Pro Tips for a Spotless Interior

Regular detailing and cleaning your car removes common health hazards like lurking bacteria or respiratory issues, keeps seats, dashes and the interior trim free from cracks, tears and damage, and deals with dents, scratches and eyesores spoiling an otherwise good-looking vehicle. Detailing goes into depth, dealing with every nook and cranny to restore the car to showroom condition. 

Most car owners leave the work to the pros, but there’s a healthy choice of inexpensive yet effective products to detail car interior readily available from detailing stockists with a wide selection of dedicated brands also used by professional detailing services. Products can be sold on their own, or if you’re just starting the habit of regular detailing, in packaged sets that include everything you need. This means serious savings without forgoing expected results. 

What You Need for a Clean Car Cabin 

Kits and packaged interior detailing products should remove most grime and mask or treat common problems in the car cabin. Most are based around a general-purpose interior cleaner that can be used on different surfaces, microfibre towels to apply and wipe off cleaning solutions, brushes and brush sets to get into hard-to-reach areas, and glass cleaners for windows and mirrors. 

Kits include protectant to handle plastics, leather and wood trim lining the dash and doors. and deodorisers and air fresheners to eliminate nasty smells. You’ll also want a decently powerful hoover to get to ingrained dust and dirt, or preferably a commercial vacuum with a wet and dry option when dealing with the seats, carpet and cloth. 

Steps to a Spotless Car Interior 

For results that can embarrass even the best pro detailers, detailing your car with the right car interior products is done in defined stages, with different products and solutions in each. Start by gathering all your gear and follow up by removing unnecessary items like kids’ toys, loose change, bottles, shopping bags and tissue boxes. Remove the floor mats, give them a good shake, apply some general-purpose cleaner to get to ingrained dust, hose them down (preferably with a pressure washer) and hang them to dry. 

Vacuuming 

A good vacuum cleaner is necessary to remove sitting dust, bacteria and stains that call you car their home. Hoovers also get to common contaminants like crumbs, mud, ingrained liquids, gum, pet hair, road debris and anything that gets stuck to shoes. Vacuum the footwells first, then follow up around the seats. This can be done in two ways – either completely removing the seats or using the attachments to reach areas like the seat rails, pedals and tight spots. Here you can additionally use brushes or carpet and fabric cleaner to get out stubborn stains in more sensitive materials if general-purpose cleaner doesn’t work. 

Dealing with the Seats 

Identify the materials in the seats. Fabric cleaners work best on cloth seats, but for leather, faux leather and Alcantara, leather solutions and conditioners help smooth cracks and soften up the material from exposure to the sun or cold temperatures. If in doubt or when working with seats in a mix of materials, use a general-purpose cleaner. Spray solutions across the whole seat, let that sit for a few minutes and wipe off with a dry microfibre towel. Follow up with thorough vacuuming. 

For harder grease or tar stains, use degreasers. Similarly, for food remnants or mould, an enzyme-based solution should do the trick, while hardened coffee and liquid stains are dealt with with dissolved hydrogen-peroxide cleaners. All are formulated to be efficient without damaging or discolouring the materials or leaving noxious smells afterwards. 

Doors, Dashes and Interior Trim 

Car dashboards are getting more complex with a mix of materials making detailing harder. An all-purpose cleaner can deal with most surfaces and with good results. For specific surfaces like leather or rubber, you might be better off with the appropriate cleaning solution and conditioners to prevent hardening and cracks. Similarly, wood surfaces can show up scratches that are best dealt with wood polish. Once you’ve tended to the larger areas, continue with details like the vents and screens, using brushes, swabs and cloths as needed. 

Follow up with the doors in the same fashion. Here you’ll find more plastics, soft-touch rubber or vinyl, and metal latches. Use general-purpose solutions or combo vinyl and rubber cleaners. All products listed here can also be optioned with a matte or gloss finish, depending on what you’re after. 

Steering Wheels, Gear Knobs and Handbrakes

Most vehicles have leather or ‘eco’ leather steering wheels, so use leather cleaners and balms to get the best results and swabs and brushes to remove dirt and dead skin particles in tight spots. For plastic-wrapped wheels, general-purpose cleaners and plastic conditioners are the way to go. Similar materials are found in gear selectors and in older cars the handbrake and handbrake sleeve. 

Tending to the Glass and Minor Trim Details 

Fingerprints, dust, smoke stains and other nasties will easily stick to the inside of the windscreen and windows. These can be eliminated with glass cleaning products, without leaving streaks and marks. Also, consider if you have tinted windows, as some solutions might leave air pockets or cause wrinkling. Finish up by cleaning other trim parts that are out of sight or hard to reach like rear headrests, cup holders and seat belts. Don’t forget the range of deodorisers and air fresheners in different scents to neutralise musty and stale smells or a air conditioner sanitiser. 

How Often is Interior Detailing Done?

With a well-sorted collection of products to detail car interiors, thorough cleaning and detailing should be done once monthly for cars that see regular use. Stock up on conditioners and protectants for the materials in your vehicle with occasional sprays to prevent harmful UV rays in cars parked for longer hours and sitting directly in the sun, and several deodorisers to keep things fresh. 

Detailing the car yourself saves you time and money, lets you work at your own pace and of course allows you to deal with problem areas and stains that might be missed by pros. The results speak for themselves. You get clean, germ-free surfaces that provide extra comfort, better visibility, improved personal health and more safety without the usual distractions eyesores and bad smells.