Interior Cleaning Question... (Steamer)

T

Toymachine2009

New member
Okay I recently did a F150 truck and the interior was trashed.. It is light brown in color but the seats the dash the door panels everything was a dark brown



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I used HD total and a tooth brush and I had to go over EVERY surface of the interior because EVERYTHING was dirty..



HD total and tooth brush took me HOURS.. I was wondering if there way a way I could cut this down..



I was thinking maybe a steam cleaner would do the trick.. I know several of you use them on here and I was wondering judging by the picture would your steam cleaner do the same job that I did with a tooth brush.. It would be much easier to steam clean the seats and dash and just wipe the dirt away with a towel..



I would think the steam would lift up and out the dirt and you can wipe away the dirt. I wanna be positive though it will before I buy one or I guess ill stick to my tooth brush method if a steam cleaner cant do this.
 
Steamer IMO for certain jobs does the trick.....Here I used a steamer and some APC+ on these extremely filthy nasty Infinity G35 seats and interior, you will see that the photos sprak for themselves.



Before



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Even out the seat and finish her up



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The evidence.....filthy interior as evident on these new white cotton terry towels



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Hopefully this answers your question.......yes it works.....you just definitely need to be cautious as it is possible to damage the leather.
 
Steamer is the way to go, takes less than a minute to do a leather seat. Never damaged a leather seat with steam. I personally wrap a MF towel over the triangle brush on my steamer, cleans and the MF picks up the dirt.
 
AeroCleanse said:
Steamer is the way to go, takes less than a minute to do a leather seat. Never damaged a leather seat with steam. I personally wrap a MF towel over the triangle brush on my steamer, cleans and the MF picks up the dirt.
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What steamer are you using? I know they can be used for rug stains as well. Thinking about picking one up because I would have ALOT of use for it. Carpet, Leather, What else can you use it for? Cloth seats?
 
toymachine2009 said:
Cool looks great. Is there a certain kind of steamer I need to use.. is there a steamer you recommend. I was looking at a steam cleaner like this one

PROlectrix Handheld Steam Cleaner - Citrus Tangerine - eBay (item 390250486703 end time Nov-08-10 20:13:04 PST)



How do you damage leather with it? What do you do to prevent it from damaging leather?
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Thanks.....The Steamer I purchased I picked up at Harbor Freight Tools.....its branded under the name McCullough, same as the Chain saw mfg, here is a photo of the unit. I have also seem an identical unit branded under the name Wagner at Costco. It's not some super heavy duty commercial unit, but this little steam buggy gets the job done and some, for a fraction of the cost.



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In regards to damaging leather, I personally have not had that happened but heard of it happening from another professional detailer. Be careful with seats that have small perforated holes, the heat of the steamer if too hot, may cause irreversible damage and may melt the surface. Wrapping the the triangle brush with a MF or terry is definitely a great idea as AeroCleanse mentioned.
 
toymachine2009 said:
What steamer are you using? I know they can be used for rug stains as well. Thinking about picking one up because I would have ALOT of use for it. Carpet, Leather, What else can you use it for? Cloth seats?
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I think mine is a Unliux 3000. I think I'd probably get a 4000 C or higher from VAPOR STEAM CLEANERS by RH - Commercial Steam Cleaner Machines (I do hate the automatically playing audio on the site). You can clean the whole inside of a car with steam. I've even washed mine with my steamer, but I'd get one with water injection if you wanted to do that.
 
If the leather seat or any interior leather part has been re-dyed/re-coloured in any spots/sections in order to repair any past damage, then be avoid using a steamer on these repaired/re-dyed parts.



Problem is, you might not be able to spot a professionally re-dyed area.

I hv seen some cars where the hot steam instantly removes the dye, leaving behind an ugly patch.



So, on questionable leather items, pls be careful:drool:
 
The Tornador tool also works great for leather interiors. I use it strictly at my shop, and have had seats as bad as David has shown. I will admit though that it's possible that a steamer will do the job a bit quicker than the Tornador, but you'd have to see a quite a few really bad leather seats in order to make the steamer purchase worth it, IMO.
 
Steamer definitely looks like a good idea. Do you just follow up leather seats with a conditioner after? I was actually thinking of getting a steamer at one point, is it safe to use to clean dashes too?
 
WAS said:
The Tornador tool also works great for leather interiors. I use it strictly at my shop, and have had seats as bad as David has shown. I will admit though that it's possible that a steamer will do the job a bit quicker than the Tornador, but you'd have to see a quite a few really bad leather seats in order to make the steamer purchase worth it, IMO.
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Whats a tornado tool?
 
EliminatorXP, when cleaning the seats how long should one let the apc sit before steaming. And when steaming how much pressure do you apply when scrubbing, and how long should I expect to be scrubbing to get the results you did on the Infiniti.

Also, does this same technique work on the carpets?

Thanks!
 
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