Interior Cleaning

Ok well… I am sure there will be plenty of people including myself that think my idea of cleaning an interior is a bit overboard. No, I am not talking a Concours cleaning…I am just talking about a what I do following a weekend of fun. In this case it was the Spring Overnight Drive Tour that I wasn’t expecting a few things that required a more detailed cleaning than just a wipe down.

So here is the deal…it’s a convertible…with Racetex / Alcantara – dash, doors, visors and console and leather just about everywhere else. With it just being a convertible with Alcantara on a clean weekend is bad enough. This particular trip we encountered a few things that just made it a little harder when the top is down…which is pretty much all the time. We hit a bit of fog/low clouds mist…this causes all Alcantara surfaces to get slightly moist…not so much that you feel it…but when it drys off…the fibers are more rigid and it takes longer to brush it back to a fluffy state. We also made a stop a vista point…dirt parking…and of course there was loose dirt and wind so all that blanketed the interior making everything have a light coating. But the dirt with Alcantara settles in below the surface like dirt trapped in a carpet. Luckily I bailed out of that situation before it got too bad but still it adds to the complexity of just a simple cleaning day.

Here in Fontana the wind was blowing the day after I got home so..had to wait for a calmer day to back out the beast and start the process. It took me a bit to even figure out where to start. So… I figured the best way was to start was to just blow the car out. With my handy air gun…I went to town and was able to remove most of the big stuff with that. Next came the Alcantara brushing….wow this took a while. Normally I am done in 15 minutes…this took about an hour. With each brush stoke dirt and pollen was flying off. To minimize it from getting all over the interior I placed a vacuum hose next to the brush as worked the surfaces….After about 20 minutes…the dirt was gone but the fibers were still not moving the way they should. So now back to brushing this time a bit more aggressively. After about 40 more minutes and sore arms and a bunch of swearing that Alcantara is just stupid. I was able to get it back in shape. I love it on the dash…it’s something that really is useful…no glare…..everywhere else….forget it…just pointless and a pain to maintain. I of course reserve the right to change my mind….after I write this.

Although I tried my best to keep all the dust from the Alcantara brushing off the interior…the interior is once again covered in a fine dust. This time it required a different approach. Microfiber Towels with deionized water and blotting to pick up the dirt. Once all the dust was removed…I could then vacuum. Nothing special about vacuuming…but every carpeted surface as well as seat inserts had to be gone over. I was pretty surprised at how much I got up. Just enough to say…hmmm….next time … no dirt Vista Point stops. After the vacuuming it was time to actually wipe down and clean the interior. The seats had to be done first…as I would be sitting in them to clean everything else and well…better to clean first than grind it in. The seats backs were probably the dirtiest things…dirt stuck to them like nobodies business. Gauge clusters and controls….not dirty at all so just a regular clean worked out.

So after all the cleaning it was then time to come up with a different pattern to put on the dash. I do this for two reasons…if the pattern gets disturbed I know someone (more than likely me) has touched the dash and I will need to pay extra attention to that spot during the next cleaning. The second reason is…patterns harden in place. After about a week…what ever pattern you have on the dash will harden and you have to use that pattern as reference when you do your next brushing to ensure you completely remove the old pattern. If the old pattern is hard to remove…it needs more brushing and you just keep going until the old pattern is gone. The new pattern allows you to see if the old pattern still remains. Crazy I know.

The windows will wait until later in the week when I can wash my this weekend. That takes a bit and of course requires…another brushing of the Alcantara after mess up the pattern washing the inside of the window.

Oh boy…this sounds dreadful…but I love it.

• This topic was modified 12 hours, 6 minutes ago by John Ramirez.