my Detailing task list

K

Kanchou

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Detailing task list, comment as you like or offer suggestions :]



Practice car: 93 metallic green mercury topaz

A 4 door sedan with paint issues on its plastic bumpers, but everywhere else still has lustre potential.

This is my exs car and i want to clean it up and get rid of it.



detail challenges:

1: truly dirty vinyl. Textures vinyl interior is dirty. early attempts with mild soap and terricloths have failed. Grime in the deepest parts of the textures persist.

2: broken vinyl armrest. Weather, heat, neglect, who knows. not much left but dried vinyl fragments and the fabric underneat. get a scrap of vinyl? or use some repair kit?

3:fabric issues: Oxy clean treatment has made about 60% of the nastiness go away. further deep, hard cleaning still needed to break stains. Fabric is still in tact, though

4: Nastyness in the ceiling: Is it okay to use a rug doctor on the ceiling?
 
1. Vinyl can take pretty aggressive cleaning. Use a good all purpose cleaner like diluted Simple Green and a small stiff brush. Scrub well. Remove slurry before it dries. Use a wet towel to remove residue. Repeat as necessary.



2. I'd just go to a wrecking yard and get a good one out of a wrecked Topaz or Tempo. Should be easy to find and only cost a couple dollars.



3. If OxyClean is working, keep using it. Gotta be persistent to get things clean.



4. DO NOT use liquids on headliners. The glue will soften and the headliner will sag and fail. Try a sponge dampened (not wet) with a light cleaner and clean one section at a time. If it doesn't come out perfect, don't worry. Just do the best you can.
 
1: slurry? (voacbulary is lacking today)



2: Believe it or not, i've tried at two popular one of Pull A Part. .. and havent come up with one yet. . .was also looking for a turnlamp cover too. . .



3: i think i've reached oxy clean's limit. Whatever is left is either synthetic, or chemically stained . ..



4: the headliner is almost as soiled as the carpet. :( thats why i asked. . .
 
i thinned some simple green to 1:3 about and started scrubbing.



wasnt' being very effective. . . .then i remembered i got a cool xmas gift. A black & decker rotary scumbuster.



My effectiveness improved 500% Definetly not a tool for delicate use, though, only for scouring.
 
If you are cleaning it to sell it, I'm not sure that getting it that clean for the next owner will make much of an impact on the selling price.
 
Kanchou- *I* think you WILL be smart to really clean it up if you're trying to sell it. A shop I know couldn't give away their loaner until I detailed it for them, and then it sold right away and for a good price. People don't like to buy grungy cars; they don't mind their OWN dirt, but they get grossed out by someone else's.



For the headliner, sometimes it's easier (and cheap) to just replace it, well, reCOVER it, actually. Really! If it will come out easily, and some domestic cars are VERY easy (just comes out with its cardboard backing), you can buy some fabric and some spray adhesive and make it good as new in one afternoon. The Impala SS/Caprice crowd does this all the time.
 
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