[andya]

Almost every square inch of the interior of my car is disgusting. Probably 46 years of dirt. I've bought some Chemical Bother's upholstery cleaner and used it at the lowest dilution. Scrubbing and scrubbing with a stiff bristled brush on the inside of the driver's door, the driver's seat (MBTex I think) and the padded "horseshoe" section at the back and I am disappointed. I don't see any real improvement. My fingers have pruned though!

I see that in the past Aerospace 303 is recommended for protecting and also Lexol, but what about deep cleaning? Is there something out there that can do wonders for my tired old interior? 🧐 Should I get one of those brush attachments for my drill?

Thanks, Andy

 

[Pagoda71]

This formula is developed by a car detailer, it has all the right ingredients.
Using a 32 ounce spray bottle, add the following items...
6 ounces of Blue Dawn Platinum
6 ounces of 99% rubbing alcohol
30 squirts of Ox Clean Max Liquid
32 ounce spray bottle, fill with hot water.

Good cleaning. Ron

 

[Retired and Loving it]

I have great success with just a good quality dish washing soap in UK Fairy Liquid in Canada Dawn use a strong solution like 10-15% soap to water and scrub with a new nail brush, so small areas at a time, rinse off, the only problem you might have is when is nice and clean it will reveal all the scuffs, tears and scratches and stains that will cannot be removed, time to bite the bullet and renew.

 

[matthewz107]

i used simple green on mine. I didn't realise what colour my door trims were. It took a couple of applications. Then i applied a liberal amount of 303, and with latex gloves on rubbed it in and left it overnight. You don't want too much scrubbing or harsh chemicals if it's only a build up of grime.

 

[ianrandom]

Definitely good advice with not too much scrubbing or harsh chemicals. I've made that mistake before and had to change my whole interior. Doh..

More than once 😂

There's a really good alkaline cleaner called G850 that's very good. Obviously whatever you use, test it on an out of the way bit first.

Steam cleaner can give amazing results but there is plenty of scope for damage there. I restored a cream velour interior with one but the two marks I put on the seats ruined it. The rest looked amazing!

 

[Philip_Green]

Yes Stream cleaner is amazing.

 

[miko1aj]

+1 for steam cleaner for sure. For those dirty vinyl or leather areas try wool detergent, mix it 1:1 with warm water and scrub gently with a soft brush.

 

[Retired and Loving it]

No one mentioned Elbow Grease.......................remember when no matter what you had to do when you were a kid your parents always came out with this suggestion..........takes yer back a bit, sorry about that 😂

 

[andya]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I never thought of a steam cleaner.

Andy

 

[cwmoser]

While you are at it, clean inside the Gasoline Door, remove the Spare Tire and clean in there, clean the area around the Door Hinges, Open Hood and clean the edges.
Clean the glass with a Clay Bar and then Wax the Windshield.
Apply Forever Black to the black rubber exterior pieces.

I say a pristine clean car with "patina" looks better than a mint vehicle.

 

[andya]

So far so good. Still plenty to do but here is what I ended up going with:

Carpets - Kaboom with Oxy Clean using Dremel Versa with bristle brush attachment
Panels and seats - Meguiars Mirror Glaze 39 Professional Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner using Dremel Versa with bristle brush attachment, followed up with several coats of 303 Aerospace and a shop cloth

The Dremel Versa works really well, although I got some Kaboom in my eyes

I couldn't make it look like new so there is a patina as Carl mentioned.

So much nicer sitting in a clean car that doesn't have that old car smell.

Andy

 

[miko1aj]

Looks great Andy! Re the old car smell - my R107 also came with a distinctive "flavour", which was, to put it mildly, smell of leather combined with sweat / BO if that makes sense? At any rate having redone the interior top to bottom that smell came from the horse hair seat pads which were well past their due date - now that I've replaced them all you can smell is that distinctive fragrant of MB leather. Just thought I'd share this in case you're also scratching your head with a similar dilemma. 😉

 

[andya]

Thanks Miko - all I can smell right now is Kaboom Hopefully it stays that way. Andy