Uber Auto Conditioning
New member
I coworker of mine recently bought this car and the interior was fairly rough. With nearly 140,000 miles on the clock it was really starting to show its age. Fortunately though, upon looking it over in the parking lot, I thought that a lot could be done and that I'd be able to make a vast improvement from where it was.
Let's quickly run through the before pictures. This is the car in the condition that I got it.
Had been rained on
Light brake dust, not too bad
Dirty and dusty door jambs
Beverage stained carpet
Dusty vents
A lot of crumbs and dirt hiding in the cracks and crevices of the seats
Dingy leather
Beat up sill plate
dirty and kicked seat back
Gross carpet
Dirty leather
Soiled carpet
Storage bins in trunk need some love
Spare tire area
Even if I'm only doing an interior cleaning I usually at least wash the exterior. A quick wash really goes a long way and makes the overall presentation of the car more profound. Plus I think the customer always appreciates a little extra work thrown in. Same thing applies to exterior only cars in that I at least run a vacuum through the inside and give it a quick wipe down.
Starting with some P21S on the wheels to start breaking up the brake dust
Using a bevy of brushes I go to work on the wheels.
Optimum Power Clean (OPC) used on tires with Tuff Shine tire brush
Greasy and dirty door jambs were attacked with a Swissvax brush and OPC
After scrubbing they were rinsed freely of all debris in preparation for wax at the end of the detail.
For washing needs I relied on Chemical Guys Citrus Wash and Gloss and a mixture of OPC and CGCWG in the foam gun. I find this soap provides just a little bit extra wetness and since I was just doing a quick wash I wanted that "just waxed" look without investing a lot of time.
Foam bath was left to dwell for a few minutes before rinsing. A two bucket wash method was used from there followed by drying using a DI waffle weave micro fiber towel.
Few more shots of the soiled floor mats. Lots of food and beverage staining plus random scuffs of dirt and all around slight discoloration.... not good.
Shampooed and vacuumed and back in the trunk. For the most part everything came out fairly well.
Armed with various brushes, MF towels, and OPC diluted way down, I began work on the interior leather and trim. The biggest battle was simply that the car had been used and abused plus it has a light colored interior. It doesn't take much for dirt, grime, sweat, skin oils, and any other contaminants, to build up on high wear areas. I started with some test spots around various parts of the car to get an idea of what I was up against. Here are some 50/50s from that process.
Pretty gross when you think about it and almost shocking at how much dirt had built up on those surfaces. You don't realize how bad it is until you see a direct comparison and it is obvious that the cleaned area is a completely different color than the uncleaned area, YUCK!
