New Car clean without that dealership price

After the tornado out break on April 27, 2011, my husband and I were in the market to replace his Chevy Silverado 1500, poor girl ended up about a block away from where she was parked.

We found a 2007 Chevy Equinox, considering all the time we spend with the adorable kiddos in our family, we thought this would be perfect vehicle, it has more room than our Malibu, and is a little more practical than his big V8 truck was.

We started out with no food or drinks in the new car, twhich didn't last long. Soon trips to McDonalds started after "S" dance lesson, and once the door is open it is hard to close it.

Our car's tan cloth interior didn't stand a chance. About six months after purchasing him, (I named him "Tim" after Tim Allen who does all those chevy commercials) Tim was in need of a cleaning. Being the nerd that I am I read the owners manual, and after reading it we decided to pay to have it detailed, as recommended.

Once we got the car back, the stains were still there! We were told it will take a couple treatments to get the stains to lift out, well I wasn't completely buying it.

About a month ago I had gotten into the back seat and was a little grossed out. There were stains all over the pull down arm rest, milk shake stains on the seat. I was thinking to myself "I can't believe I have been putting the kids back here, if I don't want to sit here surely they don't."

Well I didn't want to pay to have it not cleaned again, so I got to thinking about what I could do. and I came up with this: (ps it worked great!)

Materials needed

1. tub or bucket of water
2. Shout stain treatment ( this is what I used, you may use Spray and Wash at home, I would think it will work the same way)
3. Two Micro-fiber type rags. I used 3M rags because they are made to be delicate on surfaces, which is very important. DO NOT use a scrub brush, the scrub brush will ruin your fabric especially in new cars. One will be used to wipe the cleaning solution into the interior, and the other will be used to wipe the cleaning solution away with water from the interior.

Step One : CLEAN OUT THE CAR.

•  Seems simple? Get everything out of the area you want to clean, Vacuum out any loose grime.

Step Two : Spray the cleaning solution all over the surface.

• spray down the entire interior that you want to clean. DO NOT spot clean. spot cleaning will leave you with spots.
• before a car leaves the factory, if there is a stain on the interior, they will clean the entire interior not just the spot. this is because if the cleaning solution is going to discolor the interior it will not be as noticeable if you have cleaned the whole area.
• what this mean. If your back seat has a lot of stains, clean the entire back seat. If the passenger front seat has a stain, clean the entire passenger seat.
• Be careful not to get your seat soaking wet with the cleaning solution, remember the wetter it is the longer it takes to dry. Also the cleaning solution you put on your interior the longer it will take to rinse it out.

Step Three : Wipe the Interior down with clean microfiber Rag.

• once you have sprayed the entire interior down, take one of you microfiber rag, and begin wiping the cleaning solution into the interior. you will want to pay closer attention to those tough stains. You may need more cleaning solution of the harder stains, also make sure you rub in the cleaning solution well on those tougher, older stains.
• Let the cleaning solution sit on the interior for a little while, making sure not to let in dry on the seat, and also make sure it is not longer than the time allotted on the direction of the cleaning solution.

Step Four : Rinse!

• This is where the clean water comes into play. Take your second Microfiber rag wet with clean water (again not soaking wet, the more water the longer to dry) and begin wiping out the cleaning solution. you will need to periodically rinse out the cloth.
• Remember if you put more cleaning solution on one area than the others you will need to take more time to rinse it out.
• this is where the actual stain removal comes in. The cleaning solution, in my case "Shout", attaches to the stain when you spray on the solution and then rub it in. when you take the water and rinse it out the stain goes with the shout. This is why it is important to rinse off the cleaning solution.
• *New Step* (added May 2012) this is the Stanly steamer step, after you have wiped the interior down and removed as much as the cleaning solution you can, take a clean vacuum and vacuum the interior to suck up any remaining solution. (this will also speed up the drying process, because it is sucking up excess water)

Step Five : Wait to dry.

• Once it is dry you should see most, if not all, of the stains are gone. If you have some stubborn stuck on stains that have been there for awhile you may have to do it again.
• My husband and I did this on a Saturday afternoon, when we did not have anything to do until Sunday morning, and by Sunday morning for Church it was dry!

Happy Cleaning. Remember this is for cloth interiors.

*Update June 2013* I am currently working on a way of getting those grease stains (from french fries, and other fried snacks) out completely. I will update with the finished product.

Disclaimer:

Clean at your own risk, and always read your manuel. Do not do anything that you think will damage your interior.