Interior Detailing and Sanitising with Interior Cleanse & Purity

Some of the processes we talk about are difficult and some require very low skill levels, some are straight forward to achieve with consistent results and some others require you to have the eye for detail to reach professional levels.

Detailing an interior which is dirty but in otherwise good condition is incredibly easy but you will need an eye for detail, some people have it, some don't.  They usually require only one product, we use our own Interior Cleanse which uses a blend of organic citrus acids to break grease, proteins, oils and other general grime.  It leaves a fresh and subtle scent behind and only a small amount of residual.  It naturally has some light antimicrobial action also.

Interior Cleanse can be used on fabrics, vinyl, it shouldn't be used regularly on leather as it can be drying, we recommend Leather Clean Gel for that.

So, the #DetailStig collected this particular customers 3 year old Porsche 911 (991) in for an external detail and the customer had asked for the interior (which was grubby) to be brought up to his impeccably high standards of cleanliness.  He is very particular and points out specific areas he isn't happy with, mainly all the crevices which there are a lot of in these newer Porsche's as their interiors are filled with switch gear.

The switches all felt dirty, like a film was on them.  The crevices had dust and crud built up in them and there was evidence of a spill from a milk based coffee drink, the cup holders had milk stains around them.  When pulled downwards, the PDK shifter had crud around the base, it appears like it was cleaned, but something second rate detailers miss is to run the car (or at least have the ignition on to be able to shift the lever down) so access the areas not normally visible when the car is off and shifter in 'Park'.

All the other buttons had been cleaned, but pressing them or holding them in positions they don't rest in reveals more crud built-up.  So, the first and most important advice we can give is to move things around, these rotating balls on the wheel:

Note the smearing on the glossy satin chrome trim.  We'll get on to that later.

Buttons, levers, wands, dials, sliding drawers -anything with movement should be moved to check and be cleaned whilst it's in every position it can be.  Vents should be cleaned pointed up, then again down.  You get the idea.

A simple soft toothbrush is best.  Toothbrushes are great, they're virtually free and the control is fantastic, heating the neck slightly allows the head to be angled, we have a dozen or so at any one time with straight, 30, 45 and 90 degree heads for cleaning anything from interiors to engine bays.

Whilst they are soft, they aren't completely safe for avoiding swirls on some glossy surfaces, they're usually nylon bristles (plastic strands), so keep that in mind.  We use them for crevices, stitching and perforations in leather, switch gear etc.  The bristles do get into leather perforations well and into the speaker grille holes above, which was useful as some of them were blocked with what looked to be hardened caffè latte!

To get the toothbrush and Interior Cleanse working together, we spray the toothbrush head with 1-2 pumps and start agitating the material.  To remove the residual, we spray Purity which not only rinses Interior Cleanse away, but leaves a residual free, sanitised surface.  This is important if you don't want any traces of Interior Cleanse left behind (highly recommended) and would like to make sure most if not all traces of organic material including bacteria are removed.  A significantly fresher cabin that smells free of any odours will result and it will stay that way for longer because you have no disgusting food stuffs mixed with chemical lingering behind.  It's an optional, but highly recommended step for obvious reasons.

Purity also removes the smearing (residual) on the satin chrome trim that we mentioned before.  After you've cleaned the interior, spray a separate dry, clean Interior Cloth with Purity and wipe them until they are smear free and consistently glossy.  We did all the chrome, cleared carbon and screens with this process.

Purity also very efficiently kills the foam created by aerating Interior Cleanse with a toothbrush.

That's better!  Nothing worse than a clean interior with smeary glossy trim.

A third recommendation is to employ lots of compressed air.  This also makes a significant difference, mostly by speeding up the process.  Compressed air is something we constantly harp on about.  We don't sell compressed air solutions so we aren't selling you on anything here, we just couldn't live without compressed air.  As a drying aid after washes, to pump tyres, to remove dust from and clean interiors etc.  far too useful and about $150 will get you the compressor, a decent length of line and a blower.

Clear plastics such as these acrylic instrument covers should be cleaned with Boost and a Paintwork Cloth.  Why?  These are insanely soft and Boost provides the lubrication and (light) cleaning necessary to avoiding marking the surface. The NanoFibre Interior Cloth is an aggressive cleaner and it won't mark a surface, but the tag may and the lower GSM and short nap (it's designed for cleaning power) doesn't provide the insurance the NanoFibre Paintwork Cloth does.

The seats were quickly cleaned with Leather Clean Gel, then fed (moisturised), twice, with Feed.

The door jambs were clean, we coated them in Full Metal Jacket Armour Coat and they look glassy and feel silky.  They'll also sheet water like a mofo, so they'll stay clean after washes and wet weather driving.

Now we're done, this is also an option, but we atomised a few pumps of Musk into the carpets and left the bottle in the door pocket for the customer who we know LOVES Musk.  Detail Stig dropped it back to him and presented some of the images of what was done with a quick explanation of why each process was chosen, the customer sat in the drivers seat with a satisfied grin taking in the freshness.  This customer has been detailing his cars with us for 20 years.

We hope this has been entertaining and you've picked up a few useful tips :)

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All images directly from the Detail Stig's phone and the copyright is owned by Final Inspection, please enjoy these watermark free images and respect our IP.  You can find all the images in their largest offered resolution in the album, here...