews10
What is the best method you all use/have used for cleaning interior panels and carpet? Wanting to scrub down the door panels which are a composite plastic, as well as the dash, console area, and give the carpet and floormats a good scrubbing. I've heard a dilution of woolite works well for carpet. Are there any cleaning materials I should stay away from that might discolor or stain the plastics/carpet?
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Magic eraser works real well on everything. I'm not sure if you can use it on cloth or carpet.
Reg, if you're willing to go through the work I've found it's easier to clean it better if you remove door panels and other items you want to clean. Even down to the carpet. Now, getting the carpet out is annoying, as is putting it back in. However, if you do that you can put it in a barrel and soak it your desired cleaning solution. Other than that I really don't have any suggestions about what items work best.
For plastic try a regular household cleaner such as 409. I've used it with great results. No discoloration at all. 409 also has carpet cleaner for spot cleaning. I've used the car carpet cleaner with the brushes on the can and they are ok for spots. For all over I've always wanted to rent or borrow a carpet shampooer that has a hand held wand attachment for my car.
For plastic try a regular household cleaner such as 409. I've used it with great results. No discoloration at all. 409 also has carpet cleaner for spot cleaning. I've used the car carpet cleaner with the brushes on the can and they are ok for spots. For all over I've always wanted to rent or borrow a carpet shampooer that has a hand held wand attachment for my car.
I just used one of those home carpet shampooing machines on my car's carpet and it worked amazing. I used the little handheld attachment that's for stairs and upholstery. It just sprayed out a solution (hot water and some resolve) then there was a brush that worked it in and the dirty water got vacuumed up. Quick and easy with great results. The only problem is finding somebody that has one or dropping the money on buying one.
Can't you rent them from like Wal-mart?
You used to be able to rent them at Kroger, but I don't know if they still do. Might have to break out the old fashioned yellow pages.
I think I saw them at Meijer for rent. I know it was one of the big supermarkets. Either Meijer or Kroger, as those are the only 2 I've visited recently, so it's got to be one of them
Meijer has them but I did not check to see if they have the attachment on them. I want to do the same as well as one room in the house.
Kroger has the machines and attachment to rent.
Any idea how much these are to rent? I need something to do tomorrow after work.
What is the best method you all use/have used for cleaning interior panels and carpet? Wanting to scrub down the door panels which are a composite plastic, as well as the dash, console area, and give the carpet and floormats a good scrubbing. I've heard a dilution of woolite works well for carpet. Are there any cleaning materials I should stay away from that might discolor or stain the plastics/carpet?
Woolite/water solution and a good brush + a spot remover for stubborn areas should solve most of your problems for carpets.

You should also be able to use the woolite/water on the door panels as well. Test a small spot to make sure it doesn't stain or anything though.
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i use mean green for hard plastic panels and i just cleaned the seats and carpet in my firebird today with woollite carpet cleaner with oxyclean in household brissel carpet cleaner( using the hand held attachment of course!!) and it worked wonders on 5 year old coffee stains.







the passanger seat was brown before i cleaned it, here it is now

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Wow looks great. Everything looks new except the passenger seat.
Wow looks great. Everything looks new except the passenger seat.
not bad for a 98 with 150,000 miles.... ive only owned if for 4 months now, time to start bringing it back to life. The headliner and floor mats are next on the list.
not bad for a 98 with 150,000 miles.... ive only owned if for 4 months now, time to start bringing it back to life. The headliner and floor mats are next on the list.
Hell yea not bad at all. My int. is all black and grey so dirt doesn't show up. Theres no telling how people treated it before I owned it.
I own professional detail shop and ill give ya a lil secret on what to use. Go to d&d products its located on cane run road that where I and every other detail shop i know gets materials. Get a quart sized spray bottle of there red degreaser its only about 6 to 8 bucks i think for that size i buy it by the gallon an its like 16. That works great for the door panels and plastics and carpet. They do also have a carpet spotter remover that works great as well. As far as seats go leather its great on too and cloth seats what i usually do if they are filthy is take them out an spary them with the degreaser allowing it to sit on there for about 5 mins then pressure wash the seats and then dry the seats with a shop vac it works wonders. Also when your scrubbing the carpets spray them with the degreaser an let it sit then take a bucket fill it with warm water an pull some in there as well and take a wash mit an get the carpet good an wet with that then scrub like hell then suck it all up with a shop vac
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I own professional detail shop and ill give ya a lil secret on what to use. Go to d&d products its located on cane run road that where I and every other detail shop i know gets materials. Get a quart sized spray bottle of there red degreaser its only about 6 to 8 bucks i think for that size i buy it by the gallon an its like 16. That works great for the door panels and plastics and carpet. They do also have a carpet spotter remover that works great as well. As far as seats go leather its great on too and cloth seats what i usually do if they are filthy is take them out an spary them with the degreaser allowing it to sit on there for about 5 mins then pressure wash the seats and then dry the seats with a shop vac it works wonders. Also when your scrubbing the carpets spray them with the degreaser an let it sit then take a bucket fill it with warm water an pull some in there as well and take a wash mit an get the carpet good an wet with that then scrub like hell then suck it all up with a shop vac
You typically want to get the carpet little as wet as possible when cleaning.

Also make sure that your floormats/carpet are completely dry before putting the floormats back in. Mold could start to grow if they remain wet.
if you suck the water up with a shop vac an then let the car sit with the windows down on a sunny warm day it takes no time to dry at all thats how i do all of my cars
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