Interior Car Cleaning/Maintenance/etc

Veeky Forums, I just got myself a 'new' car a couple of weeks ago. In my month or so of browsing and shitposting on this board, I have yet to come across a thread about how Veeky Forums takes care of the interior of their vehicles. Granted, it's not necessarily the most popular subject, but it still seems like a topic worth discussing.

I just got back from the store and bought a sunshade for the windshield and some air fresheners to start with. Besides this beginner stuff, what other products do you purchase to maintain the interior of your vehicles?

Does your car have leather seats or vinyl? What do you do to keep it from cracking? Maybe you have cloth seats... How do you keep those clean, and what do you use to clean them in the event of a spill? Your dashboard? Do you just have your car detailed every now and then?

Discuss anything that comes to mind!

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i have cloth seats and full carpet + mats in a big full size van.. it's plush and clean as fuck

forget the fucking trees, they smell like chemical puke

patrician clean is
1. dust whole vehicle with baking soda
2. wait 24 hours
3. vacuum entire vehicle

treat stains with baking soda + water paste

keep armour all wipes in your car for incidental mess

Get it cleaned in the hood by some ghetto guys for ~$60 twice a year.

Otherwise this is all I ever need.

Something I've done for years to keep used car smells away after cleaning is to place a Arm and Hammer fridge fresher box under the front seats, that baking soda with the opening that doesn't leak works soo well.

Also Turtlewax dash n glass, you can get the entire dash and instruments clean then use the same stuff on the windows and it doesn't streak and get oily.

Garden hose and soapy water.

You mean pic related?
What do you use to apply Turtle Wax? Just a regular old towel? I wouldn't want to leave a bunch of fibers everywhere.

Same question as above if you care to share.

Full shag? :^)
Definitely gonna look into those wipes. Also, what's water paste? Google search showed me "water finding paste," which I'm guessing is what you're referring to.

>tfw I have to go get it washed 'cause apartment :(

a paste consisting of baking soda and water

you make it yourself

add water to baking soda until it forms a paste

it's the freshest cleaner on this planet

>protip
Do you just apply a little and leave it to sit?

it's for stains
this is a trick females learn for cleaning period blood out of everything
you scrub it out with a plastic dish scrubber or something similar
cold water only
hot water will set the stain

Thanks, user. You've been very helpful.

Use a fiber free towel from either auto place or an office supply store for televisions and monitors. The dash n glass is awesome since it works on plastics and glass with no oil, just let the car cool down in the evening so it doesn't cook the wax and make it gummy.

And yeah, those fridge boxes last about a yr and cost around a dollar each, open both sides and stash it under the seat, also one of the little scent bags from the old lady stores in the glove box is nice once it heats up and wafts thru the car.

If you intend to go cleaning crazy, a $40 steam cleaner from target or Amazon is a must, little things are the size of a clothes iron and when mixed with oxy clean will eradicate all the stains and don't leave any smells behind.

I don't like any smells at all even from products, so my goal is to get ride of anything other than maybe a slight hint of pine from a poperie pouch in my glove box.

I appreciate the product recommendation. Applying that stuff is definitely something I would need to do late in the evening/early night. Sun's still out until ~8:30 here in Texas (85+ degrees)...

I don't plan on going too crazy, but I'm definitely going to try to keep my car clean while I can. I suspect I might just give up this level of care once I've had the car long enough. Seems like most people do.

Funny how y'all both mentioned potpourris, too. :) Smart idea.

>armor all

Why don't you just pour astroglide all over your car

I wipe down all the interior surfaces with an orange oil based natural cleaner once a week on a microfiber cloth, it looks brand new. If I'm going to try to fuck my gf in the back seat I might spritz a tiny amount of cologne on the headliner so it smells nice when she gets in.

>orange based

enjoy your cancer

>oranges give you cancer

okay alex jones. i'm really worried about that while I'm literally driving in a machine that burns hydrocarbons, surrounded by other machines burning hydrocarbons

i went to post grad at a super meme, hyped, osha whmis school
they used "natural orange cleanser" as an example of what to watch out for

interesting. i wonder if that applies more to those orange based industrial hand scrubs and shit, as opposed to hippie shit from whole foods

iirc, it's the "natural" orange essential oil that's pretty bad for you, and it's used to trick consumers into thinking that natural=healthy when in fact it's terrible for your lungs and body in general, but i'm too lazy to look it up right now

tl:dr
there are no warnings against NaHCO3
it's the patrician cleanser
it's how they get graffiti removed from buildings

thanks for the heads up user i will see if i'm poisoning myself

If you have a backpack leaf blower you never have to vacuum again. Take your shit out, open all the doors and let her rip. Works better with 2 doors and trucks but that's how I do the interiors and dry off all my vehicles.

Nah, then I'd look like a stereotype.

context of webbum?

that looks like farva from super troopers.

I assume its not real lol.

I used meguiars trim protectant on plastic and vinyl and I use meguiars leather cleaner and conditioner on my leather seats. I find the lexol shit relaxes the leather to much and then you get more creases and less bolstering. So I only stick to mild stuff on the leather.

Generally when I'm cleaning my car's interior it's a vacuum and light dusting. Seats aren't that dirty and I don't want to saturate them since they're cloth. On other cars, like my dad's van, I've had used some vinyl cleaner and it didn't work on the seats.

>what other products do you purchase to maintain the interior of your vehicles?
Tinted windows to hugely reduce the ultraviolet AND infrared heat that speed ages leather, vinyl, and cloth. That's the main source of cracking. Don't use solvents on plastics as that leaches the plasticizer out which is what keeps them pliable and not cracking. Never use ammonia or solvents to clean tinted windows. RainX Antifog is also NOT to be used on tinted windows (it also said that at their site last year when I bought their product and checked). I clean fingerprints off the hard plastic and vinyl using Windex to slightly dampen a half sheet of Bounty paper towel.

Windows (tinted or not) are cleaned with plushy MicroFiber towels (MF) which sucks off any oily film better than short hair MF. I use the 36 count MF package from Sam's Club. Having 35 to wash in the washing machine with other MF from around the house is a good small load. Too few MF towels and I'd have to wash them with non MF fabrics which is not ideal but still do-able if they are whites. Since some MF has obnoxious stuff like brake dust, don't mix with clothing unless you prewash the MF.

>Maybe you have cloth seats... How do you keep those clean, and what do you use to clean them in the event of a spill?
Seat cushion device to keep pants and back off the seat fabric. Wooden-bead seats, synthetic cloth weave with plastic spacers, or even cloth seat covers are available at Wal-Mart and other stores. They also let air circulate so you cool off faster. If you sit down in shops or public library, you may have sat in fecal residue because some people have skid marks. You don't want to contaminate your car seat so one of those three types of seat liners will work. Lots of people don't wipe their butt properly or have dirty hygiene. Don't let it cross-contaminate your car.

Use hard rubber/plastic floor mats and NOT carpeted mats that grow germs.

*continued*

Carpeted floor mats collect dirt and then if you have wet shoes, the water lets all the germs and mold grow and makes it hard to get rid of them. If you have hard smooth rubber mats, you can frequently and quickly vacuum out the dirt from shoes.

If something spills then you have to sop it up fast so that is why I always have a roll of paper towels in the car. No eating in the car either but I had to not implement that rule when I had guests that could not be insulted - they are immune to rules. So I simply kept smiling and cleaned up later. So you may or may not keep some cleaning supplies in your trunk for certain occasions like that.

Another word about quality window tints. It is not just simple tinted sheet of impervious mylar. It is something else. When installed, you've seen the occasional water bubble and the shop tells you don't worry it will evaporate even in the middle of the window since the tint is somewhat porous. That's why you should not use ammonia window cleaners or solvents. You might do so and say, ha, ha, it didn't turn purple or peel off like everyone said. But the porous tint might have absorbed some molecules and over time, repeated applications of ammonia or solvent might build up enough damage to cause it to purple up a little or fade a bit on you.

There's a variety of non-ammonia cleaners out there, but over time, I discovered that dampening some Bounty with water and wiping works most of the time and the MF towel then sucks off any oily grime to leave it clean and streak free.

When using MF on tint or car paint, be careful to use the plushy MF part and NOT the edges of the towel that might be scratchy. The edges of the Sam's Club MF don't seem to be particularly scratchy, so that is good. But I still don't let the edges get onto my window tint.

The archive has car seat cleaning threads.

archive.4plebs.org/o/thread/15054456

archive.4plebs.org/o/thread/14228818/#q14228818

>I have yet to come across a thread about how Veeky Forums takes care of the interior of their vehicles

>What do you do to keep it from cracking?
See for how to moisten the vinyl to keep it supple.

> Hard surfaces
Wipe with a cloth regularly, wipe down with a damp cloth every few months.

> Seats
Stain-resistant cloth seats. Febreeze every few months.

> Everything else
Vacuum it out every few months, mainly to get all the little bits of road surface out of the footwell, and any flaky bits of pastry from my sausage roll habit.

Any tips on how to get dried mud out of the boot carpet?
I went to a festival, and it was muddy. Now my car is muddy.

I run a chauffeur service.
All my cars are Mercedes with MB-Tex vinyl, and wood trim.
All my drivers clean their cars from the inside/outside every morning.

Removable rubber carpeting is taken out first, then cleaned with a brush and soapy water and left to dry.
Then a quick vacuum, and a foam product for any carpet stains.

Then everything including the seats, trim and dashboard is wiped down with a cotton rag very slightly moistened with soapy water, then dried using a clean cotton rag.
We get the rags from a Laundry. €2 for a very large bag.
They're usually old bathroom towels that they lease out to hotels.

Next we use a product thats made to restore plastics faded on the seats, dash and rubber carpeting.
We dilute it pretty heavily.
There's Carnauba wax in it, so the seats are nice and "slippery" and feel very clean, and the carpets are a very deep black. We also use it on tyres, and any plastic parts.
The seats never feel sticky in the summer, and because of lower friction it reduces the wear on them.

For that fresh smell, we use coconut scented fabric softener. We dilute it with water and put it in a small spray bottle.

On the wood we use the same wax we use on the paint, because it doesn't leave fingerprints.

The carpet in the trunk is all covered with plastic so its easily cleaned.

Thats basically it.