Cleaning seats and carpet

[gcoupeRE]

Can anyone recommend some products / techniques for cleaning seats and carpet without causing any damage?

Advice based on experience would be awesome. :)

Cheers!

[13bwankel]

Meguires and Autoglym both do excellent products. I reccomend the autoglym interior shampoo for fabrics like carpet and headlinings and even the plastics like center consoles etc. and leather cleaner in conjunction with the leather care cream for any leather, but it is more expensive.

[capella re]

totally agree with 13bwankel, meguires and autoglym make excellent products specifically designed for cars but unfortunately can be really expensive. if you want a cheaper alternative, go down the household cleaning items isle at your local supermarket and they will have a huge range of carpet and upholstery cleaners for household carpet and sofas. these products will work just as well difference is they can be a bit messier to apply as they were designed for larger areas. on door trims you can use mild soapy solution and a kitchen benchtop spray to remove grime. VERY IMPORTANT, I WOULD ALWAYS ARMOUROIL OR SIMILAR AFTER USING ANY DETERGENTS ON VINYL SO AS TO SOFTEN AND PROTECT AGAINST THE SUN!!!!. try using the milder end of the scale of cleaning products with just a bit of extra elbow grease. carpet cleaning is a matter of spray and rub. dont saturate the carpet unless you have access to a wet vac or you wont beable to get the wet smell out of the carpet. as for smells i use febreeze on my seats and carpet.
MOST IMPORTANT RULE WHEN CLEANING INTERIOR IS KEEP AWAY FROM DASH AND CONSOLE WITH WATER OR LIQUID. late model vehicles have very sensative electrical sensors for airbags and such and if wet may damage or impede their function and as with all dash electrical problems, cost mega bucks to fix. another thing to keep in mind is the cloth you use to clean. due to the nature of cleaning solutions the cloth you use may seep its colour into what you are cleaning. chux are notoriously bad at this. if you've ever wiped dirt off a white wall then see the blue its left behind. another thing to do would be pm glorida, he runs a detailing workshop and could help out more. hope that helps.

[gcoupeRE]

Thanks, I might try some Meguiries interior shampoo. I'll let you know how it goes.

[GloRida]

As you can imagine over the years I have tried a lot of products in this area of detailing.

By far the best one I have ever used is Driven Multisruface Cleaner, its safe on even the most delicate fabrics and materials yet it can remove some of the worst stains.

gcoupeRE if you come past my shop, I can give you a demo with the product, before you go spend money on a product that may or may not do the job.

Cheers,

Joe.