In our last blog we touched on the 7 crucial steps to a professional exterior detailing. In today’s blog we are going to look at probably the more important part out of the two, the interior. In this blog we will take a look at what steps a professional does to clean, restore, and protect the interior of a vehicle. We use many different tools, methods, and techniques to ensure that the job gets done and is as efficient and effective as possible.
Junk removal | Garbage
The first step of any interior detail is to remove all the junk, garbage, personal belongings, and anything else that could potentially interfere with your work. You want to be working on a clean slate so you want to ensure that all the big pieces of garbage are removed and there's nothing in the console, glove boxes, or door pockets. Once everything is removed out of the vehicle, it’s time to get cleaning!
Vacuum
This is the step where a professional detailer will do the initial vacuum to remove as much of the loose dirt and dust as possible. Paired up with an ultra soft detailing brush to dust off the dash, vents, and crevices, as well as a drill brush and compressed air to loosen debris and blow out the tight cracks and crevices from the carpet. In this step you will thoroughly vacuum all the carpets, seats, cupholders, compartments allowing an easier, clean surface for when it comes time to deep clean. Keep in mind that vacuuming is about 80% of a detail, therefore the effort you put into vacuuming will reflect on the final result of the entire car. Apart from the vacuum stage, if you have carpeted floor mats now would be the time we address those and vacuum them as well.
Shampoo Seats and Carpets
Now, a lot of detailers may have their steps in different order but we like to shampoo all the carpets, seats, and upholstery first in the deep cleaning process. As it gives it time to dry throughout the remainder of the detail. Professionals will use a variety of tools and equipment to get your carpets and upholstery as clean as possible. Although the extra equipment is efficient, for a DIYer it is not required.
Starting with the fabric seats, we will start by applying our dedicated carpet and upholstery cleaning solution and let dwell for a couple minutes. Once settled, we agitate with a drill brush to help break up and loosen the dirt, stains, and debris. Followed by a steamer, we steam the seats to get further breakdown of the dirt. A steamer is always a useful tool as the heat easily loosen up the fibers in the fabric, bring the dirt to the surface. Although, you always have to be cautious when using steam as there is a risk of it burning the fabric or any leather surfaces.
Once steamed, the best follow up would be to use a hot water extractor to deep clean and pull out all of the excess solution and dirt from the fabric. A water extractor uses high suction paired with pressurized water to penetrate the fibers and remove the dirt from the fibers. Once you have extracted the seats and carpets it is important to make a few more passes with only the suction to remove as much excess liquid to get the surface as dry as possible.
If the carpet or upholstery is extremely dirty this process may have to be repeated a couple more times to ensure we are getting the best results.
Leather Cleaning
After your detailer deep cleans all the carpets and upholstery, they may move on to cleaning all the leather surfaces. Using a dedicated leather cleaner or an all purpose cleaner diluted 1:10, paired with a scrub pad or leather brush. We spray the leather surfaces with the cleaner and agitate it with the necessary tools, small detail brushes to get into the seams on the seats, scrub pads to agitate large areas, and we use a microfiber towel to dry and remove the excess. Followed by compressed air to blow out the crevices of the seat.
Believe it or not your leather seats and steering wheel can sometimes be one of the dirtiest surfaces in your vehicle as all the oils from your body gets absorbed into the pores of the leather.
A quick tip to know if your leather is dirty, is if it appears shiny. Leather should naturally have a satin to matte finish to the look, if your leather is shiny it needs to be cleaned.
Doors & Dash | Cracks and Crevices
Now it is time to detail the remainder of the interior, all your doors, dash, consoles, and all the little cracks and crevices to really give it that professional touch. During this process we use an all purpose cleaner diluted 1:10 or a dedicated interior cleaner, paired with the steamer alongside a few detailing brushes. Working our way around the vehicle's interior we'll clean any plastic, vinyl surfaces, cupholders, and generally any other surface that needs to be cleaned.
Our cleaning solution is to spray on the surface, then agitate with a detailing brush, followed by the steamer to really loosen up any sticky dirt or debris. Wipe clean with a microfiber towel to dry the surface leaving a clean factory finish.
Detailers love to use compressed air, it is a very convenient tool as it blows out any remaining cleaning solution and dirt, while drying the surface to make it look its best. If some surfaces may appear tougher to clean, we may repeat our process to further break down and remove the stubborn debris. Using that process making your way around the whole interior making sure you are cleaning every panel top to bottom, your vehicle interior should be looking its best.
Quick Tip: make sure as you are doing this step you are cleaning inside the center consoles, glove compartment, sun visors, and under the trunk compartment. These are easily missed spots but make a huge difference in the clients eyes.
Preserving & Protecting
After deep cleaning all the surfaces of your vehicle's interior it is important to apply a form of protection on the surfaces to preserve the materials and keep it looking its best. First off let’s protect all the plastics and vinyl. Here at Refined Appearance we like to use an interior protectant that 1. Protects the surfaces from UV damage and 2. It has a matte finish. The surfaces in a car interior naturally have a matte finish from the factory, therefore a lot of professionals will finish an interior to that standard. But as a DIYer it is personal preference there are a lot of great protectants on the market that have a shiny finish as well.
Now we have to preserve the leather surfaces. Leather is similar to your skin if you don’t moisturize it will dry out and crack, and that same result can happen to your leather. After cleaning, it is important to condition your leather with your favorite leather conditioner. It is recommended that your leather is cleaned and conditioned roughly every 3-4 months. This will ensure that your leather will be preserved and looking its best for the longevity of the vehicle.
If you have a higher budget and are looking for the next step above to leather protection you can ask your detailer to apply a leather coating. Similar to a ceramic coating for the exterior of your vehicle you can get a coating applied to leather surfaces that hold great benefits.
Benefits such as:
Hydrophobic properties
Resistance to dye transfer
UV resistant
Last 1-2 years
If you want to go this route many detailers may charge as a separate service, here at Refined Appearance we do it as a package!
Door Jambs and Windows
A lot of people may argue whether you do the door jambs during interior or an exterior detail. Here at Refined Appearance we recommend that you do them under both circumstances. Clean door jambs make or break the look of a professional interior detailing, especially when they are covered with heavy dirt and grime. Cleaning door jambs are simple but make a huge difference. Simply spray your all purpose cleaner or favorite quick detailer and wipe the door jambs clean, leaving a shiny streak free finish. Now when you open your car door you are greeted with not just a freshly clean interior but spotless door jambs for that new car feeling.
Clean windows also play a big part in interior detailing. Dirty windows may block visibility and cause streaking while driving. The key to how professionals get streak free windows is by using multiple towels to clean. Paired with your favorite window cleaner, the first towel is dedicated to get all the major dirt off the glass. While the remaining two towels are cleaning any excess and buffing off the residue to get that crystal clear finish.
Finishing
After all of the efforts to deep clean you want to go over your work, finalize and check over for any missed spots. This would be the time to go over with the vacuum one more time because as you were cleaning all the surfaces, it is guaranteed there are some remnants that made its way back onto the carpet. Therefore give the interior one more thorough vacuum of the carpets, seats, and doors, and mist your favorite car deodorizer to finish off your freshly detailed vehicle. As a professional we get our satisfaction from admiring the work we just put all those hours into. As for a DIYer we know you feel the same way. Nothing beats the feeling of a clean, fresh, and brand new feeling vehicle, so enjoy it!
We appreciate you taking the time to read this blog, we hope that you’ve gained some value in what it takes a professional to detail the interior of a vehicle. We would like to mention that this blog was not intended to be a detailed, step by step tutorial, but more so a brief overview on the process of an interior detailing job.
We would greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog to your friends and family if you found it knowledgeable and stay tuned for more blogs to come.
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