Louvers are a real magnet for dust, and a vacuum with a brush attachment just won’t get it all. Take an inexpensive artist’s paintbrush and give it a light shot of furniture polish. Work the brush into the crevices to collect the dust. Wipe the brush off with a rag and move on to the next one.
When you’re doing a DIY car detailing job, finding and dealing with all the trim lines and recesses that a quick once-over cleaning job misses is part of the description. Wrap a cloth around an old, worn screwdriver (without sharp edges) and spray an all-purpose cleaner on the cloth. Move it gently along the trim lines to pick up the gunk. Keep refreshing the surface of the cloth. Go around all the buttons and controls as well; then follow up with a rejuvenator.
Your carpet and upholstery take quite a beating. Dirt, stains, even sometimes odors all collect in that fabric. Cleaning these surfaces will keep your car looking, smelling, and feeling fresh.
Spray Plastic & Leather Prep on the carpet or velour and scrub lightly with a nylon bristle brush. Let dry and vacuum.
Apply colorant to the carpet or velour and immediately brush in all directions with a nylon bristle brush to keep the fibers separated. Let dry. Then brush again and vacuum.
Automotive carpet doesn’t like to let go of dirt when you’re car cleaning. Vacuuming is a great start, but if that’s all you do, you’ll leave plenty behind. To remove more dirt, detailers use a stiff brush and scrub the carpet as they vacuum. You’ll see the dirt particles bounce to the surface so you can suck them up with your shop vacuum as part of your auto detailing.
If the vacuum and brush combination doesn’t cut it, don’t worry. Use a carpet cleaning machine to get the deep dirt that settles into the fibers of the carpet and cloth seats. It sprays the carpet with a solution of water and cleaner and then sucks the dirt and grime into a reservoir. A machine like this pays for itself after just a few uses. You can also rent one from a rental center or use a spray-on cleaner and a scrub brush instead.
In some cases, like if you bought a “preowned” vehicle, the carpeting in the car is simply a disaster. If it’s too far gone for stain removers, new carpeting is the best solution. You can buy preformed carpet specifically for your car’s make, model and color and install carpet yourself.
Whether you fill your vehicle with construction materials, haul kids and grandkids around or just spill lots of coffee, you know how easy it is for factory seat covers to get grungy. And just like the carpet, there are times when the upholstery in your car is too far gone. If they’re beyond rescuing with an upholstery cleaner and you want to spruce up your vehicle’s interior, you have only three car detailing options: pay a professional automotive upholsterer to reupholster your seats, buy used seats from a junkyard, or buy and install seat covers yourself.
Aftermarket seat covers are the cheapest of these three options. The installation is similar across makes and models. The job takes about two hours for front and rear seats. The only tools you’ll need are a wire coat hanger and some tape to fish the straps under plastic trim pieces. Everything else is included with the seat covers.
Sometimes a middle-aged car can still look fine except for wear and tear on the wheels and wheel covers. Fortunately, you can fix this yourself for little cash. Removing the rust and painting your wheels take a full day—mostly you’re waiting for paint to dry. Then the wheels must dry for 24 more hours after painting before you remount them.
Drive your vehicle for long enough and you’re sure to get caught in a windy area or behind a vehicle kicking up dirt and rocks. Now you’ve got several tiny chips in your paint finish that could grow to quarter-size rust spots in a few years. This is one of those tasks that immediately springs to mind when discussing car detailing, and believe it or not you can DIY this one too.
Your vehicle’s clear coat deflects some of the debris but can hold the sharper grit. Washing removes the surface dirt, but clay-barring is the only way to pluck out the embedded stuff.
Buy a clay bar kit that includes a lubricating spray and several pieces of synthetic clay. Prepare the clay by tearing a piece into four sections. Flatten one section into a small pancake in the palm of your hand and rub it over the paint with a back-and-forth motion. Fold the clay against itself, knead it and reflatten until the clay turns gray. Then toss it and use a fresh piece until you remove the “darts” and get a glass-like finish.
Take care of this problem right away and you’ll save yourself big money later on, not to mention the embarrassment of driving a premature clunker. With the right primer and touch up paint, you can fill in these chips yourself. Be sure to clean and then de-grease the spot first so that your primer and paint stick correctly.
The fix we discuss here is for fresh chips that haven’t started to rust yet. If you see a rust spot, or have a dent along with your chip, you’ll need to do a more challenging fix. Keep in mind that this repair will be visible under close scrutiny, but if you buy the right touch-up color, it’ll be unnoticeable from a few feet away.
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