Previously on Chronicles of An Amateur Detailer Chronicles of an Amateur Detailer: The Project COAAD: Introducing Patient #1 and Let's Talk About Order Chronicles of An Amateur Detailer: The Dawn Wash - A Detailer's MRI
To start off today, I need to tidy up something I missed 2 days ago. Thanks to forum member random for reminding me that I missed the door jambs. Looking at them I saw the area by the hinges really needed some work so I took some DP Waterless Wash to them and gave them a good spray down and let it soak for a couple minutes.
I resprayed it and took an old microfiber towel to the entire jamb which cleaned it up pretty well
Suck It Up: Carpet & Upholstery Housekeeping
Like we did last time, I started with sweeping out the garage to minimize the amount I track into the car with me. After that it was time to break out my awesome Metro Vac N' Blo.
And then I woke up.
Well, the least we can do is make sure we keep this thing operating as best as we can and that starts and ends with making sure the filter is clean.
Eeek. Let's replace that.
There we go, now that thing oughta suck like a...
Hey! Watch it! This is a family post/series/forum/what ever this is.
Right. Sorry. Moving on.
Alright, as a general rule I start in the back seat and get through that first before moving to the front since it can get a little tight. I also try and start with the top and work my way down because anything I knock loose is going to fall to the carpet to be vacuumed up later. I start with a quick once over of the headliner which didn't need much. I then switched to a brush attachment to get the side panels.
After that it's on to learning a lesson the hard way.
I have a dog, she's a black lab, and as a general rule she doesn't ride for extended periods in the Pearl, when we are going somewhere we want to take the car and maybe drop her off for my parents to watch her we have a cover we put on the back seat to keep the hair down and it normally does a good job. The problem came when I left the cover in and drove the next day with the windows down. That's how you end up with this:
I have had this problem in my other vehicles, so luckily I'm prepared for this with this awesome and very underrated tool, the rubber pet hair brush.
This does an awesome job on ANYTHING stuck in the pile of a carpet. It can be anything from pet hair on seats to dirt and debris that gets caught in this type of carpet that lines a lot of trunks
So using the brush you can see I was able to sweep the pet hair into a pile
I then switched to a normal end on the vacuum and got all the seats and most of the carpet switching to a crevice tool for the nooks and crannies.
Then I moved on to the front seat and again started from the top down using the brush attachment to get the dash and the dryer vents.
I then pulled the attachment off and used a small detailing brush to get some of the tight spots between panels that may not be much but I think adds so much to the final look.
After that I finished up the carpet in the foot wells and under the seats.
Now it's time to move on to the floor mats. Which by nature get to be the dirtiest part of the interior
To help with the added dirt, I switch things up a little bit and use a crevice tool. My experience has been that the smaller opening gives better localized suction and lets me optimize the cleaning power of the vacuum even if it means not covering as much area at once
After the first vacuuming of the mats it was time to clean a little deeper. Since I was going to be working with liquids, I had to remember to pull that new filter out of the vacuum to keep from having a mess.
To start with I paid a little closer attention to the embroidered patches on the mats which use a white thread and inevitably shows dirt.
To really get these clean I turned to a new product for me Chemical Guys Lightning Fast. Diluted per instructions I sprayed each of the patches and took an old toothbrush to the embroidery. I used the toothbrush because the soft bristles will offer some cleaning power as well as be gentle on the embroidery.
It did brighten the lettering some, I'm going to revisit tomorrow once it dries more.
While at it I also took it to those spots on the seats I showed in an earlier post.
To get the rest of the carpet clean I used some Meguiar's APC at 10:1 and sprayed it liberally over the carpet and took a much stiffer brush to it to really loosen the dirt.
After using the shop vac to suck it up the net result is more dramatic than I expected.
After that it was put everything away and time to clean up.
Hey
Oh great, you again.
You're an idiot
What did I do now?
You painted yourself into a corner, you got the carpet and everything all clean and then you're going to get in the car tomorrow to clean and protect the dash and glass and get it all dirty again
Ah, but I have a solution for that. You know that grocery bagger at the store?
The kid that always looks angry because he's 16 and not the head of a Fortune 500 company yet?
Yeah, that's the one. He's smarter than you think. You see, he's not bagging your groceries. He's actually providing you with the world's most inexpensive, eco-friendly, recyclable, biodegradable carpet protector. All you need is the secret decoding tool.
Carpet Protector? 
Carpet Protector
Decoding Tool? 
Decoding Tool. Just cut to fit.
If you're going to be closing the car up leave the windows cracked about an inch to let the rest of the product evaporate.
Wrap Up
1. At first glance the CG Lightning Fast appeared to work well I'll check the embroidery again tomorrow and post a follow up picture, that could be a real gem for me with a baby on the way.
2. Would you all do anything differently?
As usual tip of the hat to the wife for the photography.
Coming next
We clean the old dressing off the dash and panels and try out some new stuff as well as get that glass clean on the inside.
Linear Mode
