Detailing or cleaning the car is a luxury treatment for your car. Cleaning your car’s interior is worth the time and money. It helps you to keep or maintain the value of your car. If you go on long trips more than often, then you might be having trash of wrappers or boxes of foods, bottles of juices or soft drinks, etc.
If they are left in the car for a long time, then your car is going to smell bad. Hence, cleaning your car’s interior is worth maintaining the value of the car. You don’t need to have additional products or equipment to clean the interior of your car. It just requires a few brushes, sponges, microfiber cloth, and a vacuum.
Pro Cleaning Tips for Your Car’s Interior
If you are willing to get the interior of your car cleaned, then you might have to spend $200 to $500 on interior detailing. Instead, you can do it yourself by using pro cleaning tips. Also, follow the sequence so that you don’t have to clean the seats or dashboard over again.
Clear Trash
Before you take out the cleaning supplies in the garage, first clear the trash from your car. Clear out the wrappers, bottles, toys, etc. under the seats, floor mats, and seat cracks. You have to clear it out before using the vacuum because it might not be able to clear the trash.
Floor Mats
Remove the floor mats and shake them vigorously to lose the dirt. Some floor mats are having deep indentations. As a result, the melting snow, water, or dirt gets caked between the grooves. If the floor mat is having enough dirt that does not lose on shaking, then you can use a stiff brush. Also, you can use a vacuum cleaner to clean the gaps between the grooves.
Once the floor mats get dirt-free, use a detergent to clean them thoroughly. To make sure that there is no detergent left making the floor mats slippery, use a powered washer. As a result, they will be super clean. Now you can let them air-dry keeping in the sunlight or out of water’s reach.
Carpet
The carpet under the floor mats and above the floor of the car can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner. Then you can use a steam cleaning machine for the carpet. Sometimes there are stains on the carpet. To clean the carpet stains, you can use an industrial cleaning product or a home remedy such as baking soda or activated charcoal. It will remove the tough odors too.
Seats Cleaning
The car seats are of main three types of materials such as cloth upholstery, vinyl, and leather. Each material requires different cleaning methods or techniques. Before you apply any cleaning product to the seats, use a vacuum cleaner to clear out the dirt, debris, food particles, etc.
Leather Seats
The leather seats fade after a certain time. It happens because the grime and dirt are embedded into the surface of the leather. Hence, it fades or the leather starts cracking.
A leather cleaning product can prolong the life of leather seats. All you have to do is to apply the cleaning compound to the seats and rub it with a towel. For better cleaning, keep flipping the towel and then dry the seats with a microfiber cloth. Once cleaned and dried, let it dry thoroughly and apply a leather conditioner. It keeps the material supple.
Vinyl Seats
For vinyl seats, the cleaning method is quick and easy. A glass cleaner will be enough to clean the viny seats. Make sure that the cleaning product you are using, should be compatible with the vinyl surface. Also, the vinyl seat cleaning product should not be used on any other interior material.
The vinyl seat cleaning product can damage the other interior part of the car. After cleaning, use a second dry cloth to dry the seats. Hence, the seats will be completely dried in an hour for use.
Cloth Seats
If you are having cloth seats, then taking care of such seats is a tough thing to do. Sometimes, you drop a drink and the stain stays for a longer period with odor. To clean the cloth seats, you should be using a specialized stain remover. Also, you have to be careful and not use too much liquid for cleaning the cloth seats.
If you do so, the fabric damps and it does not dry up quickly. As a result, you will be having wet and smelly seats until they dry. To remove the odor from the cloth seats, you can use baking soda. Let it sit for hours and your car’s interior won’t smell bad anymore.
Windows and Mirrors
When you are cleaning the windows and mirrors of the car, make sure you are using a special glass cleaner with a microfiber cloth. Both the cleaning products can do wonders, especially while cleaning the windows. To avoid damage on any part other than glass, spray the glass cleaner on the cloth and then clean it. Also, the direct spray leaves streaks on the glass.
Plastic or Tinted Windows
The glass cleaning product cannot be used on gauge covers or tinted windows. The gauge covers on the front console are made of plastic. To clean the gauge covers, you can use an all-purpose cleaner. On the other hand, some cars are having a tinted part of the window which is not affected by the ammonia in the glass cleaner.
Some people get their windows tinted with a tinting sheet. For this purpose, you can simply use clean water to clean the tinted windows from inside. For outside, you can use a glass cleaner because the sheet is applied from inside the car.
The top quarter-inch of windows is sometimes forgotten by people to wipe. To clean it, roll down the windows partway and clean it with the cloth. To deal with the streaks, you can horizontally clean the exterior glass and vertically the interior glass. As a result, you will know that which side of the window or glass is having the streak.
Front Panel
Dashboard
Dashboards also come in different materials such as leather and vinyl. Some cars are having an angle of the windshield in a way that makes hard-to-reach areas on the dash. As a result, it is one of the difficult parts of the interior to clean. Also, the dashboard is the dustiest area in the car. It happens when you drive a car with opened windows in a dusty area.
Before you apply the dashboard cleaner, you have to wipe the dust with a cloth or vacuum cleaner. Make sure that you have cleaned every corner of the dashboard. After cleaning, dry it with a microfiber cloth and apply for leather or vinyl protection. Hence, you will be able to prolong the life of the dashboard by protecting it from sunlight, fading, and cracking.
Console
The cleaning of buttons and controls on the console can be a nightmare to clean. You can use a thin cloth wrapped around a flat-head screwdriver. If you are not comfortable with a screwdriver, then you can use a plastic knife. Hence, you will be able to clean the dust from the buttons and controls without damaging them.
Air Vents
Air vents are not as difficult as a console. You can simply clean the air vents using a soft and long bristle brush. You can clean them thoroughly and give them a brand-new look. You can use a long and soft bristle brush with a cleaning product. As a result, the air vents will be free of dust and dirt.
Cleaning Interior – Different Method for Different Material
If you haven’t cleaned your car’s interior for a long time, then keep in mind that it will take longer to do it for the first time. It is recommended by experts to clean and detail the interior of your car after every 3 to 4 months. Instead of calling an expert detailing service, you can do it at home by using basic cleaning products and four types of car washes.
The cleaning and detailing of the car’s interior prolong the life of different parts of different materials. The pure leather seats of a car can be brand-new even after 5 to 7 years if you know how to take care of them.