Cleaning Your Car's Interior
by: kraig
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Word Count: 799
The interior is your car’s living and receiving room. It needs all the cleanliness it could possibly have to ensure comfort and friendly driving.
If today is the schedule of your interior cleaning, park your car in a cool and shady place so that you will find it easy and comfortable to clean. Remember that direct sunlight can bake cleaners into the upholstery. In effect, the natural oils will be pulled away from the leather.
See to it you have with you a stock of 100 percent cotton, terry cloth towels on hand for applying and removing detail products. When you put on terry cloth on some surfaces of your interior, the dirt and other contaminants will be drawn away.
Now, it is time to start the cleaning.
Remove anything that you want to save or those which will not be absorbed by the vacuum. Examples of these are toys, papers, envelopes, etc. Then, take time to vacuum all those tiny invisible particles. And then, assess the status of the damage whether it is a stain or ground-in dirt.
Using a vacuum cleaner, start with the dash, headliner, gauges and console. To loosen the surface dirt, use a gentle stroking motion with the brush. Consult a professional if you see your headliner severely worn out.
Then, after vacuuming, wipe the dash, gauges and console. In a circular motion, do this with a damp terry cloth towel.
To clean the cup holders, use a terry cloth towel. Before wiping with it, spray the cup holder and allow the mixture to soak in. do not stop cleaning them until they are really clean. Just make sure to wipe the cup holder with terry towel damped in water; and then allow it to dry.
Proceed with the front seats, package tray and rear seats. To clean the nooks, attach the crevice tool, which is the long needle-nose looking thing.
The floor mats are the interior part that suffers most of the dirt; from dirty shoes to spilled drinks to road grime, name it they have it. Vacuum your Mazda floor mat well with the carpet-comb attachment and remove it from the car. Also include the
shoe scuffs on the door panels in your cleaning.
The next thing to clean is the carpet. Remove the dirt using the carpet-comb tool. Stains can be removed by some spray products that are available in the auto shops. If they are still not removed, use a professional carpet-cleaning machine.
The machine that cleans your carpets and mats contains cleaning solution that breaks down the dirt particles and forces them out of the carpet. It also removes the dirty water mixture out of the carpet.
You can either buy or rent a carpet-cleaning machine at your reliable supermarket. But since most machines infuse the carpet with cleaner and water, make sure to buy a better quality cleaning solution. It would be better to ask assistance from a sales associate.
Here is a practical and simple tip: To get rid of cranberry stains, which are the hardest to get out, sprinkle salt onto half of a lemon and scrub the stain with the salted lemon. And you will see the stains coming out with only a few strokes.
After cleaning the carpet, the dash and the seats should be the next priority. Use quality leather cleaner for your vehicle with leather interior. As much as possible, use separate cleaners and conditioners to allow the leather’s deep cleaning and maximum protection.
The spray and the liquid paste are the two general forms of leather cleaners. The spray types usually require a spray-on, wipe-off action while the liquid must be applied gently into the leather in order to be effective. But whatever the case may be, always follow the manufacturer's directions to achieve best results.
Condition the leather and dash so that the natural oils will be restored and the natural smoothness will be retained. This also prevents the aging of the leather and dash. Apply the conditioner with small and circular strokes. Let the conditioner be absorbed by the leather before wiping off the excess.
Almost all cleaning products for cloth interiors are produced as an "all-in-one" cleaner in spray, scrub and wipe/vacuum form.
Now you have a clean interior. The next task is to maintain and the key is discipline.
Cleaning your interior will surely make you comfortable while inside the car and make you want to ride you car gain and again.
About the Author
Kraig Johanssen is a native of Connecticut and holds a degree in Software Engineering. He now works at a software development firm in Alabama. His love for writing and great interest on cars makes him a proficient contributing author to various automotive magazines.
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