How and with what to clean the interior of a car - we do the work ourselves

Cleaning the interior of your car can be entrusted to specialists. Door cleaning will cost at least 600 rubles. The same is the cost of working with the floor, ceiling or dashboard. For bringing the chairs in order, you will have to pay 1200–1500 rubles. Neutralization of odors — 300–400 r. As a result, a comprehensive cleaning of the entire interior of a car will cost from 3500 rubles. and higher. You can save money by doing the cleaning yourself.

Preparatory work

Before you start cleaning the interior of your car, you need to visit the store and buy everything you need. For cleaning plastic, fabric surfaces, autocarpet, products marked "universal" are suitable. Leather, leatherette, velor surfaces are best treated with specialized auto chemicals. Rags, sponges and brushes should be of varying hardness - coarse ones are needed to clean the floor and dense fabrics, soft ones are useful for working with whimsical materials.

During cleaning, the car engine must be turned off. You will have to refuse to play music from the radio, as accidental water ingress can provoke a short circuit. Cleaning is best done outdoors rather than in a garage.

To clean the interior of your car well, you have to spend at least 1,5 hours

Before cleaning the interior, you need to take out all things, sweep out the garbage. The next step is to remove the rugs, remove the covers and shake them out thoroughly (or even better, vacuum). During cleaning, it is better to spread out the seats - it is easier to handle hard-to-reach corners (for example, remove papers and dust between chairs).

How the interior is cleaned with auto chemicals and folk remedies

Cleaning the interior of the car must be carried out in a strict order - start from the top and move gradually to the lowest parts of the cabin. Recommended order:

1. Ceiling covering.
2. The inside of the doors.
3. Dashboard.
4. Seat upholstery.
5. Flooring.

Before proceeding with dry cleaning, you need to remove large and small debris in the cabin, and then carefully sweep, and even better vacuum - only after that you can proceed to the main wet cleaning

Ceiling cleaning

Aerosols from Liqui Moly, Sonax, ТМ Turtle Wax, Gunk, Autosol, Kangaroo are suitable as a cleaning agent for ceiling coverings made of Alcantara, flock, carpet. If the upholstery is made of leather or leatherette, it can be cleaned with Universal-cleaner, Leather Cleaner, ProFoam 2000, Koch Chemie Leather Star, Lavr. The principle of operation of all means:

1. Mentally divide the entire surface of the ceiling into 4 zones (along the rear seats, between the front and rear seats, above the front seats and at the windshield).
2. On the first zone you need to apply the product and wait 1-2 minutes.
3. Remove the foam in one motion with a soft brush, cloth or sponge (you can use a vacuum cleaner) - you need to move only in one direction so that there are no streaks left.
4. Proceed to clean up the next area.

When cleaning the ceiling, you must not wet the coating of Alcantara, flock, carpet, "planted" on the adhesive base (otherwise the lining will come off). It is also impossible to overmoisten leatherette and skin, since when it dries, the material may begin to wrinkle and crack (this is due to the fact that the liquid absorbs collagen and “takes” it with it when it evaporates).

It is necessary to remove the foam from the ceiling with a rag or napkin strictly in one direction - from one window to another (in one movement, without interruption, otherwise there may be stains)

Car door and panel cleaning

The next step is to tidy up the doors and dashboard. We start with fabric, leatherette or leather upholstery (if any) - it is washed in the same way as the ceiling. Plastic, chrome parts are best cleaned with wet wipes (PLASTIC CLEANING WIPES, SAPFIRE NAPKINS DAMP, LIQUI MOLY, TOPGEAR, etc.). If you need to not only remove dust, but also remove stubborn dirt marks, then you should use liquid stain removers (for example, Sonax, Astrohim). It is enough to spray a small amount of liquid, treat with a sponge, and then wipe dry with a soft microfiber cloth. To make plastic parts shine, they should be treated with polish - for example, Turtle Wax, HI-GEAR Dashboard Cleaner Professional Line, DoctorWax, Turtle Wax DRY TOUCH, Plak Mat Atas.

Recesses, cracks on the panel should be treated with a brush with a hard bristle

Glasses are cleaned with any window cleaning solution. Do not spray chemicals directly on the glass. It is better to wet a microfiber cloth with the product and wipe the surfaces with it. If there is tinting, then choose solutions without ammonia, since the tinting film cracks and peels off from it.

Cleaning seats made of different materials

Armchairs are the most quickly dirty and difficult to clean place in the entire cabin, so they are given the most attention during cleaning. The choice of means depends on the material from which the seats in the car are made.

We clean leather and leatherette chairs

Seats made of leatherette and genuine leather are easy to clean, but they should only be treated with products that do not contain alcohol, dichloromethane and acetone. From these substances, the paint peels off, and the material becomes covered with ugly cracks. It is better that the product is based on glycerin or non-ionic and salt-free amphoteric surfactants - neither leatherette nor leather deteriorate from them. The presence of wax, collagen and silicone is a plus - they give the material shine and protect it from drying out. Suitable cleaners are:

• car shampoo and conditioner Leather Cleaner;
• liquid cleaner Leather Clean;
• solution-cleaner Universal-cleaner;
• cleaner and conditioner Runway.

Perforated surfaces must be vacuumed before using detergents - this is the only way to remove dirt that has fallen into the holes.

There are tips on the Internet that leather interiors can be treated with conventional dishwashing detergents, soap. It is worth warning: such methods are fraught with the fact that yellow or gray spots will appear on the surface of the chairs (this is the result of the reaction of alkali with iron ions that are part of the paint on the chairs). It is better to first try cleaning on an inconspicuous area of ​​\uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbthe chair (on the sidewall or bottom) - only if the surface is not damaged after drying, then you can proceed to a complete cleaning.

In the process of cleaning the skin, it is necessary to use sponges or rags with voluminous and soft pile, coarse brushes will leave stripes on the surface

When buying a leather seat cleaner, pay attention to what type of finish it is suitable for - leather with or without protection. Splash some water on the surface of the chair: if the liquid is immediately absorbed, a dark wet spot has formed, which means that there is no protective film on the skin. The difference is that:

• unprotected material must be treated with a foam cleaner, which is removed with a dry sponge;
• leather and leatherette covered with a protective film can be treated with liquid solvents and wiped with damp cloths.

Do not forget to go over the seams of the leather seat with a brush, as dirt and dust always accumulate in these places.

We clean knitted chairs

Contaminants on a knitted polyester surface (in the common people - “car” or “auto-fabric”) are well handled by products marked “universal” - Profoam 2000, Profoam 4000, Nekker, Kangaroo Profoam, Sapfire professional, Texon textil. The cleaning preparation must be applied evenly to all chairs (not forgetting to treat the ends), wait 5-7 minutes and then remove the foam with a damp cloth or sponge. For heavy soiling, stain removers (including regular Vanish) can be used. You should not be afraid to use brushes with hard bristles - the auto fabric is not capricious, it tolerates the rubbing process well.

Means for fabric upholstery work on the principle of absorbents - they absorb all the dirt, which is then removed together with the foam with a damp sponge or rag

You can remove stains from a fabric cover with a regular dishwashing solution or liquid soap. It is necessary to drop the agent on the “crime scene”, rub it with a sponge until foam forms, wait 10 minutes, and then wipe it with a wet cloth and vacuum.

If the stain has been left for a long time and has managed to thoroughly eat into the surface, then you can use “heavy artillery” - table vinegar diluted in water with a couple of drops of lemon juice. Traces of soot, fuel oil come off well from tar soap dissolved in hot water. The listed funds must be applied to pollution, wait a couple of minutes and rinse. You can not rub vinegar or soap into the upholstery with force - the material may discolor.

Grease marks from food can be easily removed with dish detergent or a stain remover like Vanish (1 cap of detergent to 9 caps of water). Apply the solution, wait 10 minutes and rinse with water. It is better to clean in the first hours after the appearance of the stain, since it is almost useless to deal with old stagnant traces with “home remedies”.

Sticky chewing gum from upholstery can be removed with a piece of ice. Frozen gum hardens and quickly detaches from the fibers of the fabric. In this way, you can remove chewing gum from any material.

We clean velor chairs

Autovelour is an elastic, pleasant to the touch fleecy material. The disadvantage of the material is only one, but very significant: the velor is delicate, with a rough mechanical action, the pile rolls down, “bald patches” appear. That is why when cleaning it is forbidden to rub it intensively.

The soft fibers of velor are easily electrified and attract dust particles, so you need to clean velor chairs more often than surfaces made of other materials.

Means for cleaning velor should not contain alkalis, bleaches, alcohol. It is better not to use folk methods for such capricious materials - there is a high risk of spoiling the upholstery. The ideal option is specialized aerosols, pastes, creams (when applied, they give a foam that absorbs dirt - the resulting mixture is easily removed with a dry sponge or cloth). For soft car seats, ASTROhim, Kerry Velor Cleaner, Lavr Velor, Fill Inn, G-Power Dry Cleaner, InteriorCleaner Shine Systems are suitable.

We clean flock and alcantara chairs

Armchairs made of flock and alcantara look like velor and also whimsical. The canvas of these materials consists of cotton, polyester, nylon and thick pile glued to it. Due to the use of an adhesive that can dissolve with excessive water, the surface can only be cleaned with a dry method (foam). Prohibited:

• cleaning with alcohol and alcohol-containing products;
• processing with organic solvents (acetone, gasoline, benzene);
• bleaching with chlorine-containing chemicals;
• mechanical cleaning, in which dried spots are intensively scraped off.

For cleaning flock and alcantara, the same products are suitable as for velor. Tip: when you remove the foam with a sponge or rag, then move only from top to bottom - this will allow you to "lay" the fibers in the right direction and prevent "tousled". Folk methods (such as cleaning with soap, vinegar, nail polish remover) do not use - they will cause “bald spots” from a fallen and discolored pile to appear on the surface.

Removable car seat covers can be cleaned in the washing machine

Tidying up the floor

After the ceiling, panel and chairs are finished, you can proceed to the floor. First, it must be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner with a large nozzle. If a smooth autoline is laid on the floor of your car, then it can be washed with any universal detergent. The most common household chemicals (the one used for washing dishes or cleaning home carpets) will do. The applied product should be rubbed with a stiff brush and then rinsed thoroughly with water.

The fleecy carpet flooring is cleaned with universal auto chemicals (for example, Texon, Pingo, Hi-Gear Pro Line, etc.). Instead, you can use any carpet cleaner (Vanish Oxi Action, Selena Carpet, Flash, Mitex, Amway) or folk methods:

• Stubborn dirt, traces of spilled coffee, blood can be removed with ammonia (2/3 tablespoon with 0,5 liters of water). Spray the solution on the surface of the carpet with a spray bottle and rub with a damp brush. Let the rug dry and then vacuum it.
• Bad-smelling marks (such as animal marks) can be removed with a baking soda solution. Scatter it over the stain, leave it for 10 minutes (no more, otherwise the substance will begin to corrode the carpet paint), then rinse thoroughly with warm water.
• Stains from soot, fuel oil move well from lemon juice. It is necessary to pour a dirty area of ​​\u15b\uXNUMXbthe rug and leave for XNUMX minutes. The main thing is to thoroughly rinse the surface with warm water so that there are no sticky marks left.

Stubborn stains from the rug can be removed with a cloth moistened with table vinegar (afterwards, wash the surface with plenty of water and thoroughly ventilate the interior)

We use "assistants" for quick interior cleaning

Modern technologies will help to clean surfaces better and speed up the cleaning process. For example, for surfaces made of polyester carpet, you can use a foam extractor. It is a symbiosis of a foam sprayer and a vacuum cleaner. First, detergent with water is poured into the container of the device and the “solution supply” mode is turned on. Then the foam, together with the dirt, is drawn in by the extractor. Velor, alcantara and flock are not recommended to be processed by the device due to the resulting "jams" on the soft pile.

The procedure for cleaning the interior with an extractor takes no more than 15-20 minutes, while manual cleaning would take at least an hour

Another useful device for cleaning a car is a tornador. It emits a jet of air under pressure, which allows you to blow dust and dirt from hard-to-reach places in the cabin (air ducts, joints on the dashboard, areas between seats, etc.). An additional benefit of working with a tornador is the ability to quickly straighten caked pile on rugs and upholstery. The device can be used for interiors made of any material.

As for steam cleaners, these “machines” are useful for quickly removing stains from plastic, glass, fabric chairs, and rugs. For velor, leather, this type of cleaning is also suitable, but you need to work on the "minimum" mode. Surface treatment is carried out with steam heated to a high temperature. Such heat not only “dissolves” dirt, but is also a good disinfection of the car interior (this is especially important for those who transport their children in the car). It is important to remember that steam cleaners do not suck up dirt - they only quickly dissolve stains, avoiding the use of aggressive car chemicals. After steaming, surfaces should be rinsed or vacuumed to collect any softened dirt particles.

Less equipment for cleaning salons in the price. You need to pay at least 8 thousand rubles for the device. (multifunctional devices cost more than 50 rubles). But these costs will pay off, because steam vacuum cleaners, tornadors and extractors will last more than one year and allow hundreds of cleanings to be carried out.

Recent Activity

The very last step in cleaning the interior of the car is to completely dry it. Excess liquid can cause detachment of the upholstery, mold, unpleasant odor, etc. You can use a hair dryer to dry it (just treat all wet-cleaned surfaces with a stream of warm air). This procedure is time-consuming, if you do not want to perform it, then you can simply leave the salon with the doors open for 5-7 hours. During this time, not only excess moisture will evaporate, but all synthetic aromas from the used car chemicals will also leave.

Video: visual instructions on how to properly clean the interior of your car

Do-it-yourself car interior dry cleaning

It will take at least 1,5-2 hours to clean the car on your own. For all means, sponges and rags, you will have to spend about 700-1200 rubles. The cleaning process is laborious, but not difficult. If you don’t want to “dirty your hands” and waste your precious time, then it’s better to drive the car to a car dry cleaner - in 20–30 minutes, professionals will thoroughly clean all surfaces, but they will charge at least 3500 rubles for this (the exact cost depends on the amount of work).