Buying a used car. Need advice. Trim restorer, Way to extract smoke smell

[Spiney]

I may be buying a vgc used Volvo 850 tomorrow. There are 2 issues my wife is concerned about. The trim has all gone to faded gray. What's the best product for plastic trim and rubber seals/ strips etc. I tried Mother's Back to Black on our current Volvo wagon and it has no staying power. I tried a test spot with a sample of Wolfgang's rubber & trim need to see if that lasts.

We didn't detect a smoke smell until my wife pulled down the visor and opened the glovebox. Then it was there. Doesn't bowl you over but neither of us ever smoked and my wife is really aware of smells because she's a migraine sufferer. What's a method a non pro like myself can use to extract that?

Other than that, I think it will detail up in VGC. The color is white. Paint is full of swirls but no major scratches or dents. Interior is like new. Worst area is the front spoiler and rear bumper.

I have it overnight from dealer to take to my mechanic to check out. It's a 97 with 88K miles. Since he was nice enough to break the rules and let me take it home to my mechanic I did a 2 bucket wash, cleaned the wheels, did a quick underhood wash, and did some test spots with the previously mentioned trim products. Also tried a spot on the hood with Mother's cleaner wax. It definitely needs a serious claying, correcting, and sealant or wax. But being white, it's a dream compared to our other black and dark green cars. I ran out of daylight so I can't tell if the cleaner wax did much.

Thanks for any feedback. Spiney-Dave

18652

18653

[oldmodman]

I had a stinky, smoke smelling 2002 Toyota with an all cloth interior.

Since I don't have a real extractor I used the furniture attachment on my Bissel Carpet Cleaner. I went over every cloth surface in the interior, including the headliner. It took several days of work since the Bissel does not do a professional job of removing the rinse water. But after i finished and let it dry for several days the smell was gone. And it had been owned by a three pack a day smoker.
The Little Green Cleaning machine would probably do just as good a job.

[Tyrifficdetails]

Man I love these cars! I used plastidip on my mouldings and they look great!

[hernandez.art13]

Found this is there better videos? He did a good job though. I had no idea this was possible! Since the trim on my Dodge is completely off in certain parts, will be doing this

http://youtu.be/lLdj4mlDC_g

How do you prep the metal?

[Setec Astronomy]

C4 or DLux for the trim, or you can try Opti-Lens. I've only used C4 and it works better on some trims than others, my impression of DLux from reading the forums is it's a similar product, people seem to have more consistent results with it though.

[Spiney]

Didn't buy car. Shame I really liked it. But I had my mechanic check it out. He found that the engine had a leaking seal. It was leaking oil a fair amount.

Also he felt the car had sat unused for a long time. This would dry out the seals and cause other issues. It also needed the timing belt changed.

The seller a small town dealer was unwilling to negotiate the price down.

What is a shame is he had a college age girl interested in it. I doubt he will share these issues with her. He was real nice to me until I pointed out the oil leak, then it was like See ya. Won't be buying there. Otherwise car was real nice. If he would come down $1000 I'd have bought it.

[Setec Astronomy]

Eh, those used car dealers are unscrupulous, and unfortunately there's a sucker born every minute that they can sell that car to eventually. Many years ago I worked with a guy who at his last job had been a mechanic and one of the specialties of the shop he worked at was "valve jobs" for a nearby used car dealer. He told me they would steam clean the engine, smear some fresh gasket sealant around the intake manifold etc., and then the used car dealer would tell people the car had just had a valve job. Nice, eh?