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With all the paint correction write up's we post, we ALL post, often times it is easy to forget how important it is to be able to also tackle the nasty interiors. Paint polishing is one thing, detailing is another...and while i'll be the first to admit I'm not the best interior detailer in the world (though i am picking some brains of those who are!), having a good eye and being persistent can really go a long ways...that being said, lets get to it!
"It's a truck, its suppose to be dirty!" Any detailer who has had any time behind the wheel has at some point in time, come across this phrase from an owner. Fortunately, not all truck owners feel that way!
The owner of this twin turbo charged F-250 had recently purchased it from a private seller. He said "You know how usually when someone is selling a vehicle they will at least run it through the car wash and maybe give it a vacuum? Well, this guy just took his stuff out and handed me the keys, that was it!"
We could tell...as this thing was a colossal mess, as you will see below.
I told you it was BIG
Nasty floor mats passenger side...probably was never even vacuumed...ever.
Drivers side was equally as bad.
This carpet was SUPPOSE to be beige...this was in the back.
This was the other side...yeah...not pretty.
Passenger side ...gross right?
Headliner cleaning was also needed, looked like a soda just exploded all over.
Leather was filthy and really needed a good cleaning.
The carpeting too was just a disaster. TONS of sand and dirt just embedded into every inch and a good amount of staining as well.
There were pounds of dust in this thing!
No, its not suppose to be black.
Door panels were about 12 shades darker than they should have been as well...just grime ground into everything.
So what do we do? Well, we attack it head on. First thing was to toss out those nasty floor mats and start working on them. We had a few new tools in our arsenal for this one, and if you're serious about your work, you invest in equipment to help you get the job done. Tool #1 put out some HEAVY foam to help break down all the ground in dirt and grime:
Set time is very important, you have to allow the cleaner to do its job prior to moving to the next step. So we stayed busy vacuuming and wiping out the heavy dirt inside the cab while these soaked.
Dani also started working on those nasty headliner stains with new tool #2. The twisting air from this tornador combined with the option of spraying out chemical really went a long way in breaking down the stains without saturating the headliner with cleaner, which could potentially weaken the adhesive that holds it in place.
We really get into our work as you can see
Back to those mats. We used the same tornador tool to blast out the dirt, grime and stains. How well does this method work? Well, look for yourself
Usually i'd say what side is before and what side is after but, kinda pointless with this pictures lol.
And finished
A couple spots to touch up but, that was easy.
Those nasty weather tech mats were next. Same process was done. Foam, tornador and for these they were rinsed when done. Some deeper stuff did stay and required some scrubbing (toothbrushes and microfiber towels can go a long way when cleaning into tight areas) but it still came out very nice.
Excuse the blotchiness, a couple spots were still wet.
Another point of focus was the disgusting door jambs which held 3 lbs of dirt each...minimum!
This took some doing....cleaners, brushes, rinsing, towels etc...but came out very clean:
And of course there was...the weather stripping, which not only was filthy, but MUCH of the dirt had baked into it.
Note this stuff doesn't just wipe off. And what you cant see is, between the stripping pieces was a 1/2" of dirt all the way along the stripping...again, tedious work but...it came clean.
Half way done!
Slowly but surely progress was being made, the nasty scuffs on the back of the center console were removed.
While Dani finished cleaning the back of the front seats, i began conditioning the leather and treating the vinyl.
Quite an improvement dont you think?
Door panels were cleaning up great as well
(Note that is not dirt on the bottom strip, its old glue)
Under sides of the rear seats were also cleaned as you can see.
Then it was time to tackle the nastiest part of the nastymobile! The steering wheel
No fancy tools for this one, just patience and elbow grease.
Parts of the finish were completely worn down, so there was nothing we could do about that...but the rest did clean up very nice.
Ac vents, lock and window switches and every other little tight spot you can think of was also cleaned
Just as things were looking good, Dani found another little treasure chest of disaster
Yay -_-
Yay
Carpeting was fluffed back up and clean once again.
The nasty soda splatter all over the headliner was gone too.
pedals were cleaned
And the entire front row was looking presentable again
When the owner arrived, we were walking to his truck and told him we thought he would be pleased with how it turned out...he then opened the front door and his first words were literally "Holy ****!" We love reactions like that.
While it came to us looking like an irreversible disaster, with some time and persistence even the nastiest of messes can usually be undone.
Thank you all for reading.
"It's a truck, its suppose to be dirty!" Any detailer who has had any time behind the wheel has at some point in time, come across this phrase from an owner. Fortunately, not all truck owners feel that way!
The owner of this twin turbo charged F-250 had recently purchased it from a private seller. He said "You know how usually when someone is selling a vehicle they will at least run it through the car wash and maybe give it a vacuum? Well, this guy just took his stuff out and handed me the keys, that was it!"
We could tell...as this thing was a colossal mess, as you will see below.
I told you it was BIG
Nasty floor mats passenger side...probably was never even vacuumed...ever.
Drivers side was equally as bad.
This carpet was SUPPOSE to be beige...this was in the back.
This was the other side...yeah...not pretty.
Passenger side ...gross right?
Headliner cleaning was also needed, looked like a soda just exploded all over.
Leather was filthy and really needed a good cleaning.
The carpeting too was just a disaster. TONS of sand and dirt just embedded into every inch and a good amount of staining as well.
There were pounds of dust in this thing!
No, its not suppose to be black.
Door panels were about 12 shades darker than they should have been as well...just grime ground into everything.
So what do we do? Well, we attack it head on. First thing was to toss out those nasty floor mats and start working on them. We had a few new tools in our arsenal for this one, and if you're serious about your work, you invest in equipment to help you get the job done. Tool #1 put out some HEAVY foam to help break down all the ground in dirt and grime:
Set time is very important, you have to allow the cleaner to do its job prior to moving to the next step. So we stayed busy vacuuming and wiping out the heavy dirt inside the cab while these soaked.
Dani also started working on those nasty headliner stains with new tool #2. The twisting air from this tornador combined with the option of spraying out chemical really went a long way in breaking down the stains without saturating the headliner with cleaner, which could potentially weaken the adhesive that holds it in place.
We really get into our work as you can see
Back to those mats. We used the same tornador tool to blast out the dirt, grime and stains. How well does this method work? Well, look for yourself
Usually i'd say what side is before and what side is after but, kinda pointless with this pictures lol.
And finished
A couple spots to touch up but, that was easy.
Those nasty weather tech mats were next. Same process was done. Foam, tornador and for these they were rinsed when done. Some deeper stuff did stay and required some scrubbing (toothbrushes and microfiber towels can go a long way when cleaning into tight areas) but it still came out very nice.
Excuse the blotchiness, a couple spots were still wet.
Another point of focus was the disgusting door jambs which held 3 lbs of dirt each...minimum!
This took some doing....cleaners, brushes, rinsing, towels etc...but came out very clean:
And of course there was...the weather stripping, which not only was filthy, but MUCH of the dirt had baked into it.
Note this stuff doesn't just wipe off. And what you cant see is, between the stripping pieces was a 1/2" of dirt all the way along the stripping...again, tedious work but...it came clean.
Half way done!
Slowly but surely progress was being made, the nasty scuffs on the back of the center console were removed.
While Dani finished cleaning the back of the front seats, i began conditioning the leather and treating the vinyl.
Quite an improvement dont you think?
Door panels were cleaning up great as well
(Note that is not dirt on the bottom strip, its old glue)
Under sides of the rear seats were also cleaned as you can see.
Then it was time to tackle the nastiest part of the nastymobile! The steering wheel
No fancy tools for this one, just patience and elbow grease.
Parts of the finish were completely worn down, so there was nothing we could do about that...but the rest did clean up very nice.
Ac vents, lock and window switches and every other little tight spot you can think of was also cleaned
Just as things were looking good, Dani found another little treasure chest of disaster
Yay -_-
Yay
Carpeting was fluffed back up and clean once again.
The nasty soda splatter all over the headliner was gone too.
pedals were cleaned
And the entire front row was looking presentable again
When the owner arrived, we were walking to his truck and told him we thought he would be pleased with how it turned out...he then opened the front door and his first words were literally "Holy ****!" We love reactions like that.
While it came to us looking like an irreversible disaster, with some time and persistence even the nastiest of messes can usually be undone.
Thank you all for reading.
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