With my wife out of town I have a few days to clean her car up. She drives a 2018 Expedition Max Platinum which is a Suburban-class 7-passenger Mom-taxi. It sees a lot of back-and-forth to sports, carries a basset hound, and sees many road trips complete with in-car snacks and beverages. Honestly I don`t think I had climbed into the 3rd row since we bought it. And... you could tell. What a mess. I did my usual routine of throwing out trash (how many half-consumed water bottles can you hide in a car?) including the french fries and random goldfish crackers.
I started with Adams Interior Cleaning Gel. WOW do I hate the sprayer they bundle with that. It only provides a stream even if you have it set to "spray" so I ended up burying the tip in a towel to get it wet without splatter. The gel is certainly more viscous than their old Interior Cleaner, but honestly I don`t like it as well and with the goofy sprayer happening I just set it aside. I finished out the cleaning with McKees 37 Total Interior Cleaner which works just perfectly.
With a few days to get the car back into shape I decided to apply sealants to... everything. I have time to do the cleaning, wait, seal the surfaces, and wait again before she drives it. I coated all 7 of the leather-ish seats with Ultima Interior Protectant. So far, 12 hours into this, it seems great. It applies with a glossy, oily texture that put me into a small panic at first but rest assured it cures to a stock appearance.
For the hard interior surfaces, I went with Wolfgang Cockpit Trim Sealant. This, too, goes on really wet and oily but cures to a stock-looking finish. I coated everything with this: seat rail covers, dash plastic, kick panels, hatchback-- everything. Why did I used both Ultima and Wolfgang? Because of a vague recollection of an AG review suggesting this usage and also because most of the fun is trying different products. Both of these sealants are really easy to work with, you apply them and pretty much walk away. I see a spot on an armrest where I left too much; I`ll look at leveling that tomorrow. My biggest problem is holding onto the Ultima bottle when I`ve got the chemical all over my hands (gloved or not) -- it gets comically slippery.
I applied the last of my CarPro Fabric to the carpets. So far all of my vacuuming has been surprisingly easy and I choose to believe the Fabric product is helping me there. Boy this stuff smells bad. Not Iron-X bad, but bad enough. The car need to air out for a good 30 min after applying this.
I also applied 303 Rubber Seal Protectant to all of the door and hatch seals. This product gets a solid, qualified, "meh" from me. It`s really runny and using this water-based formula after so much solvent-based sealant work, I can`t say that this had any effect for me. I`ll go out and look at the seals later to see if I can tell the difference, I should have left one naked. There are a LOT of door seals on a car like this, especially with the dual hatch design where the window can open separate from the lift gate.
This car doesn`t have a lot of exterior plastic trim, but where it does I applied Blackfire Total Trim & Tire Sealant. This stuff is THE BOMB if you like your plastic parts glossy and wet-looking. It is trivial to apply and where I used on my other vehicle, 2 weeks later it still looks wet but seems to be hard as nails. I`ve not tried this on tires, I don`t like glossy tires.
I can`t decide if I want to apply my beloved Adams Leather Conditioner to the seats once they`ve had enough time to cure. Any comments on that? Redundant?
I also put Weathertech Floor Liner Protectant on the mats. I don`t know how effective this stuff is, but I`ve got it so I used it.
I`ve also done some fun things with exterior sealants but will start a separate thread for that maybe tomorrow.
I`ll add some photos next.
I started with Adams Interior Cleaning Gel. WOW do I hate the sprayer they bundle with that. It only provides a stream even if you have it set to "spray" so I ended up burying the tip in a towel to get it wet without splatter. The gel is certainly more viscous than their old Interior Cleaner, but honestly I don`t like it as well and with the goofy sprayer happening I just set it aside. I finished out the cleaning with McKees 37 Total Interior Cleaner which works just perfectly.
With a few days to get the car back into shape I decided to apply sealants to... everything. I have time to do the cleaning, wait, seal the surfaces, and wait again before she drives it. I coated all 7 of the leather-ish seats with Ultima Interior Protectant. So far, 12 hours into this, it seems great. It applies with a glossy, oily texture that put me into a small panic at first but rest assured it cures to a stock appearance.
For the hard interior surfaces, I went with Wolfgang Cockpit Trim Sealant. This, too, goes on really wet and oily but cures to a stock-looking finish. I coated everything with this: seat rail covers, dash plastic, kick panels, hatchback-- everything. Why did I used both Ultima and Wolfgang? Because of a vague recollection of an AG review suggesting this usage and also because most of the fun is trying different products. Both of these sealants are really easy to work with, you apply them and pretty much walk away. I see a spot on an armrest where I left too much; I`ll look at leveling that tomorrow. My biggest problem is holding onto the Ultima bottle when I`ve got the chemical all over my hands (gloved or not) -- it gets comically slippery.
I applied the last of my CarPro Fabric to the carpets. So far all of my vacuuming has been surprisingly easy and I choose to believe the Fabric product is helping me there. Boy this stuff smells bad. Not Iron-X bad, but bad enough. The car need to air out for a good 30 min after applying this.
I also applied 303 Rubber Seal Protectant to all of the door and hatch seals. This product gets a solid, qualified, "meh" from me. It`s really runny and using this water-based formula after so much solvent-based sealant work, I can`t say that this had any effect for me. I`ll go out and look at the seals later to see if I can tell the difference, I should have left one naked. There are a LOT of door seals on a car like this, especially with the dual hatch design where the window can open separate from the lift gate.
This car doesn`t have a lot of exterior plastic trim, but where it does I applied Blackfire Total Trim & Tire Sealant. This stuff is THE BOMB if you like your plastic parts glossy and wet-looking. It is trivial to apply and where I used on my other vehicle, 2 weeks later it still looks wet but seems to be hard as nails. I`ve not tried this on tires, I don`t like glossy tires.
I can`t decide if I want to apply my beloved Adams Leather Conditioner to the seats once they`ve had enough time to cure. Any comments on that? Redundant?
I also put Weathertech Floor Liner Protectant on the mats. I don`t know how effective this stuff is, but I`ve got it so I used it.
I`ve also done some fun things with exterior sealants but will start a separate thread for that maybe tomorrow.
I`ll add some photos next.
