Most Effective (and Safest) Products/Methods to Remove Interior Greasy Protectant?

B

BuffMe

New member
Hey All,

Haven't been active on here in a long time since I got too busy for my side detailing business. However, I just purchased a new car and the detail shop has unfortunately (even after repeated requests and specific instructions not do so) applied a lovely greasy protectant to every single piece of the interior, to include the leather seats. I could not speak for the first minutes as i stared at the soon-to-be-many hours of time (of which I do not have at all at the moment) it was going to take me to fix this egregious error that I knew was going to be a royal PITA. :vomit:

After moving on from outrage, I got it home, topped up my 10:1 Water:Woolite mixture and attempted to go to town on both the seats (with boar's hair brush) and other interior pieces (with various MF). While it seems to be doing the job, it is taking a while and I'm running through a ton of MF's and buckets of water/soap as it immediately recontaminates it and renders it almost useless after each panel. This stuff is so nasty it's incredibly hydrophobic, requiring a ton of soap to cut through it while concurrently rendering the towel and applicator tainted with residue that then transfers to the bucket, rendering both useless and requiring a change. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That said, I wanted to query you all and see if there was any better method or products that may have surfaced in my hiatus over the past few years. I have some left-over DPP Total Interior Cleaner as well but I really don't want an orange-y smell on the interior that takes away from the new car smell. Yes, I'm OCD and very particular, why else would I be on this forum?

Any tips or insights, even if it's simply "that's the best way to do it, just keep pushing through", I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks, all!
 
A good APC and gentle scrubbing has always removed old dressings for me no problem. What else have you tried besides the water/woolite mixture? Isn't woolite actually suppose to be very gentle? I'd say try a good quality APC, that should knock it out easy. Just spray, agitate with a gentle brush and wipe up.
 
I had a buddy get a new/used car and he told the dealership not to detail it. they didn't listen. Brought it straight to me so I could assess what I was going to do (we had planned on this anyway) and about crapped when I saw all the greasy dressing, complete with drips running down the rear console and inside plastic rear wheel flares (SUV). The seats were covered also...so bad that when he brought it back to me to do the work the next weekend, the rear seats had turned white where the car seat was (these were black leather seats). It was a full weekend just for the interior and i used Meg APC 1:10 with a vent brush and just really worked it in small areas. Took forever, but I wanted to get all of it off, put on a good protectant and return to him looking factory fresh (I take care of his other car too, so he knows to have high expectations on my delivery). For the seats, I used CG Leather Cleaner at 1:6 and worked it in with a vent brush. Then I went over the leather again with the CGLC and a stiff leather cleaning brush, the applied protectant.

In summary, my suggestion is take your time and work in small chucks to really get clean down in the texture. Use multiple applications and different types of brushes that are safe for the areas you are working on. The good news, once you get it all off and start taking care of it your way, it's really easy going forward.
 
I use OPC at a 1:3 ratio to clean all the vinyl/plastic and leather interior surfaces. It does a great job of removing any dirt and old dressings. The smell is not terrible but it does have a slight odor associated with it.
 
Thanks for the feedback, all. Will keep going at it and maybe try an APC as well. We'll see how it goes...
 
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