Your car can get dirty pretty quickly between carpools, shopping trips, driving to work, and eating in it. Detailing can help. Some research into the number of bacteria in rideshare systems is showing some concerning results. [1] But unless severe painting restoration is needed, it is typically a lot more labor-intensive to detail the interior of your car than to clean the outside. After all, with a couple of different cleaning supplies, you need to disinfect a lot of different textures and hard-to-reach areas.
But how often should you actually clean the interior of your vehicle? Once a month, according to Today.com [2]. In addition, the president of the International Detailing Association, Michael Dickson[3], suggests that we bring our cars twice a year to a professional detailing service.
With prices of detailing being from $50 to $125 for a regular car and $75 to $150[4] for a van or SUV. It is not a big surprise that most people want to do their details themselves. And with that in mind, we’re going to share a few simple tricks and detailed indoor car tips to keep your car looking new.
Leather Upholstery
The most important way to keep the leather upholstery of your car looking as fine as possible is to wipe up any stains or markings as soon as they happen, as this increases the chances of totally avoiding them. If makeup or clothes and ink are not cleaned within 24 hours or longer, it can become permanent or at least extremely difficult to remove. Luckily, there are leather upholstery cleaning kits in cars that you can keep in your vehicle to help remove stains when they happen.
Nevertheless, always do a spot test in a tiny and secret section of your upholstery on some new leather cleaners to make sure that it works without harmful side effects. To stop loose debris such as dirt and grime from stretching seats or being scratched onto the leather, you can also vacuum before anything else.
Car Air Vents
The air vents in their vehicles are generally a big magnet for all manner of dust and nasty stuff, people sometimes forget. Fortunately, if you use the brush attachment on a vacuum cleaner to loosen up the dirt and then sweep it up, you can clean them up very fast. A basic paintbrush will help you finish the job in the event that the brush attachment fails to pick anything up.
Deep-cleaning
You should deep-clean the carpets and upholstery before detailing the interior of a vehicle. However, to stop dirt and dust rolling down on newly washed carpets, go from top to bottom. All the dirt and gunk that has collected over time will be easily swept up by a competent carpet cleaning system or quality consumer product.
Most carpet cleaners operate by spraying a solution that makes carpets look new while vacuuming all the grime at the same time. You could always rent one on a short-term basis, instead of buying a new machine, if you don’t have an adequate vacuum for the job. Keep in mind that car carpets sometimes just get too dirty to be able to clean them up. You ought to buy a replacement if that’s your case.
Difficult Marks
There are many vinyl and plastic surfaces in the typical car interior that are generally easy to maintain with an all-purpose cleaning agent, some microfibre rags, and brushes. Still, even if you’re using the stiffest brush, you may have trouble with some marks that just don’t want to come out.
We recommend that you use isopropyl alcohol when that happens, as it can very effectively remove things like shoe scuffs and marks, but be careful. Other than that, for those more stubborn marks, you should have a foam pad cleaner and melamine block in your car cleaning arsenal.
Fixing Squeaky Doors
Most of us put up with an annoying and squeaky door, but it can be quickly taken care of with only a few squirts of WD-40. Keep in mind that degreasers that flush and loosen up stuck or squeaky parts are WD-40 and comparable products. Once the door loses its creek, to keep rust and corrosion at bay, make sure to lubricate the hinges with a little bit of lithium grease or motor oil. It is also wise to check items such as door latches for any signs of rust at this point and spray some silicone inside to keep them in top working condition.
[1] https://www.netquote.com/health-insurance/health-insurance-articles/driving-with-germs
[2] https://www.today.com/home/how-often-clean-inside-your-car-right-way-do-it-t115450
[3] https://the-ida.com/?
[4] https://www.carsdirect.com/car-maintenance/average-car-detailing-prices-by-vehicle-size
