Interior Detailing

B

bonoz

New member
Hello all,



I havn't been here for a while. Last winter I spent a while detailing the exterior of my car. Now I want to make things even by detailing the interior of my car.



I have a 1998 328i, and I was wondering what are the BEST techniques and products for the job. Also, any other hints/tips/guides/directions will be appreciated dearly. I'm probably going to go by the autopia guide: http://autopia.org/forum/guide-detailing/80233-car-interior-detailing.html



But will definitely need your help. Thanks for your help.
 
I also want to ask if I should remove my seats?



And I have never cleaned the interior of this car since I bought it. So it's quite dirty.
 
the seats are easy enough to remove. If you really feel froggy I say go for it. Beamers and Benz tend to have really thick plush carpet mattings that tend to clean up reletively easily. Heat is your freind in most clean up cases. a heated extractor will make things alot easier. I tend to use stuff no one on here has ever seem to have heard of... But.... I use "Nu look" carpet shampoo and "MIP citrus cleaner" for the upholstry and have always gotten amazing results.
 
The answer to ever interior cleaning need you will ever have, except carpet extracting, is the tornador :)

od to go.

I do not use mine with their cleaner, Just take a good citrus degreaser and diloute it 8:1 and you are go
 
How should I wash my mats? should I put them in the washing machine? if so, what setting/detergent I should use?



Can I just, at least for now (since I want to do a quick interior clean), get some good products from the local shop or should I get products from the web?
 
bonoz said:
How should I wash my mats? should I put them in the washing machine? if so, what setting/detergent I should use?



Can I just, at least for now (since I want to do a quick interior clean), get some good products from the local shop or should I get products from the web?
Click to expand...





Buy a good APC . Take your mats and soak them with water from your garden hose. Spray a good amount of APC on them and take a fairly stiff brush and scrub them. To rinse, hang them or hold them against a wall and spray water until water runs clean. Caution if using a PW.



Buy some 303. Do a cleaning wipe with a MF diluted with APC if needed. Then wet a MF with water, totally wring it out, then spray a good amount of 303 on it and wipe the interior.
 
I detailed my '98 328is interior not too long ago.



I followed GSRstilez guide here... but used his older Oxy-clean + Folex approach w/ LGM. Making sure to take out the seats and vacuum the carpet very well.



I used a damp MF towel to clean all the interior panels. Then I applied Poorboys Natural Look to all the vinyl.



Cleaned/Protected the leather seats with Leathermasters products.



Cleaned OBC/Digital thermastat/CD Player screens & Dash cluster with Plexus.



Very carefully cleaned the headliner with a slightly dampened MF cloth covered with Folex.



Cleaned and then Lubricated the seat rails with lithium grease. As well as sunroof rails, door hinges.



Stoners invisible glass on all windows.





I follow up with a weekly vacuum of the carpet and clean the vinyl surfaces, leather seats with a dampened MF towel.



Every month or so I clean and reapply Poorboys NL to vinyl and Leathermasters products on seats.
 
I have never gotten great results with just wiping down the interior with a damp MF. I like to clean all the vinyl with Woolite/water 6:1.
 
Bigpoppa3346 said:
I have never gotten great results with just wiping down the interior with a damp MF. I like to clean all the vinyl with Woolite/water 6:1.
Click to expand...



Yeah, it all depends on how dirty the interior is.



I meant to say dampened with washing solution -- I usually use the oxyclean since I already have it ready for the carpets.



But for the weekly clean, pretty much all that I am removing is a thin layer of dust. The panels IMO do not require additional cleaning -- unless of course it is visibly dirty.
 
Just a tip about Bimmers, I've found that applying dressing to the dash of a BMW is difficult if you use too much product.
 
Quickstrike said:
Yeah, it all depends on how dirty the interior is.
Click to expand...



Yup. When i picked up my new/used bmw, the previous owner must have let the windows down all the time because the interior was filthy. I got it spotless with megs apc and some soft brushes (want to see pics?). Woolite wasn't doing a thing. If you try megs apc then get the apc+, it's the same stuff minus the chemical smell. 303 is a great interior dressing as someone already mentioned.
 
I'm a big fan of Einszett Cockpit Premium. I use it on my Porsche which is about 8 months old and it literally looks like it did when it came from the factory, clean and totally matt/OEM.
 
Here's some pics



before:



car007.jpg




car002.jpg




car003.jpg




car005.jpg






after



car009.jpg




car010.jpg




car011.jpg




car012.jpg




So the before pics are after i tried woolite. That wasn't doing anything so i used some megs apc and soft brushes. For the window sills i rolled down the windows then put some 3m tape over the gap so the megs apc wouldn't drip down inside the door panel. The after pics are before i dressed them with 303. Hope that helps! (oh yeah i have leatherette, which i'm starting to love because it can take a lot of abuse!, and everyone thinks it's real leather anyways)
 
I did a Bimmer with the same exact dirty problems you had. I used APC at 4:1 and scrubbed the living $%$@ out of it. It came clean but took some work. So I know what you went through on that interior!



Great Job!
 
that is amazing work ^^^ looks brand new so what products exactly did you use to get it to look like that and instead of using a brush could i just apply a lot of pressure with a towel.
 
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